Dumping a timeshare

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

While I understand your inlaws can "Gift" it to you, and notify the TimeShare that they have, You have to accept it, In writing with the TimeShare. They can't just dispose if it by Saying its "There's" now. Forcing a contact/obligation on to you without your consent.

Otherwise the ten's of thousand of timeshare owner would just do that, I "Gift" my timeshare to that homeless guy in the park, Go after him for the maintenance fees and taxes.

Even with it as an "inheritance," I think you can legally refuse that. The funny thing to do would be to will it to the company or the CEO of the company upon your death.

[athena53]

Originally Posted by Prost

After I asked the question, I did some light research on the subject; seems that the deceased's estate likely would be liable for maintenance fees, so we can't just ignore it.

That would be my concern if I were given a timeshare as a bequest in a parent's will and refused it. I'm not a lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt, but my guess is that if a beneficiary refuses to accept a bequest, it remains part of the estate. The estate cannot be "closed" until everything has been inventoried, all debts to the deceased have been collected, all of the deceased's debts have been paid, and everything left over distributed to the heirs. Can an estate ever be closed if the timeshare remains in it because nobody wants it and there are ongoing maintenance costs? Can anything else be distributed to the heirs if there are ongoing obligations?

One possible way out: if the deceased had very little property other than the timeshare. My Ex died with almost nothing and a pile of debts. A lawyer advised DS and me that there was no need to open an estate and that if a creditor contacted us we could tell them THEY were free to open estate proceedings. No one ever contacted us. So- you might be able to tell a timeshare company that there was no estate proceeding and have them go away rather than start legal action and not get anything.

I'll be interested to see what a Real Lawyer has to say on this.

[mathjak107]

Heirs can file a disclaimer form and don’t have to inherit it . They have up to 9 months to make a decision after death .. if they don’t want it then the fact the fees are not paid has the resort foreclosing and they get it. That is pretty standard in the contracts .. no fee paid and the resort gets it

We actually have a disclaimer trust .. we needed that when our assets exceeded ny’s estate tax limit ..

The surviving spouse has up to 9 months to disclaim inheriting my half of the estate .. if she throws the switch the estate is split in two with my half going in to an irrevocable trust for heirs .. that way we could pass 2x the state limit. If she does not disclaim it then it is all hers