Tips on Shopping For a Time Share
Always get legal advice before you commit
- If you are told the offer is "one-time only" and you have to sign on the spot, maybe you should consider dealing with another business.
- Read the contract carefully to make sure anything you are told is reflected in the contract. If it’s not written down, you can’t rely on it.
- Consult an Ontario lawyer; if you are buying outside of Ontario, you should also consult an independent local lawyer in the location where you’re buying. This local lawyer should not be associated with the business marketing the time share.
Never sign a contract until you’ve researched the property and made sure it exists
- Some people have lost money to scam artists who presented glossy brochures describing beautiful resorts in a vacation area. When they show up to stay at their time share unit, they discover it does not exist.
Research the time share property’s popularity as a vacation spot
- Marketers often promote time shares by emphasizing the benefit of swapping time in your property with other time share owners around the world. In other words, you can buy here and vacation there.
- It may be presented as easy to trade your time in one unit for another, but in practice, it can also be difficult or impossible to swap for a more popular area.
- Also keep in mind that there may be fees to swap or trade a time share. Under the Consumer Protection Act, such fees must be disclosed in your time share agreement.
Find out about maintenance and other fees
- How much are the maintenance fees? Are they calculated based on a percentage of the annual fee or in some other way?
- Under the Consumer Protection Act, if a fee in a time share agreement is subject to change, the agreement must specify the circumstance in which the amount may change. It must also specify either what the new few will be or how it will be calculated.
- How old is the building? Are you likely to face major repairs?
- Are you paying for amenities that you may not use?
If your circumstances change, can you sell?
- Marketers will tell you the property is an investment, but is that really true?
- What evidence is there that a resale market exists?
- How many resales have there been? At what price? How much might you stand to lose if you had to sell?
- Are there any laws affecting time share sales?
- Will you be subject to any conditions, such as fees that may be payable to the timeshare corporation?
