Legal Question in Family Law in California

I have been going through a divorce for 5 years. my ex husband and I own 3 weeks of timeshare together. During the 5 years I never utilized the timeshares although my ex husband did. He traveled the world by exchanging the weeks or turning them into points. We are going through a settlement conference and he is trying to charge me for the last five years of maintenance fees and also debt paid on one of the weeks. (the other two are paid in full). My contention is that in 5 years I never utilized the weeks. Am I responsible for paying these fees if he fully used the timeshares? Thanks for your help!


Asked on 9/20/09, 1:17 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You are jointly liable for the fees, and as between you each owes 1/2. So he is entitled to be reimbursed for 1/2 the maintenance fees. However, you are entitled to 1/2 the value of the timeshares, if he keeps them in the property division. Under the Moore-Marsden rule, the community owes him for the principal he paid down on the loan, so you owe half that, but not the interest.

As for the used weeks, he owes the community for the use of the timeshares, just as if he lived in a community house pending the divorce he would have to pay rent to the community. He owes for the use at the value of the accomodations, not at the maintenance fees rate but at the rate he would have had to pay for accomodations in the open market. In the case of resorts that are only available by time-share, he arguably owes at the rate for comparable accomodations in the area.

Usually the rental value of a house is less than the debt service and other costs, so this washes out when applied to a spouse who lives in the community home pending the divorce. Most timeshare maintenance fees, however, are meaningfully less than the cost of the accomodations to the public. Otherwise who would buy timeshares? So once you do the math, it is likely that what you owe for 1/2 the maintenance fees and debt service is less than he owes for 1/2 the value of the accomodations.

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Answered on 9/21/09, 3:58 am


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