Ever heard of timeshares? Sure you have. They’re everywhere—particularly if you live in a tourist destination state like Florida. But where did they come from? How long have they been around?
They’re as old as time, right? Venerable property rights?
Not quite. And that’s part of the problem.
You see, the concept of timeshares didn’t arise until after World War II, in Europe. Initially timeshares were homes purchased by four families, each of which would take possession for the duration of a single season—and the seasons would be rotated yearly, so each family got to enjoy the property for each of the seasons over time. But there was an issue: these homes would sit empty for long periods of the year. After all, who gets to vacation for an entire season?
Developers in Britain decided it would make more sense to mince the pie into smaller slices—roughly corresponding to weeks of the year. Fifty weeks would be up for sale, and two weeks reserved for repairs and upgrades—for which maintenance fees would be charged (of course).
It will probably come as no surprise that the first timeshare in the United States was in The People’s Advocate’s practice area of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Rather than ownership, Caribbean International Corporation in 1974 offered a twenty-five week “vacation license.” Compared to most of today’s timeshare offerings, this initial situation was downright honorable. The “per diem” fee (roughly analogous to today’s “maintenance fees”) was frozen at $15. That doesn’t happen anymore—you’ll almost always see maintenance fees rise at an astonishing rate if you buy into a timeshare today (no matter what the salesperson might tell you).
Naturally, the squishy nature of the timeshare concept—and its relative newness to the scene of real estate interests—was appealing to enterprising criminals in the (nominal) real estate industry. And now giant developer corporations permit their salespeople to make all sorts of promises in the course of convincing people to sign timeshare contracts. Promises they never intend to keep.
It’s fraudulent. It’s evil. It’s all about the almighty dollar.
The People’s Advocate is here to fight back. 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. Contact us to request a free information session on how this can be achieved. But act fast! Where timeshares are concerned, time is quite literally of the essence.