
19 Nov Wyndham Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Fraudulent Timeshare Scheme
In a class action lawsuit filed this year (2019), Wyndham Resorts has been accused of falsely representing the value and benefit of their vacation timeshares.
The plaintiffs, David J. Kriens Sr. and Brenda L. Kriens, have been Wyndham timeshare owners since July 2015, and claim to have paid more than $80,000 to Wyndham Resorts. The Kriens reported that Wyndham has created a “highly organized and fraudulent scheme” to sell timeshares to prospective owners. According to allegations, Wyndham misrepresents the timeshares in order to entice customers to purchase them, but fails to disclose certain prohibitive limitations about the purchases.
Alleged claims of Wyndham Misrepresentation
The Wyndham class action lawsuit states that Wyndham’s timeshare business is driven by the sale of Vacation Ownership Interests (VOIs). These “interests” are allegedly represented by “points” in Wyndham’s business model. The plaintiffs argue that purchasers enter into a contract, agreeing to pay a certain amount of money for a certain number of points. Allegedly, these points can be used to stay at several resorts owned or operated by Wyndham or a subsequent affiliate. To stay at a Wyndham affiliated resort, customers must use the points. The Wyndham class action lawsuit states that the number of points required to stay at a resort is based on a number of factors. In addition, it states that some locations and dates of vacation require more points to book, while to book during other times and at other locations uses fewer points.
The Kreins’ lawsuit states that representatives for the company do not accurately represent certain limitations of the system, but says that this much is represented to prospective customers. Furthermore, they claim Wyndham representatives do not warn customers that they are in competition with other point holders to have access to vacation timeshare spaces. Additionally, the class action lawsuit states that the company restricts the availability of reservations by using the spaces for marketing and rental income.
Wyndham False Advertising Claims
The class action lawsuit goes on to say that Wyndham uses false advertising to knowingly misrepresents the rentals to plaintiffs in the interest of increasing its profits. The Kriens mention Wyndham and its affiliates as “sophisticated parties with superior knowledge of complex real estate and business transactions as to each and every [customer.]”. Wyndham was allegedly under “continuous duty” to disclose the stipulations and limitations of the contracts, but failed to do so. The Kriens say they had no choice but to rely on the company’s representations of its products, and were subsequently financially injured by it.
The Wyndham Vacation Timeshare Class Action Lawsuit can be found here: David J. Kriens Sr., et al. v. Wyndham Destinations Inc., et al., Case No. 6:19-cv-01650-RBD-EJK, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida at Orlando.
The Kreins were represented by Donald S. Hackett III.