“We are seeing companies that promise way over market value for their clients’ ownerships and charge an exorbitant fee just to list…”
On Tuesday, the Florida Business and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee unanimously voted in the Timeshare Resale Accountability Act, which hopes to reign in the dishonest practices in the timeshare resale industry. Selling Timeshare, Inc., who specializes in WorldMark resale, applauds the decision for many reasons.
An overwhelming amount of scams and unlicensed brokerages operate within this southern state’s borders, with huge increases in complaints year after year. Timeshare owners and buyers have lost literally millions of dollars due to fraud each year. Many of these scams involve owners looking to sell their timeshare quickly, who pay an unlicensed listing agency an upfront fee to advertise their property. An owner looking to sell should never pay upfront fees as the listing agency’s incentive to sell the ownership is effectively gone once their client has paid.
The Timeshare Accountability Act shows that there truly is a problem with timeshare resale in today’s market. This legislation aims to strengthen existing laws in a few different ways, which include toughening penalties for timeshare resellers that:
A.) Misrepresent that a buyer has an interest in purchasing a resale timeshare.
B.) Collecting payment until the timeshare owner signs a written agreement for the resale services.
C.) Do not honor a cancellation request made within 7 days of signing the agreement or do not pay the refund within 20 days of the cancellation.
Unfortunately, owners won’t see much about upfront fees in the legislation, or the legality of unlicensed advertising agencies, but it is Selling Timeshares, Inc.’s belief that in time we will see government cracking down on even more companies.
Seth Nock, Owner and President of Selling Timeshares, Inc. was quoted saying, “We are seeing companies that promise way over market value for their clients’ ownerships and charge an exorbitant fee just to list, when our licensed agents will list your ownership at no cost, and give you an honest answer on what the ownership is really worth.”
Even with this act’s shortsighted stance, Selling Timeshares, Inc. still applauds the state of Florida for creating these guidelines that will level the playing field for timeshare resale, and allow the honest, service-oriented companies to flourish in the open market.
About Selling Timeshares, Inc.
Selling Timeshares is comprised of a group of Licensed Real Estate Professionals with years of knowledge of the most valuable vacation networks offered in today’s market. They are a full service timeshare resale brokerage that does not charge an upfront fee to sell.
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