Maintenance Fees

paulp145 wrote:

When I look at Redweek sale postings for identical units, in identical weeks, I often notice the reported maintenace fees can vary. Is this accurate that different owners are charged different fees or are sellers misrepresenting actual current maintenance charges ?

===

If their use year starts on different dates, it is possible that one has paid a more recent (higher) MF than the other.

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

jons29 wrote:

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

===== Is the HOA what most of us call Maintenance Fees? You would be unable to use your timeshare at all until all fees due are paid in full. MD

adahiscout wrote:

jons29 wrote:

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

===== Is the HOA what most of us call Maintenance Fees? You would be unable to use your timeshare at all until all fees due are paid in full. MD

HOA = Home Owners Association. In a deeded T/S (interval) condominium development....which is what MOST T/Ss are in the USA, the owners of the week, interval, or points will vote for members of the HOA in order to run the place and take care of it.

An HOA ( some places use different letters) is voted on by OWNERS....so, if most of the condo resort is owned by management, guess who gets voted into run the condo? The managers friends. Thats one reason wht some management companies would like to have the owned weeks converted to points. In some cases, then ALL the owners lose their rights to run THEIR condo.

But in most Mexican Resorts, the resort may be set up as a condo, but USA citizens are sold a long term lease...a Right To Use (RTU) for a period of time. (Certain Mexican Laws forbid foreign ownership in many areas). In these places, management may be the technical owners of the land, buildings and services....not the people with the RTU.

In any case, not paying your maintance fees, taxes or assessments will result in your credit rating being impacted.

One poster mentioned to try to rent your owned or RTU unit....at least you will get some $$ back. I agree. Not paying will show on credit reporting agencies and really lower your scores....they will sue you, and win. Unless you bought a Holiday Club that states you only pay fees when you use a week, you are considered an owner or leasee and required to pay the fees.

The HOA voted for by the T/S condo owners also contracts services from the management company.

Management companies include VRI , Celebrity, Marriott, Starwood (Sheraton/Westin), the Wyndham Group (but not all are HOA controlled and most Worldmark & some Fairfield/Wyndham units are management controlled).

An example....Marriott is easiest- They decide to put up a hotel in a nice beachfront area. But they have a better idea....make that a Interval Condo ( I could pick Ritz Carlton...but most of us can more easily afford their MVCI division)

Hey guys ! We can build 2 or 3 bed 2 bath lock out beachfront apartments and sell them 52 times in each year! And since we are the majority owners, we control the HOA for many beginning years...don't forget that long term contract with the best management company...us !

As the units are sold, seats on the HOA are given to the buyers, and slowly (by law in most states and some countries) the Marriott HOA is replaced by the people (owners) voted in by the rest of the owners.

In Marriotts case, when you buy the unit, you (almost always) by all the facilities that come with it...ie...pools gyms, restautrants, (not all developers do this....they keep the gravey)

When the resort is completely sold out, Marriott has a long term contract to manage it...to Marriott standards. Thats good! But expensive. (Most weeks in the system have maint fees of approx $1000. (Thats why the L/O is SOOO important..you get at least two weeks for one).

Meanwhile, Marriott has set up your T/S to run as a hotel....they rent your week or left over weeks or days....it is really run like a hotel, except you will not get hotel services. They keep most fees.

And guess who pays for maintance, insurance, and taxes ???? YES the owners! Thