Chapter 2

DECIDING TO GIVE UP MY TIMESHARE

The Economic Impact

Unfortunately, for some timeshare owners today, regardless of all of the original justifications to purchase their “piece of paradise”, it now feels to them like more of a “financial purgatory”. Faced with the global economic uncertainty, many timeshare owners looking to downsize decided that they wanted (or needed) out of their timeshares, to help to alleviate some expenses. Typically, in such cases, they’ve not only decided that the ongoing maintenance fee and tax obligation are a financial strain, but also in many cases, the added travel related costs of actually using their timeshare.

Rising Annual Fees

A significant factor leading to a number of timeshare owners wanting out of their plans is the rising costs of the various annual fees. So often, as a suggestion to “beat inflation”, some sales representatives indicated that the annual costs wouldn’t go up (somehow implying being immune to normal inflation), but they did! Really, like any other cost of living increases, it should be expected that costs do and will go up. There are a number of contributing factors to those increases, although many have doubled in amount since the owner’s original purchase year. Even though the upward hike in fees are usually over a number of years, the financial logic against perceived “value” may no longer remain as satisfactory for some.

Maintenance Fees& Property Taxes

There is certainly no argument that anything worth owning is worth protecting! And every timeshare participant agreed that with the right of ownership or usage, their only responsibility as the owner or member, outside of the loan, was to pay their portion of the divided overall costs for that property. Essentially, for argument sake, still making timeshare ownership much easier than traditional property ownership. However, very few costs involved are fixed. Ranging from the general maintenance costs of buildings and grounds, management services and staffing, various insurances, power, utilities, administration, legal costs, supplies and other operational costs, all are subjected to increases. There is usually an annual breakdown of specific costs reported to each owner, typically spelling out the resort’s cost projections or budget and margins of increase. Ordinarily to keep owners mindful of, and to be able to vote on, variable costs. Expenses inevitably necessary to increase anyway. One has to be the judge of what is unavoidable or not, and what could be consider