DRI Newbie Advice Needed

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

Hi! I'm a new member on this forum, and I'm looking for some advice regarding DRI.

My parents had a 2BR timeshare, week 16 I believe, at Polo Towers in Las Vegas. In May 2009 they appear to have "sold" this to Diamond Resorts and paid around $6K extra to obtain 18K points per year. They paid a fee(?) in Dec, 2010 for 2011, and have 15K points from last year and 18K points for this year, for a total of 33K points.

My father passed away at the end of January, 2011. I came across the bill in his papers, and have dug up some of the original papers regarding the purchase of the DRI membership. My mother knows very little of the details on this, and is not much help. She'll be 85 in April, and probably won't be able to use this. Why my Dad did this I guess I'll never know.

I contacted DRI, and they allowed me to ask some questions after my Mom gave her verbal OK. I am filing a form with them that will allow me to become an Associate Member so that I can find out more about this whole thing. My aim is to somehow rid my Mom of this obligation of $2K+/yr for something she cannot use.

My plea is for anyone that can help is mainly what questions should I ask to find out exactly what they have and what their obligations are. From the little I have read, it appears that you can't sell these things(?) and the only way out is to somehow "surrender" the membership. I have little knowledge of timeshares and especially this points business. At first blush, it feels like a perfect product for DRI in which the buyer can never sell once bought and has to keep paying year after year.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Carlos Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carlos]

Don’t Sign Anything

It sounds as if your dad may have traded his deed in for points in the DRI Club whichgives one access to all of DRI'S resorts. You don't want to be an associate memb. You can have your mom there on speaker phone and ask questions. If you want to rid yourself of this obligation just do not pay the maintenance fee. If the points are paid for DRI will send you a letter taking them from you.

Call them and see if they are paid off.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

DO NOT allow yourself to become an associate member. If you do, you will inherit the TS and the perpetual annual maintenance fees because your name will be on the membership. If you dad bought into the club, you will have to pay even more to become a club member because that can't be transferred. At this point, once your mom passes away, you are under no obligation to take the TS as an inheritance. I suggest that if you have any interest at all, pay the MFs for your mom, make reservations under her account and then place the reservations in your name. It's easily done at no extra cost. If neither you nor your mom is interested in keeping the TS at this point, you may want to think hard about what to do with it. As long as your mom owns it, she will be obligated to pay the annual MFs, even if she doesn't use it. I've read the DRI will take some TSs back provided you have the current year's MFs paid and the week is paid in full. Another option is to advertise it for free on this site (there is little to no market for TS resales right now). I suggest your mom call DRI and tell them she no longer wants the TS and would like to give it back. See what they say. Come back here if you have any questions.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I do not believe that, with DRI, associate members are considered owners and are not under the same obligations as those on the deed. If my understanding of the terms is correct, it simply allows an owner to let other family members have access to their account. A phone call to DRI will verify this information.

The best thing to do is contact DRI, tell them the situation and see what options you have. If your father converted the ownership to a trust based ownership it may be as simple as walking away and allowing the trust membership to expire. Again, a call to DRI will get you more accurate information.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

He should contact a Shelton or a Duffy at DRI in Las Vegas. Can someone help me with the first names of these two (2) individuals at DRI ?

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

He should contact a Shelton or a Duffy at DRI in Las Vegas. Can someone help me with the first names of these two (2) individuals at DRI ?

Patrick Duffy.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

If you dad bought into the club, you will have to pay even more to become a club member because that can't be transferred.

? Certainly membership can be transferred within the family!

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

He should contact a Shelton or a Duffy at DRI in Las Vegas. Can someone help me with the first names of these two (2) individuals at DRI ?

Certainly a longtimer like you, knows how to help someone with the search function?

Patrick Duffy (Patrick.Duffy@diamondresorts.com) Chief Experience Officer
and/or
Jeff Shelton (jeff.shelton@diamondresorts.com) Executive Resolutions

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

Associate Members

Thanks for all the replies!

For the record, here's what bit says on the Associate Members form:

In accordance with THE Club® Articles, the Primary Member identify not more than three additional individuals from whom the Club Operating Company may take direction in connection with making reservations and exercising other membership rights. Such authorization does not transfer or in any way effect the ownership of the Interests enrolled in THE Club®. In the event of a dispute or contradictory directions, the directions of the Primary Member shall be final. Please provide the information requested for individuals, as well as whether you are requesting to Add/Remove access to the membership below. (Emphasis mine.

I guess I wasn't so much worried in that direction, but I would like to relieve my mother of the worry and obligation. I also think it may belong to their trust, and would want this taken care of before having to deal with it at some future date when administering the trust.

What I was really wondering was what exactly is this thing. I thought a TS was an actual part ownership of property, sometimes with rights to a certain week and unit. (Not sure if there is a technical/legal term for that.) But, here it just seems like these mysterious points which allow you to use any of their resorts by paying with points. There also seem to be some rather curious "banking points" rules that must be done by certain dates. Sort of a use them or lose them situation, despite having paid what I consider kind of a hefty fee.


I guess I need to ask them if there is anything real owned anymore, and how to walk away. I'm sure my Mom would like to get some return. Unfortunately, going through some more papers, it appears that my Dad disobeyed a prime directive around here and actually paid some of these scam artists to try to sell whatever it is this should be called.

Anyway, thanks again. Maybe I'll try those email addresses.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

Thanks for all the replies!

