Timeshare Payments Via Hong Kong

[Dazinoz]

Hi All,

This is my first post so please be gentle.

My wife and I have been travelling to Thailand for holidays for a few years now and we hope to move there for retirement this year. On our first visit we bought into timeshare. Later visits we upgraded to Fractional owner of a Penthouse at Patong and now Fraction owner at the new Twins Sands at Patong.

Having learned a bit about taking money in and out of Thailand I think that basically we can only take out as much as we have brought in. Currently our investment is around 4 million Baht. Some of the money was paid by credit card but the majority was paid by wire transfer. My concern was that the company we paid the money to in Thai Baht was sent to their Hong Kong Bank so may not be recorded as being paid into a Thai investment. The company is quite large for timeshare particularly in the Patong area.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[Asiantravel]

would never even contemplate timeshare.... a huge scam

[wordchild]

i am afraid getting this money out of Thailand maybe the least of your problems, it sounds like it never came in in the first place anyway, getting any of it back at all in the future will be the bigger issue. the only advice i can give is dont get mugged into giving them anymore money by "upgrading" again. maybe worth getting legal advice to see if its possible to get any of the recent money paid back off them there is a cooling off period i believe. sorry about this but buying timeshares in Phuket! what on earth were you thinking?

Edited January 18, 2013 by wordchild

[Dazinoz]

buying timeshares in Phuket! what on earth were you thinking?

Unfortunately we all have to learn sometime. I am just a slow learner at certain things.

[Dazinoz]

maybe worth getting legal advice to see if its possible to get any of the recent money paid back off them there is a cooling off period i believe.

Cooling off period well over. Coming there in 3 weeks so am going to try a sell so may need legal advise if have problems there.

[wordchild]

Good luck with that! Just keep your head on this time and don't hand over any more money incl to people who say they can help you sell it. Having bought one and then upgraded I am afraid you are marked out as a bit of a patsy by the sellers.

[yoshiwara]

You might be advised in the first instance to consult a lawyer to ascertain the legal status of the fractional ownership property you hold and whether there is independent title which you can sell if you so wish. The second point is that if you have 4m investment, say 2m per fractional ownership, this will be exceedingly difficult to sell. Demand is primarily for complete ownership and for 2m this can be done. Your best bet might be a distress sale back to the developers (assuming they are interested) at a 50% discount ie 2m and write off 2m. If you intend retiring to Thailand then there is no logic to purchasing a time share anyway.

[Dazinoz]

You might be advised in the first instance to consult a lawyer to ascertain the legal status of the fractional ownership property you hold and whether there is independent title which you can sell if you so wish. The second point is that if you have 4m investment, say 2m per fractional ownership, this will be exceedingly difficult to sell. Demand is primarily for complete ownership and for 2m this can be done. Your best bet might be a distress sale back to the developers (assuming they are interested) at a 50% discount ie 2m and write off 2m. If you intend retiring to Thailand then there is no logic to purchasing a time share anyway.

Thank you for that. At the time of purchase we did not intend to retire in Thailand.

I will seek legal advise when I get there in Feb.

[wordchild]

You might be advised in the first instance to consult a lawyer to ascertain the legal status of the fractional ownership property you hold and whether there is independent title which you can sell if you so wish. The second point is that if you have 4m investment, say 2m per fractional ownership, this will be exceedingly difficult to sell. Demand is primarily for complete ownership and for 2m this can be done. Your best bet might be a distress sale back to the developers (assuming they are interested) at a 50% discount ie 2m and write off 2m. If you intend retiring to Thailand then there is no logic to purchasing a time share anyway.

Thank you for that. At the time of purchase we did not intend to retire in Thailand.

I will seek legal advise when I get there in Feb.

yes this is good advice, you need to get an independent assesment of your position and what you actually own (if anything); also if there are any onerous clauses in the contract eg increasing management fees etc. i would think the contract would have been drawn up under Thai law (maybe with a Thai translation) so a competent Thai lawyer should be able to give a view on this. I presume the Timeshare company is Absolute who i am afraid have a pretty poor reputation and i would be surprised if they were particularly helpful in your situation. Edited January 19, 2013 by wordchild

[BlackPuddingBertha]

sorry about this but buying timeshares in Phuket! what on earth were you thinking?

