With the downturn in the economy, many people have found themselves unable to pay for the things they still owe money on and look to filing for bankruptcy as an unfortunate circumstance of this. Timeshare owners who declare bankruptcy should take these steps.
1 – Be sure to list your timeshare unit along with all your other debts in your bankruptcy filing. Just like other loans, car payments, or overdue bills, timeshare loan payments and maintenance fees constitute debts. Don’t make any assumptions and always read the fine print when listing, but it is better to present more information than less.
2 – Check with a bankruptcy attorney in your state to find out the laws that apply to timeshares locally. Because a timeshare is not strictly real estate, it is an unsecured debt with little or no resale value. Remember, until you sell it, donate it to a charity or surrender it to the bankruptcy court, you will continue to owe any loan payments and the monthly maintenance fees.
3 – Be sure to find out how selling your vacation timeshare will affect your bankruptcy case before you finalize anything. The devil is in the details with these type of procedures, so make sure that something you don’t understand won’t come back to haunt you. Check every law and regulation to make sure you are protecting yourself. Your credit is already taking a hit, make sure it doesn’t hurt more than it has to.
4 – Before looking into putting your timeshare into your bankruptcy declaration, exhaust all options for renting or donating to charity; also, look into free places where you can list your timeshare in order to sell it. Owners who do manage to sell their timeshares often make back only 10 to 30 percent of the amount they paid, but this is still better than defaulting on payments, declaring bankruptcy, going through foreclosure proceedings, or pretending the problem doesn’t exist .
Also remember, though timeshare developers don’t care about your financial strain, they will understand when the time comes that they can get no more money from you, and at this point they will take the path of least resistance. Inform them of your situation and what you intend to do about it, and you may be able to cut a deal where they will legally take back the timeshare in order to avoid more legal and financial trouble.
About the Author: The timeshare experts at Apex Professionals, LLC, concentrate on helping disillusioned timeshare holders to rid themselves of unwanted maintenance fees, unnecessary assessment costs, and to do away with those annoying high-interest mortgages by offering to take over unwanted timeshare agreements instantly. Related posts:
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