For the record, here's what bit says on the Associate Members form:

In accordance with THE Club® Articles, the Primary Member identify not more than three additional individuals from whom the Club Operating Company may take direction in connection with making reservations and exercising other membership rights. Such authorization does not transfer or in any way effect the ownership of the Interests enrolled in THE Club®. In the event of a dispute or contradictory directions, the directions of the Primary Member shall be final. Please provide the information requested for individuals, as well as whether you are requesting to Add/Remove access to the membership below. (Emphasis mine.

I guess I wasn't so much worried in that direction, but I would like to relieve my mother of the worry and obligation. I also think it may belong to their trust, and would want this taken care of before having to deal with it at some future date when administering the trust.

What I was really wondering was what exactly is this thing. I thought a TS was an actual part ownership of property, sometimes with rights to a certain week and unit. (Not sure if there is a technical/legal term for that.) But, here it just seems like these mysterious points which allow you to use any of their resorts by paying with points. There also seem to be some rather curious "banking points" rules that must be done by certain dates. Sort of a use them or lose them situation, despite having paid what I consider kind of a hefty fee.


I guess I need to ask them if there is anything real owned anymore, and how to walk away. I'm sure my Mom would like to get some return. Unfortunately, going through some more papers, it appears that my Dad disobeyed a prime directive around here and actually paid some of these scam artists to try to sell whatever it is this should be called.

Anyway, thanks again. Maybe I'll try those email addresses.

Timeshares can be deeded interests, right to use agreements for a specified number of years or, trust agreements where you purchase an interest in a trust based ownership. In the end, they all amount to the same thing. You purchase the right to use an interval, typically one week, at a property or group of properties as specified by the agreement.

DRI has both deeded and trust based ownerships. The deeded weeks are one week intervals that can be used at a specific resort. DRI has a points based club whereby deeded week owners can convert their deeded weeks into a point equivilent and those points can be used to make reservations at any number of DRI managed or affiliated resorts.

DRI's trust is an ownership interest in a group of resorts rather than in one resort. Trust members may make a reservation from 2 nights to as many nights as their ownership allows for and, they may reserve any size unit that's available. Trust members may also belong to THE Club, which is DRI's points based internal exchange program. This will allow trust based owners access to any DRI managed resort or it's affiliates.

How one gets rid of either ownership may vary. A deeded owner must either sell or default on their ownership to get rid of it. Defaulting results in a foreclosure which may or may not damage the owners credit rating.

Trust owners may be able to default on a payment and have their membership canceled. This is not a foreclosure and most likely does not cause the same damage as a foreclosure. However, the unpaid debt for which the membership was canceled could, in theory, be reported as an uncollectable debt.

Do NOT take anything I'm saying to the bank. These are just what I've gleaned from reading these forums and, it's the information I'd personally start with when looking at how to get rid of an ownership. It's only a starting point for discussion and not 100% fact.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

What I was really wondering was what exactly is this thing. I thought a TS was an actual part ownership of property, sometimes with rights to a certain week and unit. (Not sure if there is a technical/legal term for that.) But, here it just seems like these mysterious points which allow you to use any of their resorts by paying with points. There also seem to be some rather curious "banking points" rules that must be done by certain dates. Sort of a use them or lose them situation, despite having paid what I consider kind of a hefty fee.

To further elaborate on what Doug said ....

There are two different intermixed entities. If you recognize what they are and how they interact, it will be clearer what they are.

Here's an analogy that I've found helpful. Let's say you're a farmer, as well as many of your neighbors. You all own various pieces of farm equipment that you agree would be good to swap with each other on occasion. But it's inefficient trying to do one-on-one swaps, because while you need a harvester the other grower has no need for your combine.

So you and your neighbors get together and decide to form an equipment sharing and swapping club. Each of you contributes your equipment to the club, and in exchange you get a right to use other equipment in the club. Since some equipment is more valuable than other equipment, you each get usage points that reflect the demand and popularity of the equipment you contribute to the club. When you want to use a piece of equipment the usage points for that piece of equipment are deducted from your account.

But now let's consider ownership of the equipment instead of just usage right. Let's say that when you set up the equipment club, everybody who donated equipment retained ownership of the equipment; all that they donated to the club was the right to use the equipment. That way, if anyone drops out of the club they get back their pieces of equipment, and they are now in the same state that they were before they joined the club.

*********

That's parallel with what the situation is with Diamond's Club. Your mother owns a slice of some real estate - it could be a deeded week at resort or it could be a partial ownership in a trust that owns a collection of deeds. But either way she owns something that is hers to use as she sees fit.

As an independent transaction, she has also joined Diamond's Club. In doing so she surrendered her right to use her ownership interest to the Club in exchange for getting usage points from the Club that she can use to reserve from the much bigger pool of ownership interests that have been added to the club by other members.

********

By rules of the Club the Club membership can only be transferred to a family member. But since she still owns whatever the real estate interest is that she gave to the Club, you can work with her to sell or dispose of that. But when that is done the Club interest terminates as well.

In our equipment club analogy above, it would be as if you decided to sell the combine that you have placed into the equipment club inventory. Because you still own the combine you are free to sell it. But when you sell it you have to retrieve the combine from the club. If the new owner wants to join the equipment club, that is a separate decision that the new owner will need to make, and the club would need to act on, independent of your sale of the combine.

*****

Hope this helps.