Timeshare Corruption

Many legal disputes involving timeshare corruption can be settled out of court. As a law firm, we have the ability to sue your timeshare developer if it has been less than reasonable responding to us in resolving your issues. The developer knows this, of course, and thus we generally have leverage to negotiate for you on terms more favorable than would otherwise be the case.

When it becomes necessary to engage in litigation, however, anyone opposing the minions of the timeshare division of the ‘hospitality’ industry need have no illusions about the power of money to tilt the playing field. Hence, the Florida legislature recently passed a statute specifically intended to protect the developer for lies told during the timeshare sales process:

The following information is taken from an article on timeshare corruption in the Orlando Sentinel from March 12th, 2015:

State Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, and state Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, sponsored the legislation, which makes a number of technical changes to the Florida Vacation Plan and Timesharing Act… The lawmakers and the industry’s trade association, the American Resort Development Association, describe the legislation as a bill that ‘modernizes‘ state law… The American Resort Development Association donated about $500,000 in Florida for the 2014 election cycle, records show. That included $5,000 to Eisnaugle’s Committee for Justice and Economic Freedom PAC, more than $300,000 to the Republican Party of Florida and about $150,000 to the state’s Democratic party… Eisnaugle’s PAC also received $10,000 from Orange Lake Resort Alliance last year. Orange Lake Resorts is a time-share company that operates under the Holiday Inn brand…

The legislation would remove property taxes and certain types of common-area expenses from a current 125 percent cap on annual increases in assessment fees that consumers pay…

Meanwhile, attorneys and time-share owners have questioned a provision that reduces liability for time-share developers if they make errors in contracts. Errors or omissions that are considered “nonmaterial” would not allow purchaser-cancellation rights after 10 days. Stargel said the legislation is meant to keep time-share owners from getting out of their contracts by finding minor flaws in them. It is meant to cover only technicalities, she said, not major problems…“Some attorneys were making a cottage industry, if you will, of helping people get out of contracts,” she said.

So the origin of this legislation was traced specifically to a specific big money source paying off specific legislators‘ PACs. And shamelessly our elected officials are hard at work protecting institutionalized timeshare corruption perpetrated by big money developers.

For this reason, and others involving the ability to prove your case in court, our firm does not focus on the pack of lies that you may have been told during the timeshare sales pitch. This approach would involve your word against theirs, and there’s an ocean of ink in that contract you signed designed to absolve the unscrupulous developer from those misrepresentations.

But the chances are that your developer is exposed legally in other ways that are relatively clear and easier to prove. This will be our point of focus in court if and when the time comes.

For more on this, call us any time please, free of charge. We can discuss your legal options.