It doesnt matter where they are: all timeshares are bad investments and should be avoided. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.

For the OP, getting the money out of Thailand is the least of your problems. Even if you do actually have valid legal title to some weeks in this property, the likelihood of anyone buying them from you must be close to zero.

For 4MB you could have bought a new condo in foreign name outright, and even that could be very hard to sell at the purchase price.

Consult a Thai lawyer? That would be even more money down the drain, I suspect.

[Asiantravel]

You might be advised in the first instance to consult a lawyer to ascertain the legal status of the fractional ownership property you hold and whether there is independent title which you can sell if you so wish. The second point is that if you have 4m investment, say 2m per fractional ownership, this will be exceedingly difficult to sell. Demand is primarily for complete ownership and for 2m this can be done. Your best bet might be a distress sale back to the developers (assuming they are interested) at a 50% discount ie 2m and write off 2m. If you intend retiring to Thailand then there is no logic to purchasing a time share anyway.

Thank you for that. At the time of purchase we did not intend to retire in Thailand.

I will seek legal advise when I get there in Feb.

yes this is good advice, you need to get an independent assesment of your position and what you actually own (if anything); also if there are any onerous clauses in the contract eg increasing management fees etc. i would think the contract would have been drawn up under Thai law (maybe with a Thai translation) so a competent Thai lawyer should be able to give a view on this. I presume the Timeshare company is Absolute who i am afraid have a pretty poor reputation and i would be surprised if they were particularly helpful in your situation.

what you actually own (if anything);

This is the crux of the matter. The old form of timeshare was bad enough in itself, because the salesmen misrepresented themselves in so many ways but they just hoped that no one would read the fine print until they got home after which the cooling off period had lapsed.

But I'm noticing now it's more of a trend towards " holiday clubs " in which case it doesn't even appear you get any registrable ownership rights in anything, and certainly nothing that anyone in their right mind would even consider buying second-hand.

You are just paying in advance for the right to occupy their rooms in the future.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Asiantravel

[Sharp]

Pm me for a great lawyer from Singapore based in Phuket..

[Asiantravel]

You might be advised in the first instance to consult a lawyer to ascertain the legal status of the fractional ownership property you hold and whether there is independent title which you can sell if you so wish. The second point is that if you have 4m investment, say 2m per fractional ownership, this will be exceedingly difficult to sell. Demand is primarily for complete ownership and for 2m this can be done. Your best bet might be a distress sale back to the developers (assuming they are interested) at a 50% discount ie 2m and write off 2m. If you intend retiring to Thailand then there is no logic to purchasing a time share anyway.

Thank you for that. At the time of purchase we did not intend to retire in Thailand.

I will seek legal advise when I get there in Feb.

yes this is good advice, you need to get an independent assesment of your position and what you actually own (if anything); also if there are any onerous clauses in the contract eg increasing management fees etc. i would think the contract would have been drawn up under Thai law (maybe with a Thai translation) so a competent Thai lawyer should be able to give a view on this. I presume the Timeshare company is Absolute who i am afraid have a pretty poor reputation and i would be surprised if they were particularly helpful in your situation.

I presume the Timeshare company is Absolute who i am afraid have a pretty poor reputation

Phuket – Club Absolute Holiday Scam

http://kissmykimchi....iday-scam.html/

Edited January 19, 2013 by Asiantravel

[Boater]

To the op , did yu buy your timeshare and fractional ownership from the same company ? As genuine fractional ownerships will not be associated to timeshare at all ... And are generally a hyped up gone ... There are timeshare resale companies , just do a google search , but you will get less then you paid ... With the fractional ownership , if real , rent it ... And then sell in the future if the assetmhas risen in value ..

