TRYING TO GET OUT OF MEXICO TIMESHARE

clarissak4 wrote:

I signed a villas every del palmar timeshare in Mexico. Tried to canceled it several times and they always say that there is no cancellation. The contract was subject of misrepresentation, fraud, duress and lack of capacity since they gave us plenty of alcohol to coerce us to sign this contract. I already sent certifies letters demanding cancellation.

When and to whom did you send the cancellation letters?

File for bankruptcy and put it in the bankruptcy.

thomasb746 wrote:

File for bankruptcy and put it in the bankruptcy.

Filing for bankruptcy is not that easy. Even if you successfully do so, bankruptcy can have a much more serious impact on your credit history and ability to get other loans or lines of credit.

There are easier, cleaner ways to get out of a timeshare.

Hi. I was wondering if there's an update on this? We also got in to a villa Del palmar timeshare after way too much tequila and want OUT! Did you just stop paying? We never have our social security numbers so am wondering if there will be any recourse if we just stop paying. It's been 3 years and we've never gone and theyre renting for like $150/night. Please update me if you can!

nikolen wrote:

We never have our social security numbers so am wondering if there will be any recourse if we just stop paying.

For Mexican timeshares and vacation clubs, usually the only recourse for not paying is facing a bunch of collection calls. From Mexico, they can't do much except for maybe put a ding on your credit history or report.

The usual response to stopping payments to Mexican timeshares or vacation clubs is that your membership gets terminated. Maybe check your original contract carefully and see what will happen if you stop paying.

Hello,

has there been any further affect to your credit report since youve stopped paying? I've invested 5000 and do not plan on making the first payment. Please advise

Christine Nguyen Christine.nguyen1229@gmail.com California

Hi, In a similar situation here, recently back from Luxury Bahia Akumal, was swept along with the timeshare presentation and agreed to a payment of 6k. Now home and outside the 14 days cooling off period, since signing, we have byers remorse. We have only paid 2k so far. Does anyone know what the repercussions would be if we don't make any additional payments and send a cancellation letter..any advice welcome

dianeb726 wrote:

Hi, In a similar situation here, recently back from Luxury Bahia Akumal, was swept along with the timeshare presentation and agreed to a payment of 6k. Now home and outside the 14 days cooling off period, since signing, we have buyers' remorse. We have only paid 2k so far. Does anyone know what the repercussions would be if we don't make any additional payments and send a cancellation letter..any advice welcome

I would start by cancelling or freezing any credit card you have whose information (number, expiry date, etc.) you gave to the sales people.

As for repercussions, the only thing I can think of is that you will be hounded by collection agencies. If you're willing to forfeit the $2000 you paid, then stopping any further payments might be your best option.

Just do not go looking for any of these firms that claim they can cancel or rescue you from your timeshare plight.

Thankyou for the reply, we went to see a solicitor at the weekend who promised alsorts, but we declined as he wanted a fortune! He mentioned that if we don't pay the company will wait 5 years when a lot of interest has been added then sell to a debt agency company in the UK!! Not sure how this can happen but do you know of this happening to anyone? I think it was more likely to be scare tactics.

dianeb726 wrote:

Now home and outside the 14 days cooling off period, since signing, we have byers remorse. We have only paid 2k so far. Does anyone know what the repercussions would be if we don't make any additional payments and send a cancellation letter..any advice welcome

You cannot just unilaterally "cancel" a contract into which you voluntarily chose to enter, after the rescission period provided by applicable law has expired. No "solicitor" possesses any magic beans or secret elixirs either --- no matter how much they charge. The rescission period is only 5 days in Mexico by the way, so I am unclear where / how you came up with the "14 days" reference. In any event, sending a "cancellation" letter would be a legally meaningless gesture after expiration of the rescission period. There are two parties in an executed contract and neither one can just change the terms of (or terminate) an executed contract on their own without the overt agreement of the other --- it's a two way street.

