Marriott Unit Transferred with Unpaid Fees

I thought Marriott's policy was no transfer of ownership unless all fees were current???

To my very unpleasant surprise, Marriott changed the ownership to me and now I have the unpaid 2016 maintenance fees and penalties on my account

Something similar happened to me. The difference was I was the seller

My buyer contacted me and I sent them the money. EZPZ


That Marriott does this reinforces the good advice I got here which is "know your seller"

ronparise said:

Something similar happened to me. The difference was I was the seller

My buyer contacted me and I sent them the money. EZPZ


That Marriott does this reinforces the good advice I got here which is "know your seller"

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Thanks, but what can I do now?

Seaport104 said:

Thanks, but what can I do now?

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I guess the real question here is what did you and the seller agree to, and was the agreement in writing?





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Seaport104 said:

I thought Marriott's policy was no transfer of ownership unless all fees were current???

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Marriott has no such policy. They leave it up to the buyer to check the finance estoppel and their agreement with the seller. It is conceivable that a buyer of a Marriott property would be willing to account for unpaid fees so they do not police those types of things. To be honest I don't even think the transfer department has access to the finance records. Marriott's departments are very segregated.

The same thing happened to me at one point. The PCC was holding the unpaid fees until it passed ROFR and got transferred. They did not tell me this so I panicked a little but it worked out. Just check with the broker or seller and see what the deal is and go from there. Check your agreement first and make sure it has usage and fees to begin when you thought they were.

TheTimeTraveler said:

I guess the real question here is what did you and the seller agree to, and was the agreement in writing?

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My contract says "Buyer receives 2016 week for free" and contract also indicates Seller warrants all maintenance fees, taxes and assessments are paid.

Seaport104 said:

My contract says "Buyer receives 2016 week for free" and contract also indicates Seller warrants all maintenance fees, taxes and assessments are paid.

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What is the exact verbiage in the contract for "also indicates Seller warrants all maintenance fees, taxes and assessments are paid."?

Did you get the use of the 2016 week?

Seaport104 said:

Thanks, but what can I do now?

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Sorry I thought I was clear. Contact your seller

Contact the seller and ask them what's up.

ronparise said:

Sorry I thought I was clear. Contact your seller

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Thanks, I have contacted them via email and phone. I just didn't know if there's anything else I can do, i.e. refuse the ownership and ask Marriott not to recognize me as the owner, etc.

I am just really surprised Marriott allowed the transfer with unpaid dues.

Seaport104 said:

Thanks, I have contacted them via email and phone. I just didn't know if there's anything else I can do, i.e. refuse the ownership and ask Marriott not to recognize me as the owner, etc.

I am just really surprised Marriott allowed the transfer with unpaid dues.

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Once it has already been transferred you cannot refuse the transfer. The deed is recorded and the resort recognizes the new owner.

Marriott operates differently than other timeshares. Probably because they are used to dealing with timeshare weeks that have value. They operate similar to someone buying or selling a house. If there was unpaid HOA dues on a house where there was no lien filed the new owner is going to have to pay those unpaid dues. They are tied to the property. Nobody likes this and the buyer usually gets screwed.

Unfortunately it is an issue between you and the seller. Marriott is not ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the sales agreement. They have no legal burden to make sure fees are paid in full before they process the transfer. Other timeshares do this only to protect their own interests rather than those of the buyer.

One of the problems in the practice of a resort refusing a transfer is the deed has already been signed and likely recorded. This can cause a big problem which might be another reason why Marriott doesn't do it. They operate strictly by the book which probably means they may not recognize they have the legal right to refuse a transfer after the underlying property has been legally transferred to a new owner. Recording the new owner in the timeshare records should just be a formality.

This has been discussed in other threads for other purposes so I do not mean to rehash that argument here. I am just trying to explain the logic in Marriott not performing due diligence on the buyer's or the resort owner's behalf. They are a secretarial middle man performing a clerical function.

Saintsfanfl said:

Once it has already been transferred you cannot refuse the transfer. The deed is recorded and the resort recognizes the new owner.

Marriott operates differently than other timeshares. Probably because they are used to dealing with timeshare weeks that have value. They operate similar to someone buying or selling a house. If there was unpaid HOA dues on a house where there was no lien filed the new owner is going to have to pay those unpaid dues. They are tied to the property. Nobody likes this and the buyer usually gets screwed.

Unfortunately it is an issue between you and the seller. Marriott is not ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the sales agreement. They have no legal burden to make sure fees are paid in full before they process the transfer. Other timeshares do this only to protect their own interests rather than those of the buyer.

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Thanks, lesson learned.

This should be no surprise. You can buy property with unpaid taxes, for example, and those obligations go with the property. The same with unpaid maintenance fees. Marriott has nothing to do with the ownership transfer, other than ROFR and recording the new ownership on their books. It never prevents the transfer of ownership. Those fees are between buyer and seller. That is what an estoppel is for.

A little more on Marriott.

They have two different estoppels that come from two separate departments that do not communicate with each other. There is a usage estoppel that can verify what is owned and show what usage is available. Then there is the finance estoppel that shows what fees have been paid as well as any outstanding loans. Each one must be requested separately using only Marriott's forms and sent to the appropriate location and department.

They both must be authorized by the actual owner, which many times prevents some PCC's from receiving them. For example some very reputable PCC type companies receive their inventory as part of 3rd party agreements where the real owner traded in their timeshare. If the PCC company has an estoppel it might be outdated. Or they may only have one of the two estoppel types.

The estoppel is far less important than buying from a reputable seller. Usage for example could be deposited by the current owner at any point after the usage estoppel. I do not care about the estoppel if I fully believe who I am buying from will make it right if something goes wrong. If I do not trust who I am buying from I don't care much about the estoppel either because mistakes are common place.

The two most important things are know what you are buying and trust who you are buying it from.

From our experience in over 1000 transfers we do not get the HOTA (holiday ownership transfer agreement) form from MVCI if the current owner has any debt owed.

The debt has to be cleared first before MVCI will send the HOTA therefore making it impossible to complete a transfer with any outstanding money owed on it.