Changing/Adding name to contract- anyone done it?

[dclfun]

I'm getting ready to either change the name on my first contract ( 150 points at OKW) to my dd or to just add her to my contract. I also have the option of adding all my four adult kids to the contract for the same price so they can all be members and use it. There isn't any issue with fighting over the points ( at least not yet!) but only my two dd's have families and would really want to use it and only one dd right now wants to take over the dues. Again, who knows what will happen in the future. So, what would you do...remove yourself from the contract and add only dd, just add dd and keep yourself on, or add more of the family either way. I was told by MS it's $475 for any of these options. I really need to do this soon before I am gone as I don't want the membership to have to go through probate. Advice welcomed!

 

[hakepb]

I thought it was free to add someone as an associate member, and an associate member can call to book. But they would not automatically get the membership due to death.

I've read too many threads of family issues (might be your DD's husband more than DD). Really, sharing a DVC contract would ultimately not be a blessing to your family.

If you want to make a transition and provide something for your DD's, I would contemplate legally selling the contract to the DD that wants it, then evenly gift the proceeds evenly to all 4 DD's. My only hesitation is DVD seems to be ROFR'ing OKW contracts more than others...

 

[dclfun]

I thought it was free to add someone as an associate member, and an associate member can call to book. But they would not automatically get the membership due to death.

I've read too many threads of family issues (might be your DD's husband more than DD). Really, sharing a DVC contract would ultimately not be a blessing to your family.

If you want to make a transition and provide something for your DD's, I would contemplate legally selling the contract to the DD that wants it, then evenly gift the proceeds evenly to all 4 DD's. My only hesitation is DVD seems to be ROFR'ing OKW contracts more than others...

Thanks for the advice. Only one dd really wants to keep OKW and MS administration told me I could put her name on the contract vs. mine and it would be hers- for the $475 fee which includes the title work. I'm having conversations with the kids about how to proceed. My boys are not yet married and as we live 10 minutes from WDW they don't see the purpose in staying onsite. My dd who wants the contract lives in Coral Springs and the other one (who is undecided) is in Chicago, so they could get more use of it. We'll see.

 

[disneynutz]

Your choice, you can switch title to the DD who wants it and tell the others that she bought it from you. That way they can't claim favoritism, or truly offer it for sale to them.

You can also sell it on the open market and add the proceeds to your estate or better yet gift them the cash now.

Bill

 

[danimaroo]

Hopefully it's okay for me to bump this and ask a similar question, if you guys don't mind.

So my in-laws no longer want to pay dues for the DVC and we were in discussions with them in taking over their DVC membership. I've been trying to find out the process of entirely changing it over to us, or at least getting our names on the title...

What is the whole ROFR thing? Would that come into play here if our in-laws wanted to just give us their DVC membership entirely without us paying them anything? They've already paid off the entire mortgage, so it's just fees that are having to be paid at this point, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

We don't want to just be listed as associate members as it looks like if something were to happen to our in-laws, that we would not automatically take over their contract. So any advice on what we should do about this?

What's the best way of handling this without the concern of losing the membership back to DVD? Do we have any options? For what it's worth, it's an OKW 440 point contract, that I believe is good until 2047. They bought it when DVC first began.

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

What is the whole ROFR thing? Would that come into play here if our in-laws wanted to just give us their DVC membership entirely without us paying them anything? They've already paid off the entire mortgage, so it's just fees that are having to be paid at this point, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

If your in-laws truly no longer want their DVC membership and are willing to gift it to you, it's just a matter paying the fee to re-deed the ownership. That's what the OP is talking about, and it sounds as if it may also be the case for you.

If, on the other hand, you want to purchase their membership from them, you have to submit the purchase proposal to Disney. Disney then has the Right Of First Refusal (ROFR) to purchase the contract back from your in-laws at the price at which they indicated they were willing to sell it to you.

Disney has not been exercising their ROFR in the past few years to the extent they once did (a quick review of the prices on the Timeshare Store's web site will show how low some have dropped), but if the price is too good to be true, there's a chance Disney could snatch it up.

You legally need to follow the ROFR process if any money is changing hands for the purchase of the contract.

Being added as an associate to an account has no standing whatsoever with regard to DVC membership or ownership. It is strictly an administrative designation to allow someone to talk to Member Services on your behalf to make and change reservations. An associate does not get a membership card, and is not entitled to member perks or benefits.

To the original poster, I'd say there are two main things you should consider when making this decision to jointly own the contract or to out-and-out transfer it to your daughter.

Do you still plan to use the membership yourself, and travel to WDW using the points? If so, do you typically use the DVC discounts toward an annual pass? Only members and their immediate family living at the same address are entitled to the annual pass discount.

Second, how well established are your children's finances? If they run into financial trouble, the DVC contract could be put in jeopardy (as an asset that could be seized or tied up in a bankruptcy). If both your names are on the contract and they fall behind in their dues, it could affect your credit as well as theirs.

 

[Disneypubgal]

Not sure if this is the same or not, but when my husband and I got married I "sold" my contracts to him and I at $0. Because I was basically adding him to my membership and changing my name the cost was far less than the $475 discussed above... I used a quick claim deed for the "transaction" and there was very minimal cost (something less than $100.00)

 

[danimaroo]

If your in-laws truly no longer want their DVC membership and are willing to gift it to you, it's just a matter paying the fee to re-deed the ownership. That's what the OP is talking about, and it sounds as if it may also be the case for you.

