This Week's Q & A

Q: I purchased a timeshare condominium on the Cape about five years ago. It is paid for and all maintenance fees are current. I’ve been trying for months to sell, without any success. At this point, I’m almost willing to give it away -- anything to get rid of this albatross! If I simply stop paying the maintenance fee, will the condominium association take it? I hear they have the right to do so, and that would be just fine with me.

A: If you’re serious about selling your timeshare, you might consider describing it with terms other than “albatross.” But marketing strategy aside, the last thing you want to do is allow the condominium association to foreclose. First of all, some (although not all) associations are starting to report such matters to credit agencies, so you’d be risking a serious black mark on your credit rating. Moreover, if this time share is as worthless as you seem to think, the association will likely look for other assets to secure payment of your unpaid monthly fees. Their claim isn’t limited to your timeshare; they could also file a lien against your primary residence or attach your personal bank accounts. State law also allows the association to bill you for the cost of collecting unpaid fees, so you will almost certainly have to pay their legal expenses as well as your own if you simply let them foreclose. All in all, this is not a path you want to travel.

Why not ask the association to accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure instead? That is obviously preferable for you and, depending on the unit, it might have some appeal to the association as well.

However, before you start negotiating with the condominium association, I think you should examine your conclusion that your time share has no value. Timeshares, generally, have proven difficult to resell, but the Cape is a prime vacation spot. And unless your location is truly awful or the unit itself defective in horrible ways you haven’t mentioned, you ought to be able to find someone other than the condominium association willing to take it off your hands. It’s clear you don’t want to invest any money in this property, but it might be worth your while to consult an area real estate broker or a company that manages timeshares, to see if they have some ideas you haven’t considered. At the very least, you might be able to donate your timeshare to a nonprofit and obtain some tax benefits for a charitable gift. In any event, you should choose a course of action that doesn’t produce litigation with its attendant headaches, or a black mark on your credit record, which could create an additional set of headaches, and for a long time to come.