[davejones]

It's cheaper to rent a condo for a couple of weeks than buy a timeshare. I don't understand why people want to pay extra to go to the same place every year. Timeshares do not make sense on any level. You are paying massively over the odds for a condo. Example - buy a condo outright for 4 million, or buy a share with 10 people for 2 million each, meaning you collectively paid 20 million for a 4 million condo. Why? I just cannot get my head around why anyone would do this. I think your chances of selling it at 50% or more of what you paid is about zero. Sell for 100,000 Thai baht and you may find a buyer. I assume the OP has enough money to write this off. Only hope of selling is back to the company at below cost prices, so probably 100,000 baht. What were you told you were getting? How many weeks a year can you use it? How many of those weeks are in high season? Are you allowed t rent it - maybe your best bet. Are there any ongoing management fees?

[Dazinoz]

It's cheaper to rent a condo for a couple of weeks than buy a timeshare. I don't understand why people want to pay extra to go to the same place every year. Timeshares do not make sense on any level. You are paying massively over the odds for a condo. Example - buy a condo outright for 4 million, or buy a share with 10 people for 2 million each, meaning you collectively paid 20 million for a 4 million condo. Why? I just cannot get my head around why anyone would do this. I think your chances of selling it at 50% or more of what you paid is about zero. Sell for 100,000 Thai baht and you may find a buyer. I assume the OP has enough money to write this off. Only hope of selling is back to the company at below cost prices, so probably 100,000 baht. What were you told you were getting? How many weeks a year can you use it? How many of those weeks are in high season? Are you allowed t rent it - maybe your best bet. Are there any ongoing management fees?

As people have mentioned the company is Absolute. I did not mention it initially as was not sure if ok to do so.

We started off buying 1 week in any of their places in the world. We upgraded at a later date to Fractional Owners of a penthouse at Nakalay just outside Patong. We were told that we were on of 26 that owned that unit outright but managed by Absolute. Each fraction was for 2 weeks and was fixed time period. On a later visit the salesman asked us to consider off the plan in the new Twin Sands just south of Patong. They gave us 10% more than what we paid for Nakalay (obviously not cash). The new unit was only a studio unit so was cheaper and we ended up buying 8 weeks by adding extra money to the money from Nakalay. We have all of June and July in this unit. We can rent it out via them and they take half or we can rent it out ourselves. There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year. This complex has just finished stage 1 last month and there are a two further stages planned for the complex. I am going to try and use my previous experience as a gullible person and stages 2 and 3 in the hope of getting most of my money back.

Peopel say "who in their right minds", "what were you thinking". Well if they have never made a mistake I would like to meet them. We ALL make mistakes, some are just more expensive than others. Yes, now I know I should not have dealt with them and will not deal again and, yes I could have bought a Condo. At the time the timeshare was suitable to us and seemed legit, well I was dealing with Pommies not Thias so had to be ok.

I am just about to retire and I can not afford to cut a 3.9 million Baht loss. This was part of my investment portfolio (don't bother saying it....yes I know, not a good investment.)

I know I have stuffed up and I don't need people to keep telling me, I just started asking out if anyone had similar experience and I really do appreciate any helpful information given here.

[mccw]

The only reason I could conceive of some one doing such a thing is to get time in a super luxury beachside, sea view, resort type condo= 30 - 50 million bht place for just a couple weeks a year could still = a profit for developer and access to accommodation otherwise un attainable. Still a terrible "investment" from a resale point of view, but at least could be a nice bit of use out of it and not such a bad deal if plenty of life left to enjoy it in. Say 40 year = 100k py longer than this and well in to savings territory. Maybe he can give his weeks for rent?

Still better than something like that forestry scam or many other paper investments that collapse or disappear, never pay out etc, with nothing to show for it. A few weeks by the beach is better than nothing. Don't be too hard on yourself. Live and learn eh.

[PattayaPhom]

If you paid through HK then I would think any refund would be done the same. Timeshare in Thailand used to be cheap, 200,000 baht for a studio at 25 years that allowed you weeks at Whistler in Canada etc, so was a good option for some regardless of what people say, however the bad reputation tarred by the early Spanish sales has never been shaken off.

