Maryland Timeshare HOA Plans to have a sheriff levy my home

[ronparise]

For some reason, they have not foreclosed
on the timeshare - only a default judgment.

they havent foreclosed yet.. thats what you were served with isall about,, Its a notice that they will sell the property unless you pay up

 

[lch]

After reading your original post again and a few other things, I have reconsidered my previous post, and now I do think the HOA is threatening to levy your primary residence. I suggest you read these documents regarding Maryland judgment collection procedures and draw your own conclusions:
http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/smallclaims.pdf
(See "Collecting Your Judgment" section)

http://www.courts.state.md.us/district/forms/civil/dccv060br.pdf
(See in particular Section starting at p 5 "Seizing Defendant's Personal Property or Real Estate")

Finally, here is a brochure issued by Maryland Legal Aid explaining in basic terms the judgment collection process, and the options you have:
http://www.mdlab.org/wp-content/uploads/MLA-IfImSued.pdf

Hope this helps some.

 

[natasha5687]

Any suggestions on how to handle this?
Credit Report -Default Judgment - Sheriff Levy


Ocean Time (30 unit building) located in Ocean City, Maryland
would not take our timeshares week deed back a few years ago.

The Council of Unit Owners of Ocean Time Condominium
HOA Attorney James E Clubb filed for non payment and
went to court and obtained DEFAULT JUDGMENT in both
Worcester County and in the county that we live in!

Today, we received a letter from the HOA attorney by
first class United States mail that states the following:

If I do not receive payment in full within two weeks from
the date of this letter. I will have the sheriff levy upon your
residence and sell the property to satisfy the judgments.

Since the judgment incur 10% interest per day, you must
contact my office to get an accurate payoff amount.

We had good credit all our life, and always paid our bills.
We paid m/f for ten years and could no longer afford it
and had to make the hard decision to not pay anymore.

We were unable to sell it or give it away. We offered to
deed it back a years ago but they would not accept it.

We were able to downsize our other timeshare
interests but this one has become a problem.



We have zero equity in our house (underwater mortgage)
and owe just about as much as the value of the property.

I hate to post this here on the internet, but I wanted to let you know
what can happen when you don`t pay your timeshare maintenance fees.

That sounds pretty unusual to me. MissMArty please go to google and look up MD Judiciary case search. You can type in your name and will be able to review the docket entries on it. This will tell you if he blowing smoke up your behind. You will also be able to contact the clerk to verify or at the very least get information on which office to call. Good luck. And MD does not allow interest at 10% a month that is a usary rate. You will likely see a tick mark next to posted interes rate in the docket. The clerk can also clarify what they can and cannot charge in interest.

 

[Miss Marty]

* Maryland Post Interest Legal Rate is 10% Per Year *

RE: Since the judgment incur 10% interest per day you
must contact my office to get an accurate payoff amount.

Called District Court 410-219-7830 to verify correct
Post Interest Legal Rate for Worcester County, MD.

Clerk verified, Post Interest Legal Rate is 10% Per YEAR
Suggested that I contact Ocean Time`s HOA Attorney
regarding the incorrect amount on the letter received.

 

[pacodemountainside]

The homestead law you are quoting is a Florida thing (where I live now) and not a Maryland thing, at least it wasn't when I lived there. Lots of folks in trouble move to Florida and put all their assets in their home to protect them with the Homestead law....they move from Maryland, not to Maryland.

But I agree their home is safe

Isn't that the reason O. J. Simpson declared Florida as his domicile?

 

[pacodemountainside]

From my own experience as a landlord, the first thing the Court Clerk asks for before Judge will hear case is Proof of Service. It would appear the $48.00 is the filing fee and process sever who can be sheriff, professional or any sane person over 21 who is not a party to suit.

I agree with others that for the HOA to actually cause your house to be sold all senior creditors would have to be paid. No "flipper" is going to buy a property with liens against it for more than FMV less a profit!

If a member of AARP you get 1 free 45 minute legal consultation.

Otherwise, call local bar referral service and they will set you up with an appropriate attorney for around $50.00.

 

[thheath]

Considering the TS is in your home state, this isn't going away.

Considering future maintenance fees, interest, additional legal fees, possible special assesments, I would pay off the judgement and unload the TS at any cost.

Ted

 

[bogey21]

Darn, this makes me glad that I disposed of my TS Weeks in an orderly and final way.

George

 

[pedro47]

Please contact your state senior citizen advocate asap and they should be able to refer you for legal counsel. This person should be in the state of Maryland government.