On the other hand, you can always make the decision to simply forfeit the $2k deposit you already ponied up (you're not getting any of that that money back in any scenario anyhow, no matter what) and just make the choice not to pay them another penny. If you are in another country, they have little or no leverage to do much of anything further except to terminate your "membership" at some point. Doing so is no particular skin off their nose, since all you really have is a "right to use" anyhow (i.e., no actual ownership of anything) and they will certainly be keeping your deposit regardless of whatever you do or don't do.

I doubt that the doomsday scenario your solicitor portrayed could or would ever actually happen --- it's just simply not worth the bother for the Mexicans to attempt collection efforts across continents over a relatively worthless RTU "membership". There are, after all, plenty of other prospects in "vacation mode" coming around the corner virtually every day. It's your decision, but if in your shoes I would be inclined to just kiss them off and bid them adieu.

Thanks for the reply. I'm definately going along your line of thinking! We live and learn dont we . Thanks again.

It's possible your contract did have a rescission period of 14 days. As I understand it, Mexico's law is 5 days but there's nothing to stop a company from honoring a longer time period. The company we dealt with offered a vacation plan with a full 30 days to decide, so lots of time to think things over and be sure. Their plan is called elite1500 concierge service and so far, so good. Plus there were no offers of any alcoholic beverages or any carnival type atmosphere, just a relaxed conversation of the pros and cons of their approach to travel and how it might meet our needs. I'm sorry for your bad experience and agree with several others here that you're probably best just to cut your losses and move on.

It's already well-know that timeshare ownership purchased from the developer is NOT a good investment. Using the example, $2100 rental from $1500 maintenance fees garnishes $600. In order to just break even over the course of say, 50 years, you would have to had purchase this for less than ($600 x 50 years)=$30k. So in 50 years of renting, you would have broke even.

The sad part of this is that instead of buying that timeshare, if you had invested in a moderate stock fund, that initial $30k investment over 50 years with a modest 6% return during that time is worth $550,000 50 years later. Yes, do the math.

And this doesn't factor in the imminent increasing maintenance cost.

TIMESHARES ARE NOT INVESTMENT VEHICLES!!!!! Don't have anyone ever tell you that it is. Timeshares are only good deals if you're the developer selling them.

alanb410 wrote:

It's possible your contract did have a rescission period of 14 days. As I understand it, Mexico's law is 5 days but there's nothing to stop a company from honoring a longer time period. The company we dealt with offered a vacation plan with a full 30 days to decide, so lots of time to think things over and be sure. Their plan is called elite1500 concierge service and so far, so good. Plus there were no offers of any alcoholic beverages or any carnival type atmosphere, just a relaxed conversation of the pros and cons of their approach to travel and how it might meet our needs. I'm sorry for your bad experience and agree with several others here that you're probably best just to cut your losses and move on.

For what it's worth:

1. In my own 35+ years of timeshare ownership and experience, I have NEVER ONCE heard of ANY timeshare related entity ANYWHERE offering a contract rescission period which is longer than the rescission period provided by applicable state (or Mexican) law. Could they do so? Yes, they could. DO they ever do so? No, never.

2. It's interesting that in recent days on both Timeshare Users Group and RedWeek discussion forums there have been several posts going out of their way to conveniently name and subtly "endorse" (heretofore completely unknown) "elite1500 concierge services", with that name being inserted completely "off topic" into threads discussing unrelated subjects.

Call me a cynic, but the word SHILL comes immediately to mind here. I was born very early in the morning --- but it certainly was not YESTERDAY morning. ;-)

maybe you can sign a Quit Deed, and walk away from the unit and they keep your money and resell, but you would be out of what you invested and maybe some more $$ for legal fees cost associated with this. Talk to a place that buys Timeshares from people

scally wrote:

maybe you can sign a Quit Deed, and walk away from the unit and they keep your money and resell, but you would be out of what you invested and maybe some more $$ for legal fees cost associated with this. Talk to a place that buys Timeshares from people

First of all, there is no "deed" (quit claim or otherwise) in Mexican timeshares, which are merely "right to use" (RTU) CONTRACTS. They are essentially just "memberships". Accordingly, there is no actual "ownership" of anything at all --- and hence there is no deed.

