Timeshare Laws - South Carolina

Our Comments The South Carolina Association of realtors is looking at ways to improve the state's timeshare laws after continued complaints and lawsuits from timeshare buyers of their timeshare resort units. What we'd really like to see is a tough national law (instead of the state by state laws which can vary widely) that established a two week cancellation "cooling off" period for all timeshare buyers and a mandated number of state investigative staff (funded by timeshare taxes)to ensure that timeshare resort sales pitches are within the law and not misleading. From a recent article Charleston Post and Courier:

Ken Kitts, time-share coordinator at the state Real Estate Commission, is now the only state employee keeping an eye on the industry, which in South Carolina comprises 14 developers and 130 resorts.

Two-thirds of the state's time-share investigative staff has been laid off or reassigned since the late 1990s, meaning the commission no longer has enough workers on payroll to anonymously screen sales pitches...

James Teodosio, a 77-year-old Charleston resident, was one of the aggrieved buyers who called the newspaper and the state Real Estate Commission this week in response to the stories. Teodosio spent almost $15,000 on a Myrtle Beach time-share resort in 2002. He said he has never been able to make a reservation, and that each time he called he was told he was a little too late.

Although the developer is selling those same units for almost $22,000 today, Teodosio has had no luck in reselling his. "I'm an engineer," he said. "I should have some brains in my head. But I swear ... I don't know what to do with that thing... Entire Article

Timeshare Forum

I've been getting an increasing number of emails asking for help and information on their timeshare units and getting rid of them, many of which have been similar. I have therefore set up a Timeshare Forum where you can post these questions and I can (and others) answer questions and provide information that should help many more people (I assume if a few people are asking, there are a lot more who are wondering).

Since it is brand new, there isn't much at this point, but I will be adding to it hopefully on a daily basis and will answer any questions within 24 hours that are posted there. There currently isn't much of a support group for those that have had bad experiences with timeshare units and there should be.

I also hope that those that have had experience in the past will share your experiences (both bad and good) in selling your timeshares to help others out.

10 Reasons Not To Buy A Time Share

Our Comments: We find this quite interesting about how the timeshare industry takes car of its own. We found an article entitled Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy a Timeshare which makes excellent sense and there is no reason that it should have a low rating. Even for those that are interested in purchasing a timeshare, the points are ones of which they should be fully aware. Yet the rating is 2.5 stars (and that is after I gave it a 5 star rating - it was 2.1 at that point I first read it). The only reason I can think of it being that low was that the time share industry people don't want the truth told. It goes to show that timeshare people actively try to undermine any reporting in the news or on the Internet that doesn't positively portray the time share resort business. Here are the ten points the article makes:

Timeshares are not very good for spontaneous traveling, especially in high season.

There aren’t as many resorts available as they made you think.

Hidden Fees.

Resell Values are horrible.

They are too expensive.

They will send you to collections too quickly.

The interest rates are up to the roof.

They won’t let you cancel your reservation after 24 hours.

Many of these places are still “under construction”.

Even if you have “points” they aren’t enough most of the time.

I enjoyed the article because it highlighted a few points that I haven't gone into detail here, but are valid points that the time share resort sales people are unlikely to mention. You can read the entire article here.

Timeshare Dump

New Article: We have a new article up on a possible option for getting rid of your unwanted timeshare. While the likelihood is slim, it's worth a try if you have defaulting on your payments as your only other option.

Timeshare Dump was started by a lawyer who came into contact with a timeshare owner trying to get rid of his timeshare. If your timeshare is in a location they are looking for, they may take it off your hands. Although they won't pay any money for it, they will take over all the fees. He asks for basic information, so it's probably worthwhile seeing if you are lucky.