[PattayaPhom]

It's cheaper to rent a condo for a couple of weeks than buy a timeshare. I don't understand why people want to pay extra to go to the same place every year. Timeshares do not make sense on any level. You are paying massively over the odds for a condo. Example - buy a condo outright for 4 million, or buy a share with 10 people for 2 million each, meaning you collectively paid 20 million for a 4 million condo. Why? I just cannot get my head around why anyone would do this. I think your chances of selling it at 50% or more of what you paid is about zero. Sell for 100,000 Thai baht and you may find a buyer. I assume the OP has enough money to write this off. Only hope of selling is back to the company at below cost prices, so probably 100,000 baht. What were you told you were getting? How many weeks a year can you use it? How many of those weeks are in high season? Are you allowed t rent it - maybe your best bet. Are there any ongoing management fees?

As people have mentioned the company is Absolute. I did not mention it initially as was not sure if ok to do so.

We started off buying 1 week in any of their places in the world. We upgraded at a later date to Fractional Owners of a penthouse at Nakalay just outside Patong. We were told that we were on of 26 that owned that unit outright but managed by Absolute. Each fraction was for 2 weeks and was fixed time period. On a later visit the salesman asked us to consider off the plan in the new Twin Sands just south of Patong. They gave us 10% more than what we paid for Nakalay (obviously not cash). The new unit was only a studio unit so was cheaper and we ended up buying 8 weeks by adding extra money to the money from Nakalay. We have all of June and July in this unit. We can rent it out via them and they take half or we can rent it out ourselves. There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year. This complex has just finished stage 1 last month and there are a two further stages planned for the complex. I am going to try and use my previous experience as a gullible person and stages 2 and 3 in the hope of getting most of my money back.

Peopel say "who in their right minds", "what were you thinking". Well if they have never made a mistake I would like to meet them. We ALL make mistakes, some are just more expensive than others. Yes, now I know I should not have dealt with them and will not deal again and, yes I could have bought a Condo. At the time the timeshare was suitable to us and seemed legit, well I was dealing with Pommies not Thias so had to be ok.

I am just about to retire and I can not afford to cut a 3.9 million Baht loss. This was part of my investment portfolio (don't bother saying it....yes I know, not a good investment.)

I know I have stuffed up and I don't need people to keep telling me, I just started asking out if anyone had similar experience and I really do appreciate any helpful information given here.

You got 8 weeks, that isnt as bad as people make out. Paying absolute 50% of rental isnt an option, try renting youyrself or with reputable agents that charge 10%......

[BlackPuddingBertha]

We started off buying 1 week in any of their places in the world. We upgraded at a later date to Fractional Owners of a penthouse at Nakalay just outside Patong. ......

This "upgrading" sounds like classic boiler-room hype to me. The same crooks who sell dud shares are probably involved with timeshares at the weekend.

We have all of June and July in this unit. We can rent it out via them and they take half or we can rent it out ourselves. There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year.

Two low-season months (OK, winter season for Aussies but low-season for everyone else). A weekly maintenance fee that is nearly as high as the yearly maintenance fee in many condo buildings. 50% commission on rentals. This gets worse by the minute.

I am going to try and use my previous experience as a gullible person and stages 2 and 3 in the hope of getting most of my money back...... well I was dealing with Pommies not Thias so had to be ok.

You dont think that this puts you on a par with the crooks who sold you the thing in the first place?

Most people connected with property sales in Thailand are not honest. It doesnt matter what colour or nationality they are.

I am just about to retire and I can not afford to cut a 3.9 million Baht loss. This was part of my investment portfolio (don't bother saying it....yes I know, not a good investment.) I know I have stuffed up and I don't need people to keep telling me, ...

I sympathise with you but my reason for underlining your mistakes is not to belittle you but to point out to others just what a potential nightmare these "investments" can be.

This really should be put up on a billboard in the arrival hall at the airport for people to read whilst waiting for their luggage.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

You got 8 weeks, that isnt as bad as people make out.

It sounds bad to me.