Secondly, few people are interested in buying a Mexican RTU contract from someone else. There is actually a fair number of people trying to GIVE AWAY their Mexican RTU contracts, often with no success. Transfer fees for timeshare contracts in Mexico are often also quite excessive, making it even more difficult to find a new contract recipient. Also, since timeshare rentals in Mexico are basically "a dime a dozen", why would anyone seek to willingly take on a Mexican contract obligation and the associated annual fee burden?

Legal fees? Irrelevant and unnecessary. If someone wants "out" of a Mexican RTU contract, all they have to do is stop paying fees and the "membership" will ultimately be terminated.

The ONE thing you've stated which is factually correct is that any money paid to date will be retained by the Mexican timeshare operation, with no refunds --- even if / when the Mexican timeshare operation later terminates the contract / membership for non-payment of fees.

I bought a timeshare last month at Pueblo Bonito Sunset. As it turned out, like many of you, what was represented is far different than portrayed. You even got a Preferred Program with bonus weeks. We have one in Aruba and are very happy with it for the last 22 years and dis not need another. How the salesman captured us was to look at it from a renting stand point, saying 75% of their inventory was always available for members to use. As it turns out it is all BS, as I just started looking into getting a unit to rent. There are many more discrepancies concerning what we were told, so we will just leave it at that. I looked at my contract and I did not see a cancelation clause. We made a$1,000 dp and financed the rest with PB, so based on what you said in your post, would it be in my best interest to just cancel the CC we used for the DP and make no payments. The 1st Payment is die 12/5/17. I sure can use someone’s opinion, who actually has the experience, to walk us thru.

marcs207 wrote:

I looked at my contract and I did not see a cancelation clause. We made a$1,000 dp and financed the rest with PB.......would it be in my best interest to just cancel the CC we used for the DP and make no payments. The 1st Payment is die 12/5/17. I sure can use someone’s opinion, who actually has the experience, to walk us thru.

Whether or not your contract actually so indicates (as it is supposed to, in writing), the contract cancellation (rescission) period in Mexico is 5 days. If no one provided you with written information on your rescission (cancellation) rights, you should promptly file a formal complaint with PROFECO, the quasi-governmental authority in Mexico with jurisdiction over timeshare sales weasel misdeeds --- Google is your friend.

Merely cancelling the credit card obviously does not in any way make the contract you signed magically "disappear", but at least it would eliminate any future opportunity for anyone in Mexico to make any unauthorized charges on that card going forward.

I will not offer any advice regarding what might be "in your best interest"; that's a determination and decision you must make for yourself. However, I personally see no point or purpose in making payments on something you now apparently don't want, probably won't use --- and maybe cannot really even afford in the first place. Keep in mind that your "product" has virtually ZERO resale market value, so take that fact into account when you think about how much more money you choose to pump into that enterprise. You might decide that what is "in your best interest" is to just kiss the deposit goodbye, pay nothing further, walk away --- and chalk it up to an expensive mistake while in "vacation brain" mode. That's entirely your own personal decision to make.

We bought at Mayan Palace several years ago. Might be called Vida now. I called them 2 years ago and asked them if they had an exit strategy for people that simply didn't want to vacation there anymore. He said to return the contract stating we wanted out and to have it notorized. We did so and they took it back. Of course we got nothing back and the contract had been paid in full years before. Mexican timeshare is one of the worst purchases anyone can make in this life. The best rule of thumb is do not be lured in to attend a presentation. Once inside they are fabulous liars. Good luck to any and all who are struggling with this issue.

bens89 wrote:

Mexican timeshare is one of the worst purchases anyone can make in this life. The best rule of thumb is do not be lured in to attend a presentation. Once inside they are fabulous liars.

Excellent and accurate input and advice, unfortunately based upon first hand experience.

In my personal opinion, there is simply NO good reason to EVER buy into a Mexican RTU timeshare contract, when you can always instead very easily rent timeshare weeks in Mexico anytime you want, for a tiny fraction of the RTU contract price, without ANY "upfront buy in" cost and without taking on ANY annual fee obligations. To each their own...