What Is a Perpetuity Clause in a Timeshare Contract?

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” – Henry David Thoreau

Perpetuity – For all time; forever

There are a lot of things that we wish could last forever: the latest book by your favorite author, a perfect evening spent with family and friends, the youth and innocence of a new-born baby. These things have a timeless quality that, although short-lived, we carry with us as treasured memories for a lifetime. Other things, we are stuck with for eternity – whether we like them or not.

You may not have realized it at the time, but if you signed a deeded timeshare contract, you were committing to a potential financial nightmare from which there’s no easy escape. Most timeshare contracts are written with a “perpetuity clause” that makes your contract nearly impossible to break. The idea is that this element of the contract is vital to ensuring that your progeny will enjoy ownership of such a valuable asset, but this also means that, after purchasing your timeshare, you will be required to cover all of the costs related to your timeshare for the remainder of your life. When you pass away, the responsibility of maintaining these fees will be assigned to your next of kin.

Usually, family members do not want the property left to them (in a will) for a few critical reasons. In recent years, timeshare occupancy has steadily decreased due to a struggling economy and the financial risks associated with these properties. As the number of buyers decrease, resorts raise maintenance fees arbitrarily and well above the rate of inflation in order to mitigate their losses. In fact, the average annual cost of timeshare maintenance fees was $674 in 2008. According to 2011 figures, that number has now jumped to $776 every year. That’s a 17% increase in just three years!

In addition to astronomical maintenance fees, the value of your timeshare decreases dramatically the instant you purchase it. Therefore, in the unlikely event that you are able to sell your timeshare, you will only be able to do so after taking a significant loss. Taken together, these two factors make selling a timeshare extremely difficult. People just don’t want to take on your financial burden in much the same way that you no longer want to continue to suffer under it.

So, if you’ve signed a contract making you and your family the permanent owners of the property, what are your options? Well, resale listing companies have very little incentive to follow through with their promise to sell your property; most donation options are scams that will land you in hot water with the IRS; and failing to keep up with your timeshare obligations will lead to a foreclosure that could potentially destroy your credit.

Newton Group Transfers is NOT a resale listing agency or a donation company looking to scam you by falsely appraising your timeshare. We are a timeshare transfer company with a sterling reputation within the industry. We take an honest approach with our customers to completely transfer the deed from timeshare owners who have paid their mortgage in full. We are an experienced group of veterans of the timeshare transfer industry with a universal reputation of integrity based on our core values of accountability and transparency.

We have our client’s best interests in mind, and we will work tirelessly and honestly to remove you from your timeshare obligation.  So please contact us today at (877) 354-4321 to free yourself from your timeshare ownership.