 

[bigrivergroup]

Did you ever receive service on this lawsuit? Did you know it was happening and ignore it or did they never serve you? It's so important to never ever ignore lawsuits. Ever. Answering a lawsuit even if you eventually lose is way better than ignoring and getting a default judgement. At court you may have had a chance to convince the judge to force them to take the timeshare back in lieu of payment. It is an asset and the judge more than likely would have listened to a hardship on that front.

Now, If you didn't get served properly, you need to jump into the court system now and get that judgement vacated before it's too late!

http://www.avvo.com/legal-guides/ugc/vacating-a-judgment-in-marylands-district-court

I'm not a lawyer but, for reasons stated by the others, your primary residence probably isn't at risk if there are liens senior to it, like your 1st and/or 2nd mortgage. But if it's free and clear it may be exposed along with any other property you have in your own name that's free and clear. Forcing a sale on that small a debt is doubtful, but just about ANYBODY can record a lien that will need to be satisfied before a sale or refinance. They may go after other assets but since it's only $473 they will probably go after your wages or have a sheriff attach your checking or savings accounts..Most depends on what assets of yours they can find. They usually attache your bank accounts because at one point or another you paid with a check and they have the bank / acct numbers readily available.

If you can't vacate the judgement, beg, borrow or steal to get this paid. Contact them and setup a payment plan. get it in writing and pay it off! A judgement on your credit report is bad, but looking at your bank statement one day to see they siphoned off money really sucks!

They probably aren't foreclosing on the timeshare because they will keep it in your name and keep charging you maintenance fees after this judgement is paid. So it goes round and round.

Again, not a lawyer, but if you are in dire straights, filing bankruptcy may be an option and depending on Maryland's BK laws you should be able to keep your house with the mortgage, reaffirm your car loan and keep some assets.

You may also look into your states debt collection laws. If they decided not to foreclose and treated the missed payments as unsecured debt, then the FDCPA (and maybe even the FCRA) may apply. Depending on how they tried to collect, and whether they followed Federal law in doing so may allow YOU to sue them (in Federal court) for $1000+ and possible damages. Especially if you can get the judgement vacated.

Also, check your timeshare agreement. Most have arbitration rules in the contract stating that parties must go to arbitration before the courts. Getting a judgement before going to arbitration may trigger a breach and could be justification for a vacated judgement..

 

[Larry M]

Any suggestions on how to handle this?
Credit Report -Default Judgment - Sheriff Levy


Ocean Time (30 unit building) located in Ocean City, Maryland
would not take our timeshares week deed back a few years ago.

The Council of Unit Owners of Ocean Time Condominium
HOA Attorney James E Clubb filed for non payment and
went to court and obtained DEFAULT JUDGMENT in both
Worcester County and in the county that we live in!

Default Judgment means you received some notices of a court hearing and ignored them--bad idea. You might have been able to argue that you had tried to deed the unit back to Ocean Time and they were unresponsive, getting off the hook.

As the others have suggested, it's time to get a lawyer now.

 

[Brerrabbit]

Comments

I got foreclosed on a few years ago on this time share I had in Arizona. All they did was foreclose on it. I don't think they even notified me that they were going to do it, although I did find letters they sent me about it. It has been several years ago and I haven't heard any more about it. I thought about seeing if I could sue the lawyers involved in doing it, but the one thing I would be afraid of if I did that is that they would give me the timeshare back.

I am definitely never going to buy another one. I should have known better than to buy that one, but I got impulsive. And after reading this story, I believe it even more strongly. And I would likewise advise the same to anyone even thinking about buying one.

I think there should be laws covering this, some kind of consumer protection for timeshare owners so if the owners can't pay the maintenance fees, the worst that could happen is they lose the timeshare. Sometimes I think if it was up to me, I would outlaw timeshares altogether.

 

[aubailey]

Maryland Scam

I live in Hilton Head and go to foreclosure sales all the time at the courthouse. About 10% of the foreclosures are timeshares and the HOA winds up buying them back for $500. That is not to say your credit will not be dinged but I doubt seriously they would attempt to take your home.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[EricH]

Insanity

The really sad part of all this is if the resorts would post these units on a owner board when owners want to walk away from them, maybe another owner would pay the back MF or the remaining balance on the financing to take the unit over. The resort would lose nothing. Our resort company does the same thing. They're greedy. They want all of their money, and they want to resell it and grab any equity they can squeeze out of it as well. Until these HOA's figure a way to fairly dispose of units, this is how it will be. Who would even want to take it over knowing how this company operates?

 

[LannyPC]

I think there should be laws covering this, some kind of consumer protection for timeshare owners so if the owners can't pay the maintenance fees, the worst that could happen is they lose the timeshare.