8 weeks for 4MB would make the unit worth 26MB over the year. That would be like a good unit in the Royal Cliff Suites in Pattaya. Is it really that nice?

And on top of that he has to pay 56000B maintenance fee just for his weeks. 7000B/week over the year is 364000B. Ever heard of maintenance fees that high here?

And the likelihood of him being able to sell his weeks must be close to zero.

[mccw]

It's cheaper to rent a condo for a couple of weeks than buy a timeshare. I don't understand why people want to pay extra to go to the same place every year. Timeshares do not make sense on any level. You are paying massively over the odds for a condo. Example - buy a condo outright for 4 million, or buy a share with 10 people for 2 million each, meaning you collectively paid 20 million for a 4 million condo. Why? I just cannot get my head around why anyone would do this. I think your chances of selling it at 50% or more of what you paid is about zero. Sell for 100,000 Thai baht and you may find a buyer. I assume the OP has enough money to write this off. Only hope of selling is back to the company at below cost prices, so probably 100,000 baht. What were you told you were getting? How many weeks a year can you use it? How many of those weeks are in high season? Are you allowed t rent it - maybe your best bet. Are there any ongoing management fees?

As people have mentioned the company is Absolute. I did not mention it initially as was not sure if ok to do so.

We started off buying 1 week in any of their places in the world. We upgraded at a later date to Fractional Owners of a penthouse at Nakalay just outside Patong. We were told that we were on of 26 that owned that unit outright but managed by Absolute. Each fraction was for 2 weeks and was fixed time period. On a later visit the salesman asked us to consider off the plan in the new Twin Sands just south of Patong. They gave us 10% more than what we paid for Nakalay (obviously not cash). The new unit was only a studio unit so was cheaper and we ended up buying 8 weeks by adding extra money to the money from Nakalay. We have all of June and July in this unit. We can rent it out via them and they take half or we can rent it out ourselves. There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year. This complex has just finished stage 1 last month and there are a two further stages planned for the complex. I am going to try and use my previous experience as a gullible person and stages 2 and 3 in the hope of getting most of my money back.

Peopel say "who in their right minds", "what were you thinking". Well if they have never made a mistake I would like to meet them. We ALL make mistakes, some are just more expensive than others. Yes, now I know I should not have dealt with them and will not deal again and, yes I could have bought a Condo. At the time the timeshare was suitable to us and seemed legit, well I was dealing with Pommies not Thias so had to be ok.

I am just about to retire and I can not afford to cut a 3.9 million Baht loss. This was part of my investment portfolio (don't bother saying it....yes I know, not a good investment.)

I know I have stuffed up and I don't need people to keep telling me, I just started asking out if anyone had similar experience and I really do appreciate any helpful information given here.

You got 8 weeks, that isnt as bad as people make out. Paying absolute 50% of rental isnt an option, try renting youyrself or with reputable agents that charge 10%......

Sound like he got 2weeks at the first place, then 8 weeks at the other one. But "There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year", I wonder if this 50/50 share is on total or profit? What is the estimated rental? I'd think private/ agency rental would be his best chance to get at least some return and can enjoy the in tenanted weeks. Hope he doesn't feel so peeved about it he doesn't enjoy a full use out of it; that would just be making an unfortunate situation worse. Personally I think I'd keep it more than accept a 50% write down.

Doing a few hypothetical figures:

10 weeks rental at say 17k bht = 100,000bht py profit, off a 3.9 mil investment = roughly 2.5% return.

But if only getting 2 million back, such a condo for rent could only fetch what ? About the same, maybe a little more, if rented long term contract.

But by keeping it you have access to a much nicer place? And maybe you can sell it for a better price by biding your time; perhapse offering it directly to the people coming to rent your place. I guess it might suit some one and they might pay 70-80 or even 90% your purchase price if your lucky. Could take a few years but unless you have a great idea on how to grow the released half money it hardly seems worth the bother. Just enjoy what you've got. But ofcourse, need to cost it all out and see how it goes. If there are compounding % fee increases and no tenants it could be a bit of a liability, but still not the end of the world.

