Expert: Andreas Rossler - 9/22/2007

Question
My husband and I purchased a timeshare in Mexico in 1986, we live in Canada. We were the unfortunate victims of the sales sharks who play on your emotions and naivety - there is more to the story, but much too long to reiterate(yes...I'm bitter). We paid for our timeshare in full within 6 months of purchasing and have kept our maintenance fees up to date until now. This has always been a huge financial struggle, but we have always kept up to date due to the fear of what would happen if we did not. My husband has decided this has to stop and has refused to pay the maintenance fees for this year. He did contact the Timeshare company to see if we could work something out, but their only interest was that we pay our fees. We do not want to give them another cent. We are willing to give this timeshare away if someone is willing to pay the maintenance fees we owe to date ($500). What should we do? What could happen if we do not pay our fees? Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my question.

Answer
Double check your contract and see how many years you have left.  Most Mexico timeshares are "right to use" for a specified number of years.  You may find that you have only a couple of years left, or none at all - they could be erroneously billing you.  Of course, if you don't pay, they could report it to a collection agency and it could show up on a credit report - similar to what you would see if you didn't pay a gym membership.

I would say try eBay to sell, but the problem is that Mexico timeshares decrease in value over time, because they expire after a certain number of years - and you couldn't have too many years left if you've owned it for 20 years already.

However, go to eBay and look up Mexico timeshares - you may be able to rent it out (your maintenance fees are pretty low - unless there are other fees involved when you actually use it).  At least that way you could cover the maintenance fees and keep your credit intact.

About your credit... I pretty much gave you the worst case scenario.  Believe it or not, they may never report it and your timeshare could simply expire - but don't count on that.

I think you should explore renting.  Now, if you don't care about the effect on your credit, don't care to rent, and will not use it - then they can go stuff themselves - just don't pay.