Business ProfileforFestiva Resorts Tamarack Sales

We purchased a timeshare at The ************* on *********** in 1995. Several years later, Festiva Resorts purchased the property and that's when things started to go poorly. Aside from raising our annual maintenance (which we expected), they charged every owner an assessment to "improve" the property when the contract has no provisions allowing this. A number of owners even took Festiva to court in *********** over the assessment. When we inquired where the money was going to be spent, they would not say, so nobody had any idea where the money was actually going. Fast forward to 2024 and there is ANOTHER assessment---this time they are charging a $1,500+ assessment PER YEAR for THREE SUCCESSIVE YEARS--in addition to the annual maintenance. We wrote to Festiva stating that we wanted to exit our timeshare and give it back to them, as we were not interested in doing business with them any longer. A woman named ****** (who won't provide any last name or telephone number) responded via e-mail that they would "release us" if we paid a $1,566.88 exit fee. Our original contract for sale has no provisions nor even mentions an exit fee. The contract states, in fact: "Furthermore, the LESSEE may, at any time surrender this agreement by notification, in writing, to the LESSOR..." We wrote again and ****** then said they would reduce the exit fee to $970. We asked to speak with her or someone in charge and was told that they don't have office telephone numbers and they don't call. Two successive e-mails later, we have gotten no response from anyone. Further, we know of other Festiva timeshare owners that were allowed to exit without any fees. There is no explanation as to why some owners are being released from their contract with no fee and why others are not. We highly recommend that you do NOT do business with this company. In our opinion, they operate without the slightest amount of transparency or integrity! If it were possible, we'd give Festiva ZERO stars!