Timeshare expired now they want me to buy.

I bought a Timesahre at Fairfield Pagosa 21 years ago. I received a letter from a law office telling me it had expired that I only had a lease. They are offering me a chance to buy it and then I would own it. I talked to a person at Fairfield Pagosa and they said if I bought it I would always own it. Question is this true? Do I need to get a lawyer? What about title insurance? What is the down side? The person at Pagosa said I could convert it to points. What is that? I really don't know where to go to find any honest answers. Can somebody offer some advice?

Find out how much it would cost and then check the resale market, assuming you want to keep your ownership. You don't need a lawyer or title insurance.

What does your deed say? Fairfield title/ownership department should be able to tell you exactly what is on their record for the ownership. I would call them first before talking to a lawyer.

https://www.fairfieldresorts.com/ffr/contactUs.do

Could this be a new scam ?

Who is the law firm ?

What does your original deed say ? Was it really a 20 + Yr Right to Use ?

What is on the Archuleta County Records ?
http://www.archuletacounty.org/
Assessor 264-8310 264-8319 assessor@archuletacounty.org
Clerk 264-8350 264-8357 jmadrid@archuletacounty.org

Be very careful.

And it may not be all bad. If you can walk away from a Timeshare responsibilities and look at all of the new potential time share opportunities on e-bay and such for current prices, you might be able to improve your position.

Bob

chiefs fan said:

I bought a Timesahre at Fairfield Pagosa 21 years ago. I received a letter from a law office telling me it had expired that I only had a lease. They are offering me a chance to buy it and then I would own it. I talked to a person at Fairfield Pagosa and they said if I bought it I would always own it. Question is this true? Do I need to get a lawyer? What about title insurance? What is the down side? The person at Pagosa said I could convert it to points. What is that? I really don't know where to go to find any honest answers. Can somebody offer some advice?

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This really sounds like a SCAM to me. A law office is wanting to sell you a timeshare? Don't you think the developer would rather get that money themselves?

If you've called Fairfield and Fairfield says you have a deeded property that you own for life, I don't think I'd call a lawyer. I think I might get in touch with the state fraud investigation department instead.

chiefs fan said:

I bought a Timesahre at Fairfield Pagosa 21 years ago. I received a letter from a law office telling me it had expired that I only had a lease. They are offering me a chance to buy it and then I would own it. I talked to a person at Fairfield Pagosa and they said if I bought it I would always own it. Question is this true? Do I need to get a lawyer? What about title insurance? What is the down side? The person at Pagosa said I could convert it to points. What is that? I really don't know where to go to find any honest answers. Can somebody offer some advice?

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Which building in Pagosa? Who is your POA (HOA)? I believe all FF in Pagosa are deeded property, so it is for life. So that letter from the law office sounds a scam when someone tell you it will expired and offer you a chance to buy it back.

Check your originally contract, if you get a deed, it is forever. If it is paid-off, you may have the original recorded deed deed also. If you bought from developer, you very likely will also have title insurance already. Also call local government check your record if you have no idea where you put the originally contract.

Don't worry about the convert to points. You can visit that issue later. But if you have been usng that TS for 21 years and happy, IMHO, you don't need to convert it. If you really want to find out about points, there are a lot of info on the internet.

Let us know what you find out from your originally contract.

Jya-Ning

Sounds like a scam. It is possible you have a deed, and the timeshare documents are expiring. But that would not require you to buy your timeshare - that would require either the association to vote to continue as a timeshare, or to sell thw whole resort and split the proceeds.

As others have suggested you need to find out what you own - look at your ownership documents. If you have a deed, you own it, even if there is a statement about something expiring - that would be timeshare aspect of your ownership. You might own a specific week in a specific unit, a share of a specific unit, or a share of the resort or section of the resort.

My first call would be to the resort - which you already did, and they seem to think you own your unit. Have you deposited this year's use week, or notified the resort you're using it? That would be a good indication that you still own it, if they haven't told you you can't use it. If you can't find your own copy of the deed, try the county clerk's office as suggested above. Many have deeds and other records online as PDF documents. I recently printed out copies of our recorded deeds for an extra set of my own records.

I am so sorry you are a Chiefs fan. I left the TV and headed for the hot tub at the first 3-and-out.

Timeshare expired

Thanks to all who replied to my question. The information gave me a different and more ojective view. I plan to follow up with Fairfield and the law office to see exactly what I am getting for my money. Thanks again and I look forward to sharing information with everyone in the future.

In response....

When my timeshare was originally Epic they said that it was deeded and all the paperwork made it look that way. But, when Sunterra took it over it went to a membership instead. Now when I went to look at the documents right before I sold it I could not find any type of deed like I have with my house only a certificate of "ownership" (with Sunterra it is a membership certificate). So, possibly in this case of a company taking over another company this might and has happened but your situation sounds definitely hokey!

Cda said:

When my timeshare was originally Epic they said that it was deeded and all the paperwork made it look that way. But, when Sunterra took it over it went to a membership instead. Now when I went to look at the documents right before I sold it I could not find any type of deed like I have with my house only a certificate of "ownership" (with Sunterra it is a membership certificate). So, possibly in this case of a company taking over another company this might and has happened but your situation sounds definitely hokey!

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Sunterra has morphed into a couple of different things from when they first started. As I understand it, they've asked for more money from their owners promising them better benefits, more options et...... As I understand it, one was to take weeks owners and make turn them into points owners. You could use your points to reserve your unit, pay maintenance fee's and purchase other services/goods. I've also heard that Sunterra had come out with a trust plan in which you were an owner in some sort of trust set up by Sunterra rather than having a deeded week. At any rate, an owner would have to authorize. I do not believe it could be done legally without the timeshare owners approval.