Maintenance Fee went to collections

My Timeshare in Las Vegas, Westgate Flamingo Bay, is now in collections. It’s fully paid for, no blackout dates, we have the even years, and you can transfer to other Westgates or if you don’t use your weeks in the even year you can transfer to the following year. Never were we warned that our maintenance fee would go from $400 to $2000, more than my home mortgage payment! So we haven’t paid and it’s now in collections. Any suggestions on what we can do to get rid of it?

Contact your home resort and ask them to take it back . NEVER pay anyone money upfront that claims they can get you out of your contract .

lauraw440 wrote:

My Timeshare in Las Vegas, Westgate Flamingo Bay, is now in collections. It’s fully paid for, no blackout dates, we have the even years, and you can transfer to other Westgates or if you don’t use your weeks in the even year you can transfer to the following year. Never were we warned that our maintenance fee would go from $400 to $2000, more than my home mortgage payment! So we haven’t paid and it’s now in collections. Any suggestions on what we can do to get rid of it?

Westgate now has a "deedback" program, but the maintenance fees must first be fully paid up to date and Westgate will also charge a fee of $900 for "deedback" once the owner's account becomes fully paid up to date.

This is surely not what you want to hear, but this is the only way (except for simply awaiting foreclosure) that you are going to unload a Westage timeshare ownership. Westgate imposes such restrictive constraints and limitations on resale owner reservations that Westage has effectively (and probably very deliberately) rendered Westgate resales essentially worthless in the secondary (resale) market.

It's your personal choice and decision whether to pony up the $2,000+ to get your account current and then also pay Westgate an additional $900 for a "deedback", or to choose to pay Westgate not another penny and just wait for inevitable foreclosure. If the account is already in collections, then movement in the the direction of foreclosure has basically already begun. You indicate that the ownership is paid off, so there would be no negative credit report consequences after foreclosure. If there was an unpaid loan balance involved, that would be another matter entirely --- defaulting on a loan would almost definitely result in a negative credit report.

I am in a similar situation with a Westgate timeshare. The mortgage is paid in full (has been for many years). We paid the maintenance fees for years, and then just stopped paying due to lack of use, and lack of desire to throw our money down a hole. We currently owe 3 years of maintenance fees, and have started getting letters from Aspen National Collections, which threaten foreclosure (but nothing is even showing up on our credit regarding this timeshare, not even from the collection agency). I feel like we’re getting close to something starting to happen, moving towards the beginnings of foreclosure. I’m currently working hard to polish up small issues in our credit report ahead of our plans to sell our house and buy a new one in the spring of 2019. Ken1193, I have to say I am encouraged by your statements that we really have nothing to fear in regard to just letting the foreclosure happen, since all we owe are maintenance fees. How can I know this is the case for sure? I have a lot riding on it, and reviews are mixed all over the internet. I don’t want to react out of fear and get suckered into paying them, just because I’m scared it will hurt our chances of getting a new mortgage in less than a year, but I also don’t want to see it actually get in our way of getting the mortgage.

leighannh10 wrote:

I have a lot riding on it, and reviews are mixed all over the internet. I don’t want to react out of fear and get suckered into paying them, just because I’m scared it will hurt our chances of getting a new mortgage in less than a year, but I also don’t want to see it actually get in our way of getting the mortgage.

Yes, there have been a lot of mixed reports about credit ratings getting affected by defaulting on maintenance fee payments. In the end, you have to decide whether or not to take the risk. But since you are worried about applying for a mortgage, have you looked into the option of applying for a pre-approved mortgage now (even though you will want the mortgage next year) before any possible credit rating "dings" might kick in?

lancec13 wrote:

Yes, there have been a lot of mixed reports about credit ratings getting affected by defaulting on maintenance fee payments. In the end, you have to decide whether or not to take the risk. But since you are worried about applying for a mortgage, have you looked into the option of applying for a pre-approved mortgage now (even though you will want the mortgage next year) before any possible credit rating "dings" might kick in?

I’d love it if it were that easy, but we’re self-employed, so we have to have two consecutive tax returns (wherein we take fewer deductions than we normally would and pay more taxes in, so we can show the income we need to for the mortgage). We have 2017, but we’ll need our 2018 return- which is why we are looking at buying in the spring after we have taxes on file.