If, on the other hand, you want to purchase their membership from them, you have to submit the purchase proposal to Disney. Disney then has the Right Of First Refusal (ROFR) to purchase the contract back from your in-laws at the price at which they indicated they were willing to sell it to you.

Disney has not been exercising their ROFR in the past few years to the extent they once did (a quick review of the prices on the Timeshare Store's web site will show how low some have dropped), but if the price is too good to be true, there's a chance Disney could snatch it up.

You legally need to follow the ROFR process if any money is changing hands for the purchase of the contract.

Being added as an associate to an account has no standing whatsoever with regard to DVC membership or ownership. It is strictly an administrative designation to allow someone to talk to Member Services on your behalf to make and change reservations. An associate does not get a membership card, and is not entitled to member perks or benefits.

Thank you. I did a little more searching and reading, so I think I understand the way it works. Basically if it's gifted to us as a gratuitous transfer, we do not have to worry about ROFR, as Disney will sign an ROFR waiver. At that point we'd just have to pay for the deed fee (which I'm confused on the cost of... I've heard anywhere from $100-$500 for this?)...

In our case we would not be buying it from them. We're basically taking it over so it can be kept in the family for the extent of the contract. We are the only ones at present time who go to Disney (and plan to continue to go) once a year, though we will lay out the ground work and terms for basically the whole family's use, as we do not typically use 440 points in a year during our stays. I just want to make sure I have all of my information gathered before we sit down and meet with them.

Thanks so much for the information. It's very helpful.

 

[danimaroo]

Not sure if this is the same or not, but when my husband and I got married I "sold" my contracts to him and I at $0. Because I was basically adding him to my membership and changing my name the cost was far less than the $475 discussed above... I used a quick claim deed for the "transaction" and there was very minimal cost (something less than $100.00)

Hmm, how did this work when it came to the ROFR? Did Disney consider it a gratuitous thing? How did they waive the ROFR if you were selling it at $0?

Sorry, I'm just curious in case we ended up going down the route of simply adding my husband and I to the deed vs. completely changing it over to our names only.

 

[danimaroo]

Do you still plan to use the membership yourself, and travel to WDW using the points? If so, do you typically use the DVC discounts toward an annual pass? Only members and their immediate family living at the same address are entitled to the annual pass discount.

Okay sorry, I have another question based off of this...

What if they decide they would like to add us to the deed, but not take their names off? How would that work if we're not living at the same address? Is that even a possibility? Or is adding someone to a deed something you do for spouses only/those living at the same address?

If we're allowed to be added but live at separate addresses, would we all get the discounts, etc.?

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

What if they decide they would like to add us to the deed, but not take their names off? How would that work if we're not living at the same address? Is that even a possibility? Or is adding someone to a deed something you do for spouses only/those living at the same address?

If we're allowed to be added but live at separate addresses, would we all get the discounts, etc.?

Each of you would have your own membership card, so you'd each be able to show your membership card and your driver's license. Any immediate family member living at either their address or your address would qualify for the discount.

For this purpose, Disney defines an immediate family member as:

Spouse/Registered Domestic Partner, Parent/Step Parent, Mother-In-Law/Father-In-Law, Child/Step Child, Brother/Stepbrother, Sister/Stepsister, Brother-In-Law/Sister-In-Law, Grandparent, and Grandchild.

 

[danimaroo]

Each of you would have your own membership card, so you'd each be able to show your membership card and your driver's license. Any immediate family member living at either their address or your address would qualify for the discount.

For this purpose, Disney defines an immediate family member as:

Awesome, thank you again for you responses. I really appreciate it.

 

[Disneypubgal]

Hmm, how did this work when it came to the ROFR? Did Disney consider it a gratuitous thing? How did they waive the ROFR if you were selling it at $0?

Sorry, I'm just curious in case we ended up going down the route of simply adding my husband and I to the deed vs. completely changing it over to our names only.

They did not exercise ROFR refusal because I was basically gifting or selling my contract to myself and my husband... I was still an owner, I just added my husband as an owner and changed my name... hope that helps!

 

[danimaroo]

They did not exercise ROFR refusal because I was basically gifting or selling my contract to myself and my husband... I was still an owner, I just added my husband as an owner and changed my name... hope that helps!

Okay got it, so it was seen as a gift then! Okay so, was re-writing the deed difficult? Did you guys do it yourselves or hire someone else? Again, sorry for the questions, I'm learning a lot from this and it'll be very helpful when we sit down and discuss everything with out in-laws.

EDIT: And I'm also curious about the costs of doing this, as it's something that my DH and I will probably take on ourselves since it's a big thing for them to give us if that's what ends up transpiring.

 

[Disneypubgal]

Okay got it, so it was seen as a gift then! Okay so, was re-writing the deed difficult? Did you guys do it yourselves or hire someone else? Again, sorry for the questions, I'm learning a lot from this and it'll be very helpful when we sit down and discuss everything with out in-laws.

EDIT: And I'm also curious about the costs of doing this, as it's something that my DH and I will probably take on ourselves since it's a big thing for them to give us if that's what ends up transpiring.

Check your inbox... I was able to file the deed myself... but you will need the original purchase agreement from Disney to prepare...