TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #159 May/Jun 2018 | Page 13
TimeSharing Today
Nobody looking in the public re-
cords in the county where the timeshare
is located will find that Chicago divorce
decree. The ex-husband should have re-
corded a deed to the ex-wife in the pub-
lic records just like the ex-wife did to
transfer ownership to her sister.
Changes in ownership need to be
recorded where the timeshare is located.
Furthermore, transfers need to com-
ply with the requirements of local law
where the timeshare is located. Even if
all the owners of a Florida timeshare
live in Illinois, transfers are governed
by Florida real-estate law because that’s
where the real estate is located.
Death: An added complexity
Inheritance adds another level of
complexity to the ownership picture.
Say a New Yorker owns a Florida time-
share. He has been coming on vacation
with his only son for the last 20 years;
the son wants to take over ownership of
the week when dad passes on.
When dad dies, the son becomes
the personal representative of the estate
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(called an executor when a will exists
and an administrator when no will is
present). The son has a power of attor-
ney, everything you can imagine.
The estate is probated in New York,
and the son is the sole heir and gets ev-
erything. Does he own the Florida time-
share? No—not until actions take place in
the county where the timeshare is located.
Many states allow for a deed signed
by the personal representative of the es-
tate. Others, including Florida, do not.
You need to find out what the laws are in
the state where your timeshare is located.
In the above example, the son would
have to hire a Florida attorney and pay
that attorney thousands of dollars to file
a case and have a Florida judge review
the estate before the son could inherit
dad’s week.
That’s not a good deal when the son
could go on TUG2.net or E-Bay and buy
a week at the same resort for $100.
An unwanted timeshare
If the timeshare was located in a
state that allows for personal repre-
May/Jun, 2018
sentative deeds, such as Colorado, the
personal representative could deed the
week to the son, deed it back to the re-
sort (if the resort is willing to accept it),
or gift or sell it to any third party.
This can work if an heir wants the
timeshare, but please don’t try leaving
your timeshare to somebody who might
not want it.
You can write in your will that your
senator gets your timeshare. Your sena-
tor doesn’t have to accept it. Neither do
your kids or your church. Some owners
just pretend the timeshare doesn’t exist
in their will. That doesn’t work either.
It’s automatically part of the residue if it
is not separately addressed.
For heirs who don’t want a time-
share, finding a third-party buyer is
hard. The timeshare isn’t a gift to them;
it’s a massive and expensive headache.
Even if they can transfer owner-
ship, they have to pay for advertising,
deal with calls from scammers, pay
transfer fees. If they can’t transfer own-
ership, then add another $2,000 or so to
their expenses.
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