Does anyone have any suggestions on potential legal claims?

I have owned a week at Westgate Vacation Villas for quite a number of years that was purchased on the secondary market. I have never actually stayed at the unit. The first few years I would deposit with Interval but then we just started doing an internal exchange for other Westgate Resorts.

In general I have been pleased with the process but Westgate has now changed their policy with regard to exchanges. They now charge $450 for an exchange for owners who purchased their unit on the secondary market versus $150 for those who purchased directly.

This leads to two questions:

1) I recognize that it is a developer exchange so while I think it is morally wrong to in effect decrease the value of a unit as the exchange was part of the bargain the original owner had (that I purchased) it is not covered by the written contract. Still, it was part of the bargain and it seems like the equivalent of violating the agreement. Does anyone have any suggestions on potential legal claims?

2) In looking at the Westgate Owners Agreement, I see that the right of first refusal was not in the initial agreement and was added later. I know this change was made a number of years ago but did owners sue over this change which had the practical effect of hurting timeshare resales?

If some people sued over this change and lost I would think my odds of finding a basis for a claim on the exchange fee change would decline.

Anyway, this is somewhat rambling and I hope it makes sense. I am kind of in the mood for a fight over this even if my odds of actually prevailing in court are small.

aquam wrote:

In looking at the Westgate Owners Agreement, I see that the right of first refusal was not in the initial agreement and was added later. I know this change was made a number of years ago but did owners sue over this change which had the practical effect of hurting timeshare resales?

I wouldn't say right of first refusal (ROFR) hurts resales. Westgate's policy on resale owners' benefits hurt resales. ROFR is simply a right that timeshare companies have but not necessarily use. If you want to resell your originally-owned unit, all Westgate can do with ROFR is say that, if you found a buyer who agrees to buy at a certain price, Westgate can buy the unit for the same price. If Westgate chooses not to, then you can sell it to that previous buyer. Westgate does not have the power to nix the sale. Either way, you're going to sell it to someone. Either Westgate or the buyer you had lined up.

aquam wrote:

I am kind of in the mood for a fight over this even if my odds of actually prevailing in court are small.

Westgate is a substantial corporation with an established track record of being no stranger to litigation and, with all due respect, Westgate CEO David Siegel's pockets are likely a whole lot deeper than yours. Rather than engage in costly (and inevitably futile) litigation, I would instead pay those snakes their current $950 "ransom demand" fee to accept a "deedback" under their "Legacy" program and just be rid of those parasites forever --- promptly, lawfully and permanently.

Just my personal opinion of course, but initiating a legal battle with Wastegate would be a very expensive undertaking with virtually no chance of success.