I spent pretty much the entire day researching this yesterday, reading through peoples’ firsthand experiences. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of talk about “what will happen if”, but there isn’t a lot of reporting back by people who’ve been through a TS foreclosure, letting the rest of us know how it affected them. I came across an encouraging message thread on the TUG board that I will share here. This person allowed a Westgate TS to go to foreclosure, still owing on the actual mortgage loan, and in the end he says it didn’t touch his credit at all. So, that’s promising. https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/will-legal-action-help-me-get-rid-of-my-ts.246451/

I guess I’m getting more comfortable with the idea of just not worrying about it. If all we owe are MFs, then that’s not a true foreclosure, is it? Those are just unpaid fees. If by some chance it did hit our credit report as a foreclosure, surely I could dispute that and have it changed after providing proof that there was no mortgage owed. Don’t you think? I feel like I’ve thought this whole thing to death. Ready to move on to my next obsessive research topic. 😊

leighannh10 wrote:

...person allowed a Westgate TS to go to foreclosure, still owing on the actual mortgage loan, and in the end he says it didn’t touch his credit at all. So, that’s promising. https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/will-legal-action-help-me-get-rid-of-my-ts.246451/

If all we owe are MFs, then that’s not a true foreclosure, is it? Those are just unpaid fees. If by some chance it did hit our credit report as a foreclosure, surely I could dispute that and have it changed after providing proof that there was no mortgage owed. Don’t you think?

With all due respect , you don't seem to grasp (or perhaps are in denial about) the nature of foreclosure, which need not be associated with unpaid loans. Unpaid maintenenance fees are equally solid grounds for initiating foreclosure, even on a fully paid off deeded ownership.

Personally, I find that one lone claim you found of someone defaulting on a loan and encountering no negative credit report consequences extremely hard to believe, particularly with Westgate. David Siegel (Westgate CEO) keeps his lawyers very busy; Westgate has consistently demonstrated a healthy appetite for litigation. They even took a lower court decision against them all the way to the TN Supreme Court (where they still lost). Foreclosure is simple and easy; some states even now provide for non-judicial foreclosures, further streamlining the process.

The simple fact is that a deeded timeshare ownership is a form of real estate ownership, albeit owning only a very small portion. You pay real estate taxes (...you did formerly anyhow, when you were paying your fees; real estate taxes were included within your annual maintenance fee bills). Make no mistake, foreclosure on a deeded timeshare is most certainly a "true" foreclosure, absolutely no different in legal procedure than any other property foreclosure (except, of course, that home foreclosures usually also involve someone defaulting on a mortgage loan).

That said, I still believe that foreclosure on a fully paid off (no unpaid loan) timeshare for unpaid maintenance fees alone will not produce any negative credit report consequences for you. In my 35+ years of timeshare experience and observations, I have rarely heard or read of people claiming otherwise. Defaulting on a loan is another matter entirely however and is virtually certain to have negative credit report consequences, despite occasional (unsubstantiated) claims to the contrary.

Hello, I have a 2 bedroom lock off timeshare with westgate villas in Kissimmee Florida which has been paid off since 2016, I got behind on the maintenance fee because of changes in income. The maintenance fee has gone up to 1,000 every odd year.. I’ve contacted westgate and they have stated that they could not assist me so, they put me in collections with pinnacle in which payments were set up 4 months ago. Today I was contacted by pinnacle saying that westgate contacted them and stated that I must pay the collections off ASAP or they will foreclose.. I’m having to use my credit card to pay the balance off with pinnacle. I can no longer afford to pay this maintenance fee every other year. What can I do to get out of this timeshare without affecting my credit score??

Well you can let them foreclose. It might or might not affect your credit score. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Collection agencies tend to threaten but not follow through so I would ignore Pinnacle.

I contacted Wesley financial group and they told me that since my maintenance fees are in collections then they (vacation villages of parkway) have terminated our ownership. He said we just have to settle with collections and will be free of our timeshare. Anyone else hear of this?

jeffo185 wrote:

I contacted Wesley financial group and they told me that since my maintenance fees are in collections then they (vacation villages of parkway) have terminated our ownership. He said we just have to settle with collections and will be free of our timeshare. Anyone else hear of this?

Have you received any notice from Westgate as to foreclosure? Westgate might be hoping that you will pay collections and keep your ownership. Also, if you have not paid up your maintenance fees and Westgate has foreclosed, you do not necessarily "have to settle with collections[to] be free of [your] timeshare". You're free of it regardless. You just might have to face a ding on your credit score or history.

jeffo185 wrote:

I contacted Wesley financial group and they told me that since my maintenance fees are in collections then they (vacation villages of parkway) have terminated our ownership. He said we just have to settle with collections and will be free of our timeshare. Anyone else hear of this?

If you have accurately portrayed what Wesley Financial Group allegedly told you, rest assured that what you were told is absolutely 100% wrong and completely inaccurate.

