Timeshare Broker Sales is Officially an ARDA Member
Timeshare Broker Sales is honored to be ARDA’s newest corporate member. ARDA membership symbolizes a commitment to industry excellence that we’ll continue to demonstrate to both our clients and colleagues.
Our affiliation with ARDA provides us with invaluable connections and relevant information about the evolving vacation ownership industry. Corporate membership with ARDA will allow us to provide our clients with extra exposure and a competitive edge above and beyond our comprehensive brokerage services.
How does ARDA serve the vacation ownership community? ARDA promotes development of the timeshare industry in a number of ways:
- Advocacy: ARDA monitors regulatory issues that affect vacation ownership with lobbying efforts focused establishing a legislative environment that enhances consumer confidence and protection.
- B2B Partnerships: ARDA pursues business and growth opportunities through alliances with organizations in related and complementary industries in the U.S. and overseas.
- Knowledge: ARDA shares market intelligence and keeps its members informed of industry trends and events through a variety of informational tools.
- Networking: the ARDA Annual Convention and Exposition offers ARDA industry professionals networking and educational opportunities each year.
- Outreach: ARDA keeps its members updated with the latest industry news.
Our membership with ARDA serves to underscore our continual commitment to ethical business practices, industry growth, and transparent brokerage.
Timeshare Resale Accountability Act Becomes Law
It’s finally official – this week, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Florida’s Timeshare Resale Accountability Act into law.
The main goal of the Timeshare Resale Accountability Act is to protect timeshare sellers from deceptive or unethical business practices and timeshare scams. Unfortunately, the economic climate of recent years has contributed to timeshare resale scams being Florida’s No. 1 fraud complaint.
These scams generally involve thousands of dollars in upfront fees; and until now were made possible by lax governmental regulation. The new timeshare law outlines a number of provisions, most based on transparency, to protect timeshare sellers. Among the most important:
- Timeshare resale advertisers must provide sellers with the purchaser’s name and address before they can claim there is an interested buyer.
- Timeshare resale advertisers must provide a written contract for agreement of services. This contract must be signed by the timeshare seller before the resale agent may collect any fees or engage in any resale advertising activities.
- Timeshare sellers have seven days to cancel any signed contract with a timeshare resale advertiser. Once cancelled, timeshare resale advertisers have 20 days to provide a full refund to the seller.
- Penalties will be enacted on any timeshare resale advertiser which violates the law’s provisions. Penalties may not exceed $15,000 per violation under the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
These are great first steps in helping to prevent fraud and scams in the timeshare resale industry. As licensed timeshare brokers, we stand in full support of the provisions listed above, and applaud lawmakers for taking the time to pass this important act into law.
That said, there are a few issues that the law still doesn’t address. Agencies can still charge a big upfront fee (often several hundred dollars) to “advertise” your timeshare. The act also fails to address the question of unlicensed timeshare resellers, who are typically the most active in misrepresenting what they can accomplish.
Nonetheless, at Timeshare Broker Sales, we’re pleased to see this important step in protecting vacation ownership consumers all over the country.
