My girlfriend's mother owns multiple timeshares at 3 or 4 different resorts. A lawyer talked her into setting up an irrevocable living trust for the timeshares. They've all been unused for years as her husband purchased them a long time ago but she continues to pay maintenance fees on all of them as she didn't know how to get out of them after her husband passed away. We can't seem to get her to understand nobody wants to inherit timeshares. In other words she is paying annual maintenance fees on properties nobody else wants.
She already gave up driving and sold her car and she lives in a rental unit. All she has is her bank accounts and timeshares. We anticipate she will be moving to assisted living soon. If she ends up in NH her savings won't hold out long and she'll need Medicaid.
Time share companies will bribe you with a free steak dinner and movie tickets then try to sell you a timeshare for $30,000. On the used marketplace I see most of these same timeshares reselling for $10,000 or less. Often they can be purchased for $1,000 to $5,000. Lowball offers are often accepted because timeshare owners know it can be next to impossible to just deed-back the timeshare to the resort. A friend of mine saw a timeshare listed for sale for $10,000, offered them $1,000 and they took it. This makes the FMV impossible to understand. In my mind, a timeshare has no value. While you may have a deed, you don't own any real property, just the right to use it for one week out of the year. If you have to get $15,000 because some professional company says that's FMV, you'll never sell it.
So just how do you get rid of the timeshare?
Just to be clear, we are NOT trying to protect the timeshares, we just don't know what to do about the irrevocable living trust.
Just an update on my mom's car, according to J.D. Powers, the car is worth $1,000 in poor condition, around $2,000 good condition and $3,000 excellent condition. My mechanic said cosmetically he would say $2,500. He said send them an estimate for a blown head gasket and list the value at $500.
My question, how can you put a timeshare in a trust, you really don't own the property, right? And you can get rid of them by selling your share? Your not paying taxes on them?
This is something you will need to thoroughly go over. Once an irrevocable trust is made it cannot be changed by the grantor. Speak with an attorney about the repercussions, if any on the ability to get medicaid.
I am quite surprised,in all honesty, that a Trust and Estate Attorney suggested to any elder that Time Shares be put into an irrevocable trust. Their fees would eat away at the trust for no good reason. But that's neither here nor there.
We on Forum all have experiences, but when you need solid legal, medical, accountancy, financial advice you MUST go to experts in your state in that field. Sure wish you good luck on this one.
https://tarda.org/f/timeshare-and-a-99-year-old-owner%E2%80%99s-medicaid-eligibility suggests without citing a source that "If you can show that you attempted to sell ... then Medicaid cannot count it as an asset."
https://tug2.com/timesharemarketplace has been recommended by at least two consumer advocates and has a section on "latest timeshare resales" that may allow you to see if similar timeshares have sold. You can see their video on the process here: https://youtu.be/tJrtJaR0zpY
I agree that you will end up talking to the Medicaid folks about this, so have as much evidence as possible when the time comes.
I also agree that if they have no value, it is best to stop paying the maintenance fees, etc. because if she goes on Medicaid none of her money will be available to continue doing so anyway.
If there is a POA, they should check to see if the timeshares were actually re-titled into the trust. If so, the co-trustee or successor trustee is the person who will actually have to deal with the sale if Mom isn't able to handle it.
If she ends up talking to a lawyer about the trust, it wouldn't hurt to ask about how to disclaim a trust asset that is part of an inheritance. If Medicaid doesn't force a sale, this may be your girlfriend's way to escape ownership passing on to herself.
if you can’t sell it on EBay, then quit paying the hoa. They’ll have to take their title back eventually.
There are a few options.
You can list the timeshares on ebay and try to sell them. I've seen some timeshares listed for as low as $1 just to have someone (gullible enough) to takeover. Try listing them for whatever the going rates are for similar locations.
You can try using one of those companies that can help you get out of the timeshares, but they will charge money to do that.
You can also just stop paying the maintenance fees. These timeshare vultures took enough of her money. The worst that will happen is that your mom would lose the timeshare ownership via foreclosures, and her credit will be dinged from the foreclosures. But at her age, with no assets, what does it matter? Not one iota.