The Timeshare Beat: Jerry Sikes; An Alert

My friend Judy Rulli shared a recent personal experience that caused her to file a complaint with the Office of the Arizona Attorney General and its Consumer Information and Complaints section. This complaint was dated December 11, 2005 and resulted from Judy being invited to attend a meeting of consumers to be presented on the preceding day (12/10/05).

The presentation was being presented by two individuals (David Halpern & Chris Bodig) representing themselves as Timeshare Acquisitions, LLC of 1048 Irvine Avenue # 422, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Mrs. Rulli is a timeshare owner and assumed that a search of the public record disclosed that fact, thus the invitation. What Timeshare Acquisitions, LLC did not know was that Judy is the President and Designated Broker of Realty Concepts Unlimited, Inc., dba SmartChoice Timeshare Realty.

Mrs. Rulli related the following to the Attorney Generals office:

Upon her arrival she was asked to complete a questionnaire about the timeshare she owned and then entered a meeting room and joined about 8 other timeshare owners for a group presentation made by Mr. Halpern. The presentation lasted about 45 minutes.

"At the beginning of the presentation Mr. Halpern began the presentation with an explanation of why Timeshare Acquisitions (TA) would be willing to acquire timeshares. They claimed to have started their program as Resort Travel Network, a company that specializes in booking corporate groups. They claimed to have booked 120 timeshare condos at Polo Towers in Las Vegas to Mattel Corporation." He also stated: "Since February 2004, 16,000 owners have accepted their offer."

Judy presented the following direct quotes made by either Mr. Halpern or Mr. Bodig.

TA: "There is no resale market for timeshares and there hasn't been since 2000."

TA: "You cannot sell a timeshare on eBay because there is no market."

TA: "You can never deed back a timeshare and they never repossess for non-payments of HOA fees."

TA: "A resort has never attached a timeshare for non-payment of assessments. They always attach the owner's primary residence."

TA: "HOA fees are "generational" debt. Since all resorts in the United States are deeded, there is no way your children and grandchildren will ever be able to escape paying HOA fees for at least 50 years."

TA: "98% of current timeshare owners will own two generations from now (your Grandchildren) because there is no way to get rid of them."

TA: "All weeks deposited with RCI are rented to the public and are not available for exchange."

TA: "Since 2003 it is illegal for a charity to accept a timeshare as a donation."

Judy Rulli indicated that the presentation concluded with the following example of what an owner who keeps a timeshare will experience. Stating that:

TA: "the average owner is 55 years of age, and the average maintenance fee is $500/year, a couple will pay 20 years of HOA fees ($10,000), then the husband will die and the widow will have to pay fees for 7 more years ($3,500). Then the children and the grandchildren will pay forever at a minimum cost to them of over $50,000. Again, there is no way they will ever be able to sell or give the timeshare away. If they don't pay, they will lose their house, but they will still own the timeshare and have to continue paying maintenance fees.

TA: Timeshare Acquisitions is prepared to make you an offer that will get you out from under this burden forever. We will accept your timeshare, actually take title to it and pay maintenance fees on it, and all you have to do is pay us $2,495.00. If you have more than one week, we will accept them for $595.00 each to cover escrow and closing costs.

TA: Timeshare Acquisitions currently conducts 108 presentations per week to groups of 4 to 10 families; 1 out of 3 accepts their offer.

On the basis of these numbers, Judy's calculated that Timeshare Acquisitions was swindling 180 families a week out of $449,000.

FINAL THOUGHT

By my calculations if Timeshare Acquisitions is allowed to continue at that pace, the gross could be as high as just over $23 million by the end of a year.

I don't know what the Timeshare / Vacation Industry can do about this kind of consumer fraud. Our track record with this sort of thing is not so good. I do know that sometime, somewhere, we must take a stand because the consumer's perception is that this example is just another typical scam perpetrated on them by our industry. Just stating that: 'Timeshare Acquisitions, LLC of 1048 Irvine Avenue # 422, Newport Beach, CA 92660 is not a member of ARDA' will not cut it much longer.

If you are a timeshare owner in Arizona and have had contact with: Timeshare Acquisitions, LLC of 1048 Irvine Avenue # 422, Newport Beach, CA 92660 and would like to send a letter as Judy Rulli did, the address is:

Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Information and Complaints
1275 W. Washington
Phoenix, Arizona 85007-2926

If you are a timeshare owner in the United States and would like to sound off at the Timeshare / Vacation Ownership Industry via the Industries Professional Association the American Resort Development Association, the address is:

ARDA
1201 15th Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20005-2842
Attn: Consumer Complaints Office

Our industry is better off because there are professionals such as Judy Rulli in the business. Maybe some of the others will rise to the occasion… and thanks Judy for allowing me to expose your experience to my readers.

JS 1/06