Rental Agreements

I was wondering if anyone could give their opinion on a situation. I had contacted someone about a posting and wanted to use the rental escrow service. She claimed that she didn't know what this was, even though she's rented out her units before. So the next day I confirmed the rental information that she gave me with the resort, which by the way was not in her name. After, I contacted her again she also said that she didn't know about paying with a credit card, but agreed to let me use Paypal. I then asked her if she would mail me the rental agreement or email it. She then told me that maybe I don't know how this works and all she does is transfer the name of the reservation and that I must think she's a crook and said let's not do this, said goodbye and hung the phone up. This conversation took no longer than two minutes and once I brought up the rental agreement, she changed her mind.

This is the first time I'm using Redweek, but I was under the impression that the rental agreement was pretty standard. Additionally, I thought it was pretty common to use the rental escrow service. Am I wrong in my thinking? I'm sitting here in shock that she just got off the phone so quickly. Does this sound suspicious or was I really being offensive by asking for a rental agreement? Thanks for any comments.

I would never rent from an owner without a rental agreement in place and signed by both the renter and the owner. You can copy a sample rental agreement by 'searching forums' here and email it to her, however if are going to use the rental escrow service here then I would think that they would have a rental agreement.

Also, when using an escrow service the owner is not paid until after the renter has left the unit .... the rental fee is sent to the escrow company, not to the owner. So, whatever you do, do not send her any money via Paypal or any other source to the owner.

jessicam212 wrote:

So the next day I confirmed the rental information that she gave me with the resort, which by the way was not in her name.

I don't understand this statement .... what do you mean the rental information was not in her name? Does this mean that she doesn't own the week? If so, she could be renting an exchange which is illegal.

I'm not sure why it wasn't in her name, I never got to the point of asking. I assumed because of the name that she gave me it was a family member.

She has no interest in renting to me at this point. When I asked if she was going to mail me or email me the rental agreement she told me that I didn't understand how this worked that you just transfer the name on the reservation and that I was too nervous and thought she was a crook and to just forget about it. She said goodbye and hung up. It was all over with very quickly. I didn't really even get a chance to say anything after I asked about the rental agreement.

I wasn't thrilled about using PayPal, but I understand that people don't want to wait for their money, so I was willing to. The rental escrow service would by far be my first choice. There is no way that I'd use PayPal without a rental agreement though. I just can't believe she originally expected me to be ok with sending her a check and no rental agreement and then to accuse me of not knowing how this works. I don't know that she is a crook, but I also don't know her and have no reason to trust her. I'm justing going to try and find another unit, I guess. Although this experience has not been encouraging.

You're doing the right thing by looking for another unit .... it looks to me like she's the one that doesn't know how renting timeshares works.

I'm renting my unit for the first time. I own points with Bluegreen. Do I simply secure my weeks, then rent my weeks, or is there some way to either identify and secure more desirable weeks and number of occupants, or help someone find available weeks they want and reserve them. Also, what is the best way to safely exchange the weeks for money... ie a Check I can cash in advance, PayPal, ... I have no idea how to use an escrow service... Also... thanks for the above info about finding a draft of a rental agreement