[mccw]

You got 8 weeks, that isnt as bad as people make out.

It sounds bad to me.

8 weeks for 4MB would make the unit worth 26MB over the year. That would be like a good unit in the Royal Cliff Suites in Pattaya. Is it really that nice?

And on top of that he has to pay 56000B maintenance fee just for his weeks. 7000B/week over the year is 364000B. Ever heard of maintenance fees that high here?

And the likelihood of him being able to sell his weeks must be close to zero.

To be sure, a terrible deal; but how to make the best of a bad situation?

[BlackPuddingBertha]

10 weeks rental at say 17k bht = 100,000bht py profit, off a 3.9 mil investment = roughly 2.5% return.

100K assuming he can let all his weeks, and assuming that he can do so himself without paying any commission, and assuming that anyone would actually pay 17KB/week for a unit in Phuket in low season. It seems like a lot of assumptions to me.

What bothers me most in this deal is the colossal 7KB/week maintenance fee. He will be paying this every week for as long as he owns the share, regardless of whether he has a tenant or not.

If I had the misfortune of owning this I would want to dump it as fast as possible, if only to stop all future losses.

[Asiantravel]

10 weeks rental at say 17k bht = 100,000bht py profit, off a 3.9 mil investment = roughly 2.5% return.

100K assuming he can let all his weeks, and assuming that he can do so himself without paying any commission, and assuming that anyone would actually pay 17KB/week for a unit in Phuket in low season. It seems like a lot of assumptions to me.

What bothers me most in this deal is the colossal 7KB/week maintenance fee. He will be paying this every week for as long as he owns the share, regardless of whether he has a tenant or not.

If I had the misfortune of owning this I would want to dump it as fast as possible, if only to stop all future losses.

Through a mutual friend I knew a couple of British guys who had their own company and were doing this in Pattaya. You wouldn't believewhat they thought of the general public ( i.e. the people they were effectively trying to steal the money from.) They had a shocking attitude and they had absolute contempt for the general public and even laughed when they were able to find someone gullible enough to give them money. ( A bit like when Goldman Sachs was found to have referred to their own clients as “ muppets “. )

They even had a specific strategy to embarrass people in public so that the person they were targeting would eventually give them their credit card details and buy into their scheme.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Asiantravel

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Through a mutual friend I knew a couple of British guys who had their own company and were doing this in Pattaya. You wouldn't believewhat they thought of the general public .....

Oh yes I would.

[mccw]

10 weeks rental at say 17k bht = 100,000bht py profit, off a 3.9 mil investment = roughly 2.5% return.

100K assuming he can let all his weeks, and assuming that he can do so himself without paying any commission, and assuming that anyone would actually pay 17KB/week for a unit in Phuket in low season. It seems like a lot of assumptions to me.

What bothers me most in this deal is the colossal 7KB/week maintenance fee. He will be paying this every week for as long as he owns the share, regardless of whether he has a tenant or not.

If I had the misfortune of owning this I would want to dump it as fast as possible, if only to stop all future losses.

Yes you could be right. I'm assuming its a really special place for that price. That's why I say to make a proper cost assessment and see how it goes/ its worth it or not.

Personally I don't think I would ever get in to this situation so I don't know exactly what I'd do; just trying to offer some positive ideas in to the mix.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

I'm assuming its a really special place for that price.

It would indeed be interesting to know exactly what sort of place it is.

[Dazinoz]

I'm assuming its a really special place for that price.

It would indeed be interesting to know exactly what sort of place it is.

http://www.absolutetwinsands.com/en/

[davejones]

It's cheaper to rent a condo for a couple of weeks than buy a timeshare. I don't understand why people want to pay extra to go to the same place every year. Timeshares do not make sense on any level. You are paying massively over the odds for a condo. Example - buy a condo outright for 4 million, or buy a share with 10 people for 2 million each, meaning you collectively paid 20 million for a 4 million condo. Why? I just cannot get my head around why anyone would do this. I think your chances of selling it at 50% or more of what you paid is about zero. Sell for 100,000 Thai baht and you may find a buyer. I assume the OP has enough money to write this off. Only hope of selling is back to the company at below cost prices, so probably 100,000 baht. What were you told you were getting? How many weeks a year can you use it? How many of those weeks are in high season? Are you allowed t rent it - maybe your best bet. Are there any ongoing management fees?

