[WSBARP] Do timeshare contracts terminate on death? In particular Worldmark by Wyndham? Is Disclaimer in Interest sufficient?

[Andrekita Silva]

Law Office of
F.ANDREKITA SILVA
_______________________________________________________

November  13,  2024

Listserve,

I have a client, PR, where the deceased owned a Timeshare with Worldmark 
by Wyndham. The deceased had already paid off the contract but had to 
continue paying monthly dues, I believe they are about $450.00 a month.

The PR called to find out how to give this back, sent death certificate, 
PR Letters, etc. She was passed around to several people over a period 
of months and eventually was told the account was sent to collections. 
Collections said, don't pay (about $3.5k owed in accrued monthly costs 
at that time), account will eventually be closed for non pay.

I have now called and written to Wyndham. They refuse to provide any 
contact information for anyone. Eventually, I was directed to write to 
Consumer Affairs for Wyndham if I had issues.

I wrote and advised owner deceased,  PR wants to give it back and exit 
timeshare, and to provide me a copy of the contract if they believe 
estate had any obligation.  They were given Notice to Creditors and no 
claim filed. However, there were no past due sums owed at the time of 
owners death, he was current.

I just read online that most timeshare contracts have a perpetuity 
clause, and that the owner's death is a non-event. The obligation goes 
on indefinitely and becomes the obligation of the estate.  The internet 
suggest that the estate can terminate the contract by filing a 
"disclaimer of interest."

As I have never received a response from Wyndham, and I don't have a 
copy of the timeshare contract, I don't know if the timeshare contract 
has a perpetuity clause.  Does anyone else have an experience with 
Worldmark by Wyndham?  Is there a perpetuity clause?  Does a Disclaimer 
of Interest do the trick?

Does anyone have a contact for who in Worldmark by Wyndham has the 
authority to address this issue. My sense is that the phone at Worldmark 
are serviced by minimum wage workers who are fairly uninformed and will 
say anything to get the person on the other end of the line to end the 
conversation.

I have identified a couple attorneys at  DLA Piper LLP (in Florida and 
Chicago) who presently represent Worldmark by Wyndham in a class action 
lawsuit. I wrote to ask them for who I could communicate with and they 
refused to say. Said, "we don't handle that, we'll pass on your 
request."

About $5.5K has now accrued after death of deceased.
Does anyone have any contact information for Worldmark and/ or have you 
experienced a Disclaimer of Interest as being sufficient to terminate 
the obligation?  He signs disclaimer, just the beneficiary who received 
all assets of the estate or all contingent beneficiaries?

Andrekita Silva
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
206-224-8288
ak at seattle-silvalaw.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20241113/c7e13b8d/attachment.html>