Know your Vacation Property Rights

One of the biggest reasons why many people fall into the trap of scammers and frauds is that they do know their legal rights when buying a vacation property. It is always a good practice to know your rights when you are signing any contract or agreement. As with any other industry, the vacation property industry is also prone to unscrupulous tactics by some people. Everyday you hear a story of somebody being duped into buying a vacation property and the property doesn’t even exist or in some cases, is not up to the standard and what they were promised. We hear these horror stories and we should learn from them. Here are a few things that you should remember while buying a vacation property.

To understand our rights let us understand different types of vacation property plans first. They are basically of two types. A deeded and title vacation property and the second one are right to use also called license to use vacation property. A deed and title and ownership means the buyer owns the vacation property and acquires a specific facility for a specified length of time each year, for a specified number of years (generally 40 years) and a deed. A right to use vacation property means the buyer has the right to acquire all the above mentioned things except the deed i.e. title. A deeded vacation property is inheritable whereas a right to use vacation property is like a lease which expires after a certain number of years.

Vacation property industry has also acquired the reputation of the used car industry in terms of selling tactics they use. It starts off with an invitation to a presentation offering you an expensive gift. When you actually go there it turns out to be a pressure selling session of a used car dealer who doesn’t want you to go out unless you sign a paper. And the expensive gift also turns out to be a mere gimmick. And the people have to go through the trauma of sitting through the presentation which goes on for two hours also sometimes, full of pressure selling tactics. But as per the law the people are supposed to be informed about the length of the time they have to sit before receiving a free gift. Also they must be informed about the physical condition of the facility. The vacation property companies are also legally not permitted to misrepresent the market value of the vacation property. They are also not supposed to misinform you about the resale or exchange potential of the vacation property.

The law also prohibits the vacation property companies from not including the oral promises that were made before the purchase of the property in the written contract and also including any kind of fees that were never ever mentioned orally. The rules may vary from state to state. Some states also have a cool-off period usually of two weeks to allow you to cancel your contract should you change your mind.

Apart from these rights one should also consider things such as do you really want to buy the vacation property? Did you check out the facility? Did you contact the better business bureau? Did you talk to existing owners in the vacation property? Do you plan to rent it? Do you plan on reselling it? Do you plan on exchanging vacation sites frequently? The answers of all these questions should be found out before making a final decision about buying a vacation property.