TimeShare closing troubles

[mithrandir Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mithrandir]

Dear TimeShareForum Folks, Hope one of you may be able to answer my timeshare closing process question. I recently, late July, won a timeshare auction on ebay. Sent payment within a few days and was passed off to the closing company. One month later, they have not contacted me of their own accord nor passed any paperwork to me for completion. I have written at least four email to the closing/title company, mostly without response. When I have contacted the ebay lister and complained, causing them to prod the title company, I have received only two responses. One on Aug 15 saying paperwork would be emailed that day, and another on Aug 22 stating that he (title company) was waiting on a document from the seller before they could move forward. Two weeks later we are now and I have written two additional times inquiring when we would pass ROFR for Four Seasons, where we were at, and if there were any delays or issues with the seller...but no response from either ebay lister nor title/closing company. Is this normal? I mean, I cant even get the closing company to tell me the steps involved. Lol, nothing! And as we get on into the fall I become much less likely to be able to schedule my 2008 week (biannual even years) at Four Seasons which is why I purchased it. If they delay longer...who knows, not much chance of getting an end of year holiday week.. If some of you with more experience would let me know your thoughts about how this is being handled, I would appreciate it. Best regards, Martin

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Who is doing the closing ? There are some closing companies I will not deal with and I will not bid on an auction where they are the only choice. The best way to get action may be to ask for your money back and file a complaint with EBAY.

[mithrandir Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mithrandir]

Timeshare Closing Troubles

Hello Tony,

And thanks so much for the quick response. The title company in this case is Summit Title Services in Orlando. The seller, whom is no longer communicating either, is SellingTimeGuys. Yes, in their ebay selling and delivery policy it states "Closing on a timeshare is a real estate transaction and can take 60+ days. Seller will be available throughout closing to update buyer on the status of his/her timeshare closing. Closing company also offers online tracking of your closing and will assign an "order number" for you to track on the web." Laugh, I cannot get either to respond at this point; and assuredly have no "order number" for tracking the closing on the web. Here was the link for the ebay item that we won.

2BD FOUR SEASONS AVIARA SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA TIMESHARE - eBay (item 270259249715 end time Jul-30-08 19:00:00 PDT)

At this point I surely have no confidence in the seller (selling agents) nor the closing company. It would be nice to have refund of the moneys and bid elsewhere. I will certainly be writing them again and stating such. It has been more than a week since I wrote demanding information (after several weeks of kindly inquiring). Tony, If these delays are normal, please let us know. It just seems, given current silence from title and seller, that our chances of actually USING this property for our biennial 2008 (that we had to pay maintenance on as part of sale), will slip away.. Here is the last email:

>>>>
RE: Timeshare closing process
Sent: Mon 9/01/08 6:34 AM
To: rharmon@summittitleservices.com
Cc: ahickman@sellingtimeguys.com

Hello Robb,

I haven't had answer yet in regards to the steps in closing process. Nor have I had response to the question about ROFR. Would you care to let us know? Seems like good business to let new customers know up front about these critical things.

You have not yet stated that the papers have been received from the seller. If the papers are not yet here after this three weeks we have waited, is it routine to delay for this timeframe or is there some withholding or delay beyond the norm on the part of the seller? If there are delays on the part of the seller beyond the norm, I need to be aware of them. At this point we, with a deafening silence, we become extremely frustrated. If the seller wishes not to sell, or is in some form of delay, we should be made aware of it. If the papers are here, we should already have been made aware of it per our email of more than a week ago.

Martin
>>>>

Anyway, thanks again Tony!

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

I've had slow closings before, but most closing companies are responsive. I would have reservations of ever buying where a usage week was 100 days or less. Your problems seem to be more severe and I would contact the Florida Realty commission if there was a continued lack of response. Keep records of all correspondence.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

Hopefully, you paid them by paypal through credit card. If that is the case, I will call the credit card company, and put a dispute.

Than I will let the closing company know, and cc all this dispute to best bureau of business and real estate commission.

The 1st thing is you have to put the dispute on your credit card company, you only have 60 days to do so.

They can not start ROFR unless they get a signed contract from you. And seems like they have yet to send a contract for you to sign. Maybe the originally owner back out.

Jya-Ning

[mithrandir Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mithrandir]

Timeshare Closing Troubles

Thanks Tony and Jya-Ning,

I have at last received response from the title company rep's and as suspected, the owner backed out after several weeks of promising to send the paperwork. Laugh, guess it didn't go for as much as he or she had hoped on ebay. I would have thought that the selling company would have had an ironclad contract with the owner to prevent this...

Regardless, the title company and selling agent are searching around for (and say they have located) one that is exactly the same (resort, week category, etc). They want to send me a new contract to sign, replacing the old one for the original unit. At this point, would it be a fair assumption that I can ask for the funds (unfortunately paid by check, lol) to be returned? It would seem so. At this time I am just a bit jaundiced in regards to these two companies even if the events were beyond their control. Had the communications been more up front on their part maybe I wouldn't feel this way, but, such is life! Would prefer to cancel on this one and buy the unit again (as well as a few Hilton Head's) elsewhere. Tony, you are surely correct on the issue of 100 days. When I won the bid on this one, it had more than 150 left. Now we are at about 100, a little more than three months. Laugh, I would think the chances are slim to hit weeks 51 or 52 at the Four Seasons. Guess I better begin to look for a bi-ennial odd year :-) Well, I will go upstairs for some late-night "old" contract reading to see if it states anything in reference to this type of occurence..

Thanks again Tony and Jya-Ning, your input has been just great...and deeply appreciated.

All the best, Martin

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

I will ask them to back out the whole process, ie, pay back your money, that way, it is much less headach.

Don't know the resort, but even with 150 days, I don't think you can get week 51 and 52.

If you still interesting in the same resort, than after the back out, you can tell them upfront, and told them you will want the money back fisrt, but willing to buy if the week is back, but you will not want anything todo with this year's MF. I may pay them a little bit higher than my origional purchase price, since if paid by paypal credit card, they will have some transaction cost. But I will not want to pay MF for this year. And I will insit to have full money amount back, than resend again when they hve the contract.

Jya-Ning