New TRUST Transfer Fee coming 15Nov

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

$250, or so I've been told. I always wondered why there wasn't one.

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

Has anyone looked at the trust documents to determine IF they actually have authoiriry to do this? It would not be the first time in timesharing that a developer or management company or sometimes even an HOA at the behest of a management company imposes such a fee without any authority whatseever to do so, and get away with it becuase no one challenges it. In my area a resort-charged transfer fee is extremely uncommon, thankfully. $250 for 10 or 15 minutes of paperwork is a pure ripoff. In North Carolina, the Real Estate Commissioin has taken the position that a transfer fee is not legal unless there is a clear and specifc provision in the covenents (bylaws, etc. don't count!) allowing it.

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

So when a person buys trust resale now Diamond charges $250 no matter how many points are involved? I would just say $250 sounds high compared to individual resorts transfer fees one of mine is just $50 dollars, but if you compare it with fairfield points I believe it to be $100 per contract so I guess it's in the ballpark. With fairfield you could have two contracts resulting in 70,000 points not all that many in their system and you would pay $200 for a transfer whereas if Diamond has a flat fee of $250 you actually can get some savings for larger points values again compairing to another point system such as fairfield in this case.

Ofcourse I'm never in favor of giving away money, but charging a processing fee to change the books doesn't sound unreasonable to me. If the charges were high enough to depress resale or if they can in no way be justified I believe your arguement is much stronger Carolinian. But why view this in such an antagonistic mannar if they charge for the services they actually provide which by the way is a good bussiness model maybe some of the shady practices of the past can be avoided in the future. And this fee will be passed on to buyers so they can freely see the fee when they go into an agreement and I don't believe it to be at a level that will depress resale (which would hurt existing owners). Wanting something for nothing Carolinian is no better than charging something for nothing.

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

If you really look at resort operations, the little bit of paperwork involved is going to take 10 or 15 minutes, tops, performed by someone making probably around $10 an hour, so as most, it costs the resort $2.50. Charging a member 100 times that amount is simply highway robbery. There is no other way to slice it. Actually, for the small to medium sized resorts, it is probably going to be done by someone who is paid to sit in the office anyway, whether anyone transfers a week or not, so it really does not cost the resort anything extra to process a transfer on the books.

In a deeded resort, there is another aspect. If someone has a deed to a week that is duly recorded at the courthouse and the resort refuses to let him into his unit during his week due to some fee not authorized in the covenants, the resort is probably going to be liable to him for that refusal.

At a couple of resorts, I have paid some really nominal fees to transfer shares of stock which represented the week, and had no real problem with that. I have never been charged a ''transfer'' fee at any deeded resort. The real work in such a transfer is done by the lawyer who draws the deed and by the county register of deeds, not the resort, anyway.

I am aware that some management companies try to create such fees as a cash cow, so if I ever encountered one, I would immediately demand to see their authority to charge it, and if it appeared bogus I would contact the state Real Estate Commission.

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

Transfer fees

Resort transfer fees are not uncommon. Most every week I own, the resort charges transfer fees.

As mentioned above, Wyndham/FF charges $100 for points (FSP trust)transfers (fixed week is no charge).

Festiva - $75
Yachtsman (MB) - $75
Ft Lauderdale Beach Resort - $75
Silverleaf Resorts - $250
Morritt's Tortuga (Grand Cayman) just raised theirs last year to $300.

In fact, looking at all my weeks, every place I own charges a transfer fee.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

What's that ? Another fee involved with timeshare ownership ?
See what I have been saying all along ? Fees + Fees + some more fees =
not worth it ! ( to me )

[brucecz Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close brucecz]

What's that ? Another fee involved with timeshare ownership ?
See what I have been saying all along ? Fees + Fees + some more fees =
not worth it ! ( to me )

Maybe you had not found the right timeshares. There are such unfortuneate people.

Bruce

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

Maybe I have been fortunate to own deeded weeks in North Carolina, where resorts are not as likely to jump on this ripoff gravy train. But even those that I have owned tha have ownership based on something else, like shares of stock have had fees that were nominal and were significantly less than those quoted.

My main point, however, is never to assume that such a fee is legitimate. The covenants at some resorts would allow it, and at others would not justify it. There are some resorts where there is no legal basis for such a fee that someone has imposed it anyway, usually instigated by a management company, which often gets the fee. I am simply saying that one should always determine if the resort can legally charge such a fee, and to challenge it if they cannot. Sunterra may well have covered themselves in this regard in their trust documents, but they may not have.

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

$250, or so I've been told. I always wondered why there wasn't one.

Asked directly from the horse's mouth today and was told that the fee hasn't been 'approved' yet.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

To transfer membership in Club Intrawest cost $650 and to transfer membership in Monarch Grand is $100 ( but $300 if combining several memberships).