A special assessment fee is a fee that has to be paid by the owners of a club in order to offset a, usually unforeseen, expense. This fee is paid in addition to annual maintenance fees. WorldMark owners have never paid an assessment fee.
Why Do Special Assessments Exist?
Special assessments can be imposed on timeshare owners for many reasons. The most common situation is when a natural disaster happens that cannot be covered by the amount of money the owners are paying in maintenance fees. This type of timeshare fee is most common among smaller clubs that lack a large general fund. Most of the bigger developers such as Hilton, WorldMark, Marriott, Disney etc. are protected by liability insurance, or have large general funds which are reserved for such situations.
How Can I Avoid Paying Assessments?
These fees aren’t very common, but can be avoided by choosing a timeshare club with a very established, high profile developer. Many of the big names in timeshares (such as Hilton, WorldMark, Marriott, Disney and more) have taken counter measures to prevent owners being burdened with extra, unforeseen fees including special assessments.
Through education we hope to take the scare factor out of owning and buying a timeshare. Many of the issues and problems owners have can be easily avoided with a little help from a knowledgeable owner and a bit of forethought.
Feel free to check out some of our other informative articles:
10 Reasons Why You Should Buy A Timeshare
What is First Right of Refusal?
