We’ve blogged about multi-language professional translation services and mortgage contract translations, as well as the importance of multilingual lease agreement translations. A timeshare essentially lets you buy a fraction of real estate – usually measured by a certain amount of weeks per year. You share the ownership with the other timeshare owners. In other words, you pay a share of the price and therefore own the equivalent share of the real estate property, giving you the right to use the property for a certain period of time every year.
From a legal standpoint, the majority of timeshares are deeded, or fee-simple, real estate contracts. This means the purchaser is buying an actual share of ownership in the home or resort. However, some timeshare transactions are non-deeded, or right-to-use arrangements. In such situations the purchaser has the right to use the property for a specific period of time, but does not own any portion of the real estate.
Under this contractual set up, timeshares are really only good for one type of investment: a vacation property. For this reason, most timeshares are situated in ideal vacation places like Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean. Of course, this is where timeshares can become tricky. Whenever dealing with purchasing any kind of real estate in a foreign country, many issues arise – namely that you are under the jurisdiction of a foreign country. For this reason, it is essential that you obtain a foreign language translation of the real estate laws, particularly as they relate to timeshares. Since timeshares are a unique segment of real estate law, various countries treat them differently and these differences often affect the purchaser’s rights to the property.