Death is Not the End of a Timeshare

Timeshares have become a huge liability in the lives of many. What a lot of people don’t understand is that a timeshare contract is a perpetual agreement which means that it’s an agreement that lasts forever. This means that even after the timeshare owner passes away, it’ll get passed down to their heirs because timeshares are a type of real-estate.

One unfortunate woman, Mary Gronlund, started receiving bills and collection letters from the resort that her dead son’s timeshare was. When she contacted the resort, KIRO 7, they informed her that death doesn’t mean the end of a timeshare. Gronlund followed the instructions given to her by WorldMark to end her son’s timeshare bills and membership but that was easier said than done. Gronlund’s son David had died unexpectedly at the age of 53, as instructed by WorldMark she sent her son’s death certificate in order to end his membership.

However, a couple of months after David’s death, Gronlund started receiving letters of past due payments. Within weeks there were even more letters and phone calls asking for payments on past due charges. What Gronlund realized was that once you purchase a timeshare you can never quit.

Doug Wheeler, a Seattle lawyer, commented “If you bought a perpetual timeshare, it’s like owning a piece of real estate. It is, in fact, a piece of real estate. It will pass down through your family until someone sells it or it’s repossessed or whatever. That is something I think a lot of people don’t appreciate when they buy it.”

A WorldMark spokesperson confirmed to KIRO 7 that “if a member dies, the membership goes to a spouse. If the owner is single, it transfers to heirs. If there's no surviving spouse or heirs, the executor will receive notice of the balance due. But if the balance is not paid, ‘the contract will be canceled when a death certificate is received’."

However, this was not the case with David Gronlund. The company did not stop sending bills and letters until they were contacted by KIRO 7. In response to the issue they stated that it was a ‘system error’ and offered an apology to Mary for the trouble as well as a free three night stay.

To those who are looking for a way out of their timeshare, contact Transfer Smart today.