Steele Hill / The Summit owners transfer issues

Hello, I just wanted to post this to warn other of unethical practices by these resorts. I am trying to get someone to assume my timeshare at the Summit Resort Four Seasons, Laconia NH. I think I've sent out at least 8 transfer forms only to never hear from the potential buyer again, however the last potential buy actually got back to me. Seems he went to Steele Hill which are the corp offices for Safco Management which manages Steele Hill and The Summit, he had the transfer form and 2 checks for $200 transfer fee and $780 maintenance fee. There he met with Francine, whom proceeded not to do the transfer but first tried to up sell him on Steele Hill for $5000. He was not interested, she then lied to him and told him there was another $1500 due for a special assessment which was already paid. She then referred him to a person she knew was selling a Steele Hill timeshare. Thus my transfer was discarded. There is nothing I can do other then file a complaint with BBB , but just to warn others that this practice is going on. Thanks!

That;s terrible.
In the future you may want to pay for a closing/transfer agent who will follow up on the transfers rather than sending a buyer to the resort. It sounds like he wasn't sent to the transfer department but to a sales agent.

wow, thats some shady stuff right there....cant believe they would try to screw over a new owner whos clearly willing to own and pay annual dues.

definitely not a good sign to any other owners at this resort.

Steele Hill has e reputation of being shady. This story does not surprise me. :annoyed:

Nifty63 said:

Hello, I just wanted to post this to warn other of unethical practices by these resorts. I am trying to get someone to assume my timeshare at the Summit Resort Four Seasons, Laconia NH. I think I've sent out at least 8 transfer forms only to never hear from the potential buyer again, however the last potential buy actually got back to me. Seems he went to Steele Hill which are the corp offices for Safco Management which manages Steele Hill and The Summit, he had the transfer form and 2 checks for $200 transfer fee and $780 maintenance fee. There he met with Francine, whom proceeded not to do the transfer but first tried to up sell him on Steele Hill for $5000. He was not interested, she then lied to him and told him there was another $1500 due for a special assessment which was already paid. She then referred him to a person she knew was selling a Steele Hill timeshare. Thus my transfer was discarded. There is nothing I can do other then file a complaint with BBB , but just to warn others that this practice is going on. Thanks!

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With all due respect, that's not all you can do. Rather than merely complain to the toothless and useless membership organization known as the BBB, you might instead consider directly contacting the Consumer Protection wing of the NH Attorney General's office regarding your unfortunate experience. Inform them of the specific facts and dates relating to the Steele Hill encounter, naming names; someone seems to be inappropriately (unlawfully?) impeding a completely legitimate transaction which you have every right to conduct with your paid-up deeded ownership --- without any unwarranted resort obstruction or deceit. A letter or phone call from someone in NH state authority directly to the resort might very well result in immediate "attitude and perspective adjustment" by those uncooperative folks at Steele Hill.
They certainly won't care much (...if at all) about any toothless and irrelevant BBB involvement or contact.

Just my personal opinion, not offered as legal advice nor as a substitute for professional legal advice from NH licensed counsel, but it would cost you nothing to contact the NH AG office. On the face of the limited info you've provided, it would appear that resort actions (or inactions) are certainly of questionable legality ---at best.

P.S. If you are able to salvage this transaction "gone sideways" (or, if not, in any future transaction) I'd recommend utilizing a closing company (such as LT Transfers).
The "personal visit to the resort" approach can (and clearly did) go badly wrong for many different reasons if / when inadvertently dealing with unauthorized minions and / or hungry sales weasels. A transfer company will identify and deal with, mostly in writing, the appropriate personnel --- not with unauthorized minions and monkeys pursuing their own personal agendas. In the end, a new, properly prepared and officially recorded deed from a legitimate "grantor" with a paid up account to a new legitimate "grantee" is not something that desk minions and sales weasels can impede (or actually do anything about) --- whether or not it suits their personal agendas.
A resort can impose and collect a "transfer fee" (if there is an established practice for all transfers), but that's just about all the say they actually have in the matter.

New Hampshire


Website: http://doj.nh.gov/

Email: none listed

Phone: 1-888-468-4454

Mailing Address: 33 Capitol Street Concord, NH 03301


Consumer Protection: http://doj.nh.gov/consumer/index.html

Online Complaint form: http://www.egov.nh.gov/consumercomplaint/step1.asp

Nifty63 said:

Hello, I just wanted to post this to warn other of unethical practices by these resorts. I am trying to get someone to assume my timeshare at the Summit Resort Four Seasons, Laconia NH. I think I've sent out at least 8 transfer forms only to never hear from the potential buyer again, however the last potential buy actually got back to me. Seems he went to Steele Hill which are the corp offices for Safco Management which manages Steele Hill and The Summit, he had the transfer form and 2 checks for $200 transfer fee and $780 maintenance fee. There he met with Francine, whom proceeded not to do the transfer but first tried to up sell him on Steele Hill for $5000. He was not interested, she then lied to him and told him there was another $1500 due for a special assessment which was already paid. She then referred him to a person she knew was selling a Steele Hill timeshare. Thus my transfer was discarded. There is nothing I can do other then file a complaint with BBB , but just to warn others that this practice is going on. Thanks!