If they "lose" the TS, to whom would they lose it? Someone else would have to take over ownership, but who?

 

[Rent_Share]

From my own experience as a landlord, the first thing the Court Clerk asks for before Judge will hear case is Proof of Service. It would appear the $48.00 is the filing fee and process sever who can be sheriff, professional or any sane person over 21 who is not a party to suit.

I agree with others that for the HOA to actually cause your house to be sold all senior creditors would have to be paid. No "flipper" is going to buy a property with liens against it for more than FMV less a profit!

If a member of AARP you get 1 free 45 minute legal consultation.

Otherwise, call local bar referral service and they will set you up with an appropriate attorney for around $50.00.

Paco

I had included this link in my previous post, (without any comment) it is possible to hear a court case without personal service, but service by publication.

http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1928

It is usually not recommended because it is up to the judge to decide if the plaintiff can meet the burden of proof on "and only when allowed by a judge's order based on a sworn declaration of the inability to find the defendant after "due diligence" (trying hard)"

When you are suing these in mass, it's probably cheaper to just publish all and be prepared to serve those that show up to argue the validity of the service in the court room, their trial date would be dismissed and they would then have 30 days to file an answer . . . .

YMMV in Colorado

 

[pacodemountainside]

Paco

I had included this link in my previous post, (without any comment) it is possible to hear a court case without personal service, but service by publication.

http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1928

It is usually not recommended because it is up to the judge to decide if the plaintiff can meet the burden of proof on "and only when allowed by a judge's order based on a sworn declaration of the inability to find the defendant after "due diligence" (trying hard)"

When you are suing these in mass, it's probably cheaper to just publish all and be prepared to serve those that show up to argue the validity of the service in the court room, their trial date would be dismissed and they would then have 30 days to file an answer . . . .

YMMV in Colorado

David:

Missed your post. You are certainly correct one can serve by publication, but Judges tend to abhor forfeitures.

Being pragmatic, it would be much easier to have attorney and process server hang at Court House and personally serve those who do show up.


I am still at a loss as to why OP seems reluctant to seek professional advice like most posters here have recommended.

Based strictly on limited posted info, I would be inclined to offer $40 month for a year!

In Colorado real estate market has recovered and people who got scammed with outrageous appraisals and low ball interest rates have gone down with whale droppings. Others, who simply went under water temporarily due to market are now swimming away!

 

[Miss Marty]

Default Judgments

Note:

Timeshare Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions

The Declaration usually provides that if there is any default in the payment of fees, costs, and assessments owed by an owner of a timeshare interest, the entire unpaid assessed sum with accrued interest and other charges shall become a lien against the timeshare interest of the non-paying owner.

In most cases, once an owner becomes delinquent on the assessments, the lien automatically attaches to the timeshare. In some cases, the timeshare association will record a lien with the county recorder to provide public notice that the lien exists, regardless of whether recordation is required by state law.

Once a timeshare association or other managing entity has a lien on a timeshare, it may foreclose on that lien as permitted by the Declaration. The resort can foreclose either through judicial foreclosure or a nonjudicial trustee’s sale, depending on state law and the terms in the Declaration

To judicially foreclose an assessment lien, the association must file a lawsuit against the homeowner and obtain a judgment from the court granting permission to sell the timeshare to satisfy the lien.

The information regarding our lien came by mail and on the web
We did not receive a m/f bill for last year 2013 or this year 2014.

I plan to reread the declaration and contract an attorney. However,
The main thing I do not understand is why the HOA has not foreclosed.
I can see docs on the internet where they have foreclosed on others
but I have not received anything official showing about our timeshare.

 

[thheath]

@Miss Marty,

Other than an initial consultation, lawyers fees can be quite expensive, as we all know.

If it was me I would balance the lawyers fees vs: the cost to get up to date with the HOA and get rid of the TS.

I'm not sure what county you live in Maryland but they all have Bar Associations. Many have a program that allows you to speak to a Lawyer (telephonically) that specializes in the particular field you are in need of. The cost is normally $35 for 30 minutes.

Here is the referral service for AA county: http://www.aabar.org/find.html

I believe it will be the best $35 you've ever spent.

Ted

PS: I've originally from Cecil County.

 

[SMHarman]

Any suggestions on how to handle this?
Credit Report -Default Judgment - Sheriff Levy


Ocean Time (30 unit building) located in Ocean City, Maryland
would not take our timeshares week deed back a few years ago.
[snip]
We had good credit all our life, and always paid our bills.
We paid m/f for ten years and could no longer afford it
and had to make the hard decision to not pay anymore.

We were unable to sell it or give it away. We offered to
deed it back a years ago but they would not accept it.

