Timeshare News From ITRA and Owners Action

Starwood Completes Sale of Timeshare Loans

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Nov 03, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. completed a securitization involving the issuance of approximately $200 million of fixed rate notes by its affiliate, SVO 2011-A VOI Mortgage LLC. The notes were offered in a private placement within the United States to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A and outside the United States in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Starwood contributed approximately $210 million in timeshare mortgages resulting in an advance rate of 95% with an effective note yield of 3.70%. The proceeds from the transaction will be used for general corporate purposes.

To read more of the original article click here

Read timeshare fine print to avoid hassles later

A Kraaifontein woman has learnt timeshare contracts signed in haste can be regretted years down the line.

The gripe Ronelda Rhode has with Gauteng timeshare firm Quality Vacation Club (QVC) is a prime example of why consumers should read the fine print carefully when signing contracts, so as to avoid hassles years later. She said debt collecting firms were now threatening to blacklist her if she failed to pay an outstanding amount even though she was misled and rushed at the time of signing the contract. She has already paid more than R50 000 in the past five years.

To read more of the original article click here

Timeshare Resale Scams

When it comes to the type of fraud people imagine goes on, topics such as shady collection agencies, disreputable loan modifications and misrepresented mortgages most often come to mind. What’s surprising is that these three categories combined don’t reach the level of the number one consumer fraud complaint in Florida: time share resale scams. While there have been 3,800 complaints filed against collections agencies, 4,147 complaints filed against loan modification companies and 5,854 complaints filed against mortgage companies to the Florida Attorney General since 2009, all three pale in comparison to the over 19,000 complaints filed against time share resale companies.

To read more of the original article click here

Fernwood Resort fights property tax bill in court

More than $1 million in annual tax revenues for East Stroudsburg Area School District, Middle Smithfield Township and Monroe County are at stake in a property assessment challenge being mounted by Fernwood Resort over its timeshares. Fernwood's combined $2.8 million property tax bill for hundreds of timeshares would drop by roughly one-third if it prevails in court. Nearly 90 per cent of that annual tax bill goes to the East Stroudsburg School District, with the remainder collected by Middle Smithfield and the county. Monroe County Assessment Board attorney Mark Love called it "one of the largest assessment appeals filed in Monroe County."

To read more of the original article click here

At Owners Action our objective is to support the consumer in timeshare disputes. We have discovered a pattern of abuse, deception and even fraudulent issues that have been systematically perpetrated by many of the major timeshare industry players to the detriment of owners.

To find out more about the International Timeshare Refund Action visit our website www.itra.net