Australians spend $270 million on timeshares each year

[mustachepungoeshere]

And 99-year-contracts means the financial obligations are being passed from generation to generation.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/public-defender/public-defender-leaving-the-grandkids-a-timeshare-debt/news-story/90453f6a4b37d598884aca96eae00ab4#itm=newscomau%7Chome%7Cnca-homepage-topstories%7C5%7Clink%7Chomepage%7Chomepage&itmt=1478148168901

[patrickza]

How do you inherit debt just by being the next of kin. Ridiculous!

Timeshare is ridiculous too though. Generally the annual fee or levy is higher that what you would spend booking a holiday yourself.

[stylesjl]

I think the inheritance is that the timeshare deed gets transferred to the next of kin's name and unless it is specifically repudiated then I guess that means they now own it and pay fees on it.

[No Name Guy]

Here in the States, it's called Disclaiming an Inheritance.  Just because someone leaves you something in their will doesn't mean you have to accept it.  Why those parents accepted this turd is beyond me.

[MgoSam]

I've never looked into timeshares but are they really that bad of a deal? Is it the maintenance fees or the inability to re-sell them, that makes them such a terrible 'investment?'

[Papa Mustache]

What happens when a time share is 40+ years old and the stick and plywood construction found in the USA is worn out and dated? Do you own the timeshare enough to be required to repair it or is this a version of a perpetual HOA arrangement? I honestly don't know how a timeshare works except that I can likely vacation cheaper than owning a time share...

[geekette]

Heh. I'm sitting in a timeshare right now. My parents bought it at over 30 years ago, and had a good time trading all over the country, but that is no longer as cheap and easy as it once was. Right now, yearly maintenance is about $400/year, for a week right on a North Carolina beach in a unit that sleeps 6 (not particularly comfortably).

There was a special assessment a few years ago, spread out over 3 years, that amounted to about $1000 when they refurbished all the units.

Dad died years ago. Mom's in her 80's. The place is okay, but she'd still rather sell. Not that she can.

I have heard of disclaiming an inheritance. Unfortunately, all that does is send it on to the next beneficiary, but there are no others. Then what?

[Papa Mustache]

Why can't an owner sell?

I had someone I knew in a retirement village. You could rent by the month or "buy" the unit as some higher price but no more fees to live there - ever - aside from things like the dining room costs and so forth. When the resident died, the unit was refurbed and resold.

[geekette]

You can sell. The problem is, you need a buyer.

[bacchi]

I have heard of disclaiming an inheritance. Unfortunately, all that does is send it on to the next beneficiary, but there are no others. Then what?

The estate then owns it. If the estate has no assets when the annual fee is due, it will go insolvent. Problem solved.

[deborah]

This appears to be a particular set of timeshare companies, rather than the whole industry. As banking is quite different in Australia to the US, and the government bodies involved (ASIC for example) are also peculiar to Australia, the article is probably quite incomprehensible to the US respondents. The fact is that some unscrupulous companies appear to have given people loans with unreasonable payments. When someone dies, the loans can be paid out or continued. Unfortunately the underlying investment (the timeshare) is really not worth anything, as many of the schemes available at that time were particularly poor value.

[geekette]

I have heard of disclaiming an inheritance. Unfortunately, all that does is send it on to the next beneficiary, but there are no others. Then what?

The estate then owns it. If the estate has no assets when the annual fee is due, it will go insolvent. Problem solved.

That contradicts what I've been told, but it would be great!

I still hope she'll ditch it before I have to deal with it.

[marion10]

Anyone interested in timeshares needs to check Timeshare Users Group- www.tug2.net . Best resource for timeshares. In most cases they are very difficult to sell.

[gimp]

Also, the way that timeshares are structured, "repossessing" a timeshare for a failed payment is as easy as changing a lock, because the owner owns the actual structure.

So as long as someone makes at least one payment, the timeshare company profits.

It's kind of amazing.

And yeah, impossible to get out of...