We were able to downsize our other timeshare
interests but this one has become a problem.


We have zero equity in our house (underwater mortgage)
and owe just about as much as the value of the property.

I hate to post this here on the internet, but I wanted to let you know
what can happen when you don`t pay your timeshare maintenance fees.

@Miss Marty,

Other than an initial consultation, lawyers fees can be quite expensive, as we all know.

If it was me I would balance the lawyers fees vs: the cost to get up to date with the HOA and get rid of the TS.

I'm not sure what county you live in Maryland but they all have Bar Associations. Many have a program that allows you to speak to a Lawyer (telephonically) that specializes in the particular field you are in need of. The cost is normally $35 for 30 minutes.

Here is the referral service for AA county: http://www.aabar.org/find.html

I believe it will be the best $35 you've ever spent.

Ted

PS: I've originally from Cecil County.

Great point but isn't the original problem that Miss Marty realised she needed to get rid of her timeshares, got rid of all of them but could not give or gift or anything this timeshare away.

So getting up to date with the HOA just gets rid of todays problem, even offering to pay HOA fees to give this away or requesting a deedback with the HOA is not happening.

I would look at this as an opportunity to finally enter into those reposession conversations with the HOA. Please take this back, I have been asking for years.... What is the cost of my out....

 

[SMHarman]

I live in Hilton Head and go to foreclosure sales all the time at the courthouse. About 10% of the foreclosures are timeshares and the HOA winds up buying them back for $500. That is not to say your credit will not be dinged but I doubt seriously they would attempt to take your home.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I saw this with a WKV foreclosure. It was a $16k+ Platinum Plus 2Br that was delinquent on MF. The HOA bought it in forclosure for the $4k of MF and penalties (one hand washes the other) and then sold it on for market making a tidy $12k on the deal!!!

They probably sold it to Starwood who then sold it retail for $30k+

 

[thheath]

Great point but isn't the original problem that Miss Marty realised she needed to get rid of her timeshares, got rid of all of them but could not give or gift or anything this timeshare away.

So getting up to date with the HOA just gets rid of todays problem, even offering to pay HOA fees to give this away or requesting a deedback with the HOA is not happening.

I would look at this as an opportunity to finally enter into those reposession conversations with the HOA. Please take this back, I have been asking for years.... What is the cost of my out....

A agree and that's was trying to say in a round about way, even if it meant paying all MFs, transfer costs and a give a free RCI or II membership to someone to take the TS.

It will still be probably be much cheaper then hiring an attorney to resolve the issue.

Your suggestion to get the bottom line from the HOA is an even better idea.

Ted

 

[Miss Marty]

Priority Liens and Super Liens


Does Maryland have priority or super liens
in place for timeshare homeowner associations

Maryland Priority Liens
This bill was originally passed by the Maryland Senate in April 2011 - after previously being passed through the House of Delegates.

The bill establishes a four-month priority ahead of lenders of up to $1,200 for condominium and homeowner association assessments when there is a lender foreclosure.

 

[csxjohn]

Does Maryland have priority or super liens
in place for timeshare homeowner associations

Maryland Priority Liens
This bill was originally passed by the Maryland Senate in April 2011 - after previously being passed through the House of Delegates.

The bill establishes a four-month priority ahead of lenders of up to $1,200 for condominium and homeowner association assessments when there is a lender foreclosure.

I don't believe that would apply to you. It's in place to put the HOA ahead of others if you have a mortgage that you default on. It puts the lender, usually the bank, behind the HOA when the property sells.

 

[tschwa2]

A agree and that's was trying to say in a round about way, even if it meant paying all MFs, transfer costs and a give a free RCI or II membership to someone to take the TS.

It will still be probably be much cheaper then hiring an attorney to resolve the issue.

Your suggestion to get the bottom line from the HOA is an even better idea.

Ted

Off season MD beach weeks regularly rent for less than $200 per week. Even at that price, on most winter weeks there are 1-2 exchangers/renters, 2-3 owners, 2-3 others staying weekend only, and the rest is empty. I think there are 30 units so winter occupancy is somewhere between 5-8 or 30. Ocean Time has a MF of $400 per week. This is about $150-250 less than most OC weeks and part of the reason is that they are so aggressive with those that don't keep up and will not accept deed backs. Even so the HOA owns probably 50 or more off season weeks.

You can't give them away and without totally duping/tricking someone the only ones that will take the weeks are Viking ship type orgs and even that is getting more difficult due to changes that allow the HOA to approve/disapprove transfers. I own a winter week here and would love to be rid of it but I just pay and deposit for 10 tpu's or deposit with DAE.