In the last few years, my in-laws retired and moved to a active adult community in Florida. They have done well financially and retired with significant savings and investments (unsure on the exact amount, but would estimate over two million). They bought a time share back in the 80's and have owned the top tier at that resort for many, many years. They also in the last 10 years purchased other time-shares at all-inclusive resorts, etc. Up until today, I wasn't too concerned with what they purchased, as I assumed they had made mostly sound financial decisions. My wife and I are doing well financially (no unreasonable debt, we both have paid off our college loans, we have a mortgage - two cars (one paid off, other on 0% interest financing), and an HVAC unit on 0% financing (mostly paid off)). I'm guess I'm trying to say is that we didn't account for any inheritance in the way we live - if we inherit nothing from either set of parents, we would be fine.
Fast forward until today. My in-laws call to tell us that they "owe $100,000 in sales tax to the Mexican government." It turns out, about 18 months ago, they got an offer to buy their first time-share (which it is still unclear if they were shopping buyers or if it was unsolicited) for several hundred thousands of dollars. Apparently, they entered into a contract (without a lawyer or anyone looking it over) to sell the time-share through HSBC via a lawyer who was facilitating the transaction out of Portland, OR. They were told they needed to send money, which would go into an escrow account, and once the sale was final, they would get access to the escrow account. Apparently, they have been "close" to finalizing the deal several times, but at these last minutes, the "Mexican government" would step in and demand some other payment via sales tax or fee. So over the past 18 months, they have sunk all of their money into this, hoping to recoup their losses and then some.
My first thought is they will never, ever see any of that money again. I told them they needed to get a lawyer ASAP, but other than that, I'm not sure what to do or how we can help them? They have already told us that if it wasn't for COVID relief on their mortgage for the last 9 months, they wouldn't have known how to pay their mortgage. We have already told them that if they have to sell their house and live with us, that was an option. Obviously, this will introduce other stress to the situation, but I feel like this is realistically where we are headed.
I'll take any constructive advise on if they have any recourse or what agencies they should be trying to talk to?
Thanks for your help.
Submitted November 19, 2020 at 09:51PM by lottt86 https://ift.tt/3lMkpYc