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WOW! That's a rotten deal! I guess we were luckier than we realized with Raintree Vacation Club (our home resort being Club Regina in Puerto Vallarta). In June we advertised in the TUG Bargain Basement & an interested person contacted us through TUG. Then Raintree sent us the transfer forms, we split the $499 transfer fee and the deal was done in less than a month. It's such a shame that not all timeshare outfits work this way. It's no skin off their noses and it's so much easier for those of us who can't use our time any more. Behaving in an ethical manner is also to their benefit as they reap so much good will, as happened with us.

thoughts

Nifty63 said:

Hello, I just wanted to post this to warn other of unethical practices by these resorts. I am trying to get someone to assume my timeshare at the Summit Resort Four Seasons, Laconia NH. I think I've sent out at least 8 transfer forms only to never hear from the potential buyer again, however the last potential buy actually got back to me. Seems he went to Steele Hill which are the corp offices for Safco Management which manages Steele Hill and The Summit, he had the transfer form and 2 checks for $200 transfer fee and $780 maintenance fee. There he met with Francine, whom proceeded not to do the transfer but first tried to up sell him on Steele Hill for $5000. He was not interested, she then lied to him and told him there was another $1500 due for a special assessment which was already paid. She then referred him to a person she knew was selling a Steele Hill timeshare. Thus my transfer was discarded. There is nothing I can do other then file a complaint with BBB , but just to warn others that this practice is going on. Thanks!

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No wonder the time share industry has such reputations as usual they do nothing for owners. I would suggest getting a lawyer and suing them for deception and lying to the person of who was ready to make transfer and seek damages for costs and what you lost in transfer and additionally any fees and costs that you continue to get stuck with beyond the date of the transfer date and see if the person who it was going to transfer to would join you in the suit

Legal Timeshare Transfer

I have sold several timeshares using them as my agent. They are quick and they know their stuff and generally charge about $199, sometimes a little less and sometimes a little more, depending on the state and the actual timeshare plus, of course, the resort transfer fee. I could actually have attempted to bypass them and do it myself but I thought it was money well spent to get rid of the timeshares I had. The best way to reach them is by email: LT Transfers <readylegal@gmail.com> but you can phone as well.

Here is a note I got from them when I first contacted them about a transfer:

Thank you for considering using LT Transfers to transfer ownership of your timeshare.

We charge $125 to prepare the documents needed to transfer your timeshare plus postage (7.00) & county recording fees -- these are based on the county where your timeshare is located, this could be between $20 to $50 (average recording fees).

Your resort requires a 100.00 transfer fee, this fee will be in addition to our fees. We will forward these funds to the resort when we notify them of the ownership change.

Additional documents and research will result in additional fees.

Here's how it works,

Fill out the Document Preparation Form, the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, and return to us along with a copy of your recorded deed. You can send by fax or email or snail mail. We will send you an email letting you know we have received it. If you do not have a copy of your recorded deed, we will do a deed search for you. Our fee for this service is $25.00.
We will prepare the documents necessary to transfer your timeshare. Due to our current workload, please allow up to three to four weeks after we receive all the documents needed to prepare your new paperwork. We will send this to you via email for your review along with our invoice.
Once we receive the executed documents from you, we will send it out to record at the Clerk’s office. Depending on the county, this could take up to six weeks.
When the recorded deed is returned to our office, we will notify you by email and email out a copy of the recorded deed as well as a copy of the cover letter to your resort by Priority mail for ownership transfer.
If one of the parties transferring your deed is deceased, it is usually necessary to require additional documents from you, including an original or certified copy of the death certificate, and there will be an additional charge. In some states we are unable to assist you if one of the parties is deceased, and we will tell you if that is the case.

Fast, simple, very inexpensive.

We look forward to doing business with you!

Mary Pless

Telephone 706-219-2709
Fax 706-219-0092

Don't know the law of the state where these events occurred, but this would appear to be the tort of intentional interference with a contractual relation in California.

BoBird1314 said:

Don't know the law of the state where these events occurred, but this would appear to be the tort of intentional interference with a contractual relation in California.

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I too do not claim to know about applicable NH law, but it nonetheless seems quite safe and fair to speculate that the reported interference / obstruction by resort personnel in this matter of a lawful sale and transfer of ownership is almost certainly an actionable violation of law by the involved resort personnel.

I hope OP follows through with NH AG / DOJ and doesn't just incorrectly believe that "the only thing they can do" is complain to the toothless and useless BBB.

The above posts show exactly why TUG community is so very wonderful!