The scam artists in the timeshare industry do everything they can to bilk hard-working people like you of your hard earned money. This goes to the very heart of what the timeshares sales staff are all about. And they do it by selling you what they call real property—but which is really just a license to use some time at a specific place year after year. The language they use all along is carefully designed to convince people in their sales pitches that you are getting real property right of some kind. But all you’re getting is “right to use” a particular property for a week per year, every year—and you’re paying a pretty penny to do so, not just upfront, but also in the form of ongoing maintenance fees (which increase with every passing year), and “special assessments.” Not many people would trade as much money as they have to put up just for something so ephemeral if these things were made plain, but they are selling an idea and using the language of property to make it seem more real.
This goes so bad, in fact, that a case in the Spring of 2019 came down in federal court against one of the major timeshare companies—Marriott Ownership Resorts. The judge in that case decided that a lower court that had adjudicated in favor of the class-action plaintiffs had done so correctly. And what was the main claim against Marriott Ownership Resorts and the other timeshare malefactors named as defendants in the suit? That they were attempting to sell “points” as parcels of real property. The court found that points are, in fact, nothing more than the right to have access to, and use of, particular Marriott-owned properties.
The reprobates at Marriott Ownership Resorts took this so far that they even gussied up these points sales in the veil of real property—conveying them by means of “Consumer Deeds,” which are usually land deeds. It was an illusion—a mask. Basically the equivalent of a “pet rock,” except that those who bought them didn’t even have a rock to hold. More like they had the right to hold the rock once a year for a few days. The judge decided that the interests conveyed were not “real” enough to count as property.
Sadly, this case also determined that Orange County had been complicit—by failing to do its duty to properly record land instruments.
One would hope that this case might change the way the timeshare people do things, but all indications are that the larger timeshare industry hasn’t really learned its lesson beyond ceasing to use Consumer Deeds—the salespeople are still using the language of property to trick good people into spending their money on an illusion.
The People’s Advocate is here to fight back against the egregious actions of timeshare companies. We are an actual law firm that does battle on the part of consumers who need to get out of timeshare contracts that they have been tricked into—without being foreclosed on. Contact us (click here) to request a free information session on how this might be achieved.