An account being turned over to collections simply means that company reps are going to hound you to get your fees paid up to date. However, whether or not you get your account paid up, you will remain the owner of record. If you choose to get the account current, you can then (and not until then) request to "deedback" your ownership, but please understand very clearly that, even if your account is fully paid up, a resort is still under no obligation to ever accept any such "deedback" request at any time. Is that fair? Perhaps not. Is it nonetheless indisputable fact? Absolutely.

The ONLY way you can be "free of your timeshare" is when there is a new owner of record, whether by "deedback", or by lawful transfer of your deed to someone else, or by foreclosure. Until and unless one of those things happens, make no mistake --- you remain the owner, with all of the associated legal obligations, like it or not. Don't shoot the messenger.

kct15 wrote:

Hello, I have a 2 bedroom lock off timeshare with westgate villas in Kissimmee Florida which has been paid off since 2016, I got behind on the maintenance fee because of changes in income. The maintenance fee has gone up to 1,000 every odd year.. I’ve contacted westgate and they have stated that they could not assist me so, they put me in collections with pinnacle in which payments were set up 4 months ago. Today I was contacted by pinnacle saying that westgate contacted them and stated that I must pay the collections off ASAP or they will foreclose.. I’m having to use my credit card to pay the balance off with pinnacle. I can no longer afford to pay this maintenance fee every other year. What can I do to get out of this timeshare without affecting my credit score??

Frankly, it is quite rare (despite any empty threats to the contrary) for any developer, including slimy Westgate, to initiate negative credit reporting for any fully paid off (i.e., no unpaid loan balance) timeshare ownership they foreclose upon merely because of unpaid maintenance fees.

I don't really comprehend how Pinnacle even fits into this picture at all with a Westgate timeshare ownership, but that's an irrelevant detail that doesn't really matter and doesn't change my following input. Perhaps Westgate sub-contracts "collections" efforts to a third party? In any event, it's an irrelevant detail.

Defaulting on a loan is a different matter. A negative credit report is almost a certainty when defaulting on any loan. You reportedly don't have any such unpaid loan balance since 2016, so you are in a strong and leveraged position.

By the way, collection agencies get a percentage of whatever money they can hound someone into paying. Whatever Pinnacle told you about the (alleged) new Westgate "demand" was very likely just a fabricated BS story, concocted just to ratchet up the pressure to pay your delinquent fees (and thereby also increase their "percentage" income).

The fact is that you are in a position (with a fully paid off timeshare) to just tell Pinnacle to go pound sand and stop calling you. Pay not another penny, and just let slimy Wastegate go right ahead and foreclose at their convenience.

It seems to me that digging yourself a deeper hole by unnecessarily incurring credit card debt, just to cave in to some empty phone threats by a hungry (but completely powerless) collection agency, is a profoundly bad idea, but that's your own personal decision to make. Personally, I'd tell them in no uncertain terms to GO POUND SAND --- and I would pay ABSOLUTELY NOTHING further if I found myself in difficult financial straits. Wastegate has already received many thousands of dollars from you over the years and they certainly know that, which is exactly why you are unlikely to get a credit report ding for a foreclosure over unpaid maintenance fees alone (i.e., with no loan default). They will simply foreclose and move on. You will become just another forgotten "customer" who once paid Wastegate too much money for too little benefit. Other willing buyers will surely come along (and Wastegate certainly knows that too). Good luck.

I have a fully paid for Westgate time share. Haven’t paid maintenance fees in several years, bc we haven’t used it in 10+ years. Got served today with a civil suit from Westgate, which they appeared to have served to a good many of us in a batch. It’s a civil summons from the state of Tennesse regarding the past due maintenance fees. Anyone heard of this before?

I'm dealing with Westgate right now. Fully paid and has been for years. The Attorney General's office in Florida told me they have a whole folder on Westgate. They want you to pay them a lot of money to GIVE IT BACK TO THEM so that they can make thousands off of it. It is a 4 bedroom at Westgate Town Center ( I think that is a pretty good gift to them). Siegel owns half of Florida and screwing people every day. FYI he also owns the collection agency.

I might also add that the AG office said do not use any of the resale companies.

We have the same issue and they are telling us to get out of it, we have to pay them £3000 today. They said they are going to email us the contract. Something just doesn’t feel right about this.

So what can we do in a case like this, there must be a some kind of loophole.

NEVER pay anyone money upfront that claims they can get you out of your timeshare.

petulap4 wrote:

We have the same issue and they are telling us to get out of it, we have to pay them £3000 today.

Who are "they/them"?