Massachusetts General Laws ch. 183B sec. 15 – Termination agreements
Section 15. (a) This section shall apply to time-share licenses only to the extent expressly provided by the time-share instrument.
Terms Used In Massachusetts General Laws ch. 183B sec. 15
- Appraisal: A determination of property value.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
- Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
(b) All time-shares in a time-share property may be terminated only by agreement of the time-share owners having at least eighty per cent of the time-shares, or such larger vote as the time-share instrument may specify.
(c) An agreement to terminate all time-shares in a time-share property shall be evidenced by the execution, in the same manner as a deed, of a termination agreement, or ratifications thereof, by the requisite number of time-share owners. The termination agreement shall specify a date after which it shall be void unless it is recorded on or before said date. A termination agreement and all ratifications thereof shall be recorded in the registry of deeds or land registration office in every district in which a portion of the time-share property is situated, and shall be effective only upon such recording.
(d) Unless the termination agreement sets forth the material terms of a contract or proposed contract under which an estate or interest in each time-share unit equal to the sum of the time-shares therein is to be sold and designates a trustee to effect the sale, title to an estate or interest in each time-share unit equal to the sum of the time-shares therein vests upon termination in the time-share owners thereof in proportion to their respective interests as provided in subsection (h), and liens on the time-shares shall attach to and encumber said interests. Any co-owner of said estate or interest in a unit may thereafter maintain an action for partition or for allotment or sale in lieu of partition.
(e) If the termination agreement sets forth the material terms of a contract or proposed contract under which an estate or interest in each time-share unit equal to the sum of the time-shares therein is to be sold and designates a trustee to effect the sale, title to said estate or interest vests upon termination in the trustee for the benefit of the time-share owners, to be transferred pursuant to the contract. Proceeds of the sale shall be distributed to time-share owners and lien holders as their interests may appear, in proportion to the respective interests of the time-share owners as provided in subsection (h).
(f) Except as otherwise provided in the termination agreement, so long as the former time-share owners or their trustee hold title to an estate or interest equal to the sum of the time-shares, each former time-share owner and his successors in interest have the same rights with respect to occupancy in the former time-share unit that he would have had if termination had not occurred, together with the same liabilities and other obligations imposed by this chapter or the time-share instrument.
(g) After termination of all time-shares in a time-share property and adequate provision for the payment of the claims of the creditors for time-share expenses, distribution of (i) the proceeds of any sale pursuant to this section, (ii) the proceeds of any personalty held for the use and benefit of the former time-share owners, and (iii) any other funds held for the use and benefit of the former time-share owners, shall be made to the former time-share owners and their successors in interest in proportion to their respective interests as provided in subsection (h). Following termination, creditors of the association holding liens perfected against the time-share property prior to the termination may enforce said liens in the same manner as any other lien holder. All other creditors of the association shall be treated as if they had perfected liens on the time-share property immediately prior to termination.
(h) The time-share instrument may specify the respective fractional or percentage interest in the estate or interest in each unit equal to the sum of the time-shares therein that will be owned by each former time-share owner upon termination of the time-shares. If the time-share instrument fails to so specify, an appraisal shall be made of the fair market value of each time-share by one or more impartial qualified appraisers selected either by the trustee designated in the termination agreement, or by the managing entity if no trustee was so designated. Said appraisal shall be made not more than one hundred and eighty days prior to the termination. Said appraisal shall also state the corresponding fractional or percentage interests calculated in proportion to said values and in accordance with this subsection. A notice stating all of said values and corresponding interests and the return address of the sender shall be sent by registered mail, return receipt requested, by the managing entity or by the trustee designated in the termination agreements, to all of the time-share owners. Said appraisal governs the fractional or percentage interest of each estate or interest unless (i) at least twenty-five per cent of the time-share owners deliver, within sixty days after the date the notices were mailed, written disapprovals to the return address of the sender of the notice, or (ii) the final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, entered during or after said period, holds that the appraisal shall be set aside. The appraisal and the calculation of interests shall be made in accordance with the following:
(1) If the termination agreement sets forth the material terms of a contract or proposed contract for the sale of the estate or interest equal to the sum of the time-shares, each time-share conferring a right of occupancy during a limited number of time periods shall be appraised as if the time until the date specified for the conveyance of the property had elapsed. If no such date is specified, each time-share conferring a right of occupancy during a limited number of time periods shall be appraised as if the time until the date specified pursuant to subsection (c) had elapsed.
(2) The interest of each time-share owner is the value of the time-share he owned divided by the sum of the values of all time-shares in the unit or units to which his time-share applies.
(i) Foreclosure or enforcement of a lien or encumbrance against all of the time-shares in a time-share property does not of itself terminate said time-shares.