As people have mentioned the company is Absolute. I did not mention it initially as was not sure if ok to do so.

We started off buying 1 week in any of their places in the world. We upgraded at a later date to Fractional Owners of a penthouse at Nakalay just outside Patong. We were told that we were on of 26 that owned that unit outright but managed by Absolute. Each fraction was for 2 weeks and was fixed time period. On a later visit the salesman asked us to consider off the plan in the new Twin Sands just south of Patong. They gave us 10% more than what we paid for Nakalay (obviously not cash). The new unit was only a studio unit so was cheaper and we ended up buying 8 weeks by adding extra money to the money from Nakalay. We have all of June and July in this unit. We can rent it out via them and they take half or we can rent it out ourselves. There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year. This complex has just finished stage 1 last month and there are a two further stages planned for the complex. I am going to try and use my previous experience as a gullible person and stages 2 and 3 in the hope of getting most of my money back.

Peopel say "who in their right minds", "what were you thinking". Well if they have never made a mistake I would like to meet them. We ALL make mistakes, some are just more expensive than others. Yes, now I know I should not have dealt with them and will not deal again and, yes I could have bought a Condo. At the time the timeshare was suitable to us and seemed legit, well I was dealing with Pommies not Thias so had to be ok.

I am just about to retire and I can not afford to cut a 3.9 million Baht loss. This was part of my investment portfolio (don't bother saying it....yes I know, not a good investment.)

I know I have stuffed up and I don't need people to keep telling me, I just started asking out if anyone had similar experience and I really do appreciate any helpful information given here.

You got 8 weeks, that isnt as bad as people make out. Paying absolute 50% of rental isnt an option, try renting youyrself or with reputable agents that charge 10%......

Sound like he got 2weeks at the first place, then 8 weeks at the other one. But "There is an ongoing maintenance fee off 7000B per week per year", I wonder if this 50/50 share is on total or profit? What is the estimated rental? I'd think private/ agency rental would be his best chance to get at least some return and can enjoy the in tenanted weeks. Hope he doesn't feel so peeved about it he doesn't enjoy a full use out of it; that would just be making an unfortunate situation worse. Personally I think I'd keep it more than accept a 50% write down.

Doing a few hypothetical figures:

10 weeks rental at say 17k bht = 100,000bht py profit, off a 3.9 mil investment = roughly 2.5% return.

But if only getting 2 million back, such a condo for rent could only fetch what ? About the same, maybe a little more, if rented long term contract.

But by keeping it you have access to a much nicer place? And maybe you can sell it for a better price by biding your time; perhapse offering it directly to the people coming to rent your place. I guess it might suit some one and they might pay 70-80 or even 90% your purchase price if your lucky. Could take a few years but unless you have a great idea on how to grow the released half money it hardly seems worth the bother. Just enjoy what you've got. But ofcourse, need to cost it all out and see how it goes. If there are compounding % fee increases and no tenants it could be a bit of a liability, but still not the end of the world.

You missed off the 7,000 baht per week fees, which total 70,000 baht. So in your above example he makes 30,000 a year profit. But I can't imagine any place renting for the whole 10 weeks in low season. Plus it is bound to cost money to advertise to get it rented. And will he need to be there to hand over the keys, etc. I am not joking here when I say I would rather give this away for free then be faced with 70,000 baht fees every year for the foreseeable future. This sounds like a complete nightmare. I'd get a really good lawyer and see if there is any way at all to get out of this. I don't suppose there is, but you never know - they might have done something wrong. But suing them could involve large legal fees. If I was offered this timeshare for free, I wouldn't take it. 70,000 baht costs for what? None of it makes any sense.

2 million each from 26 people = 52 million baht condo. It must be one of the best condos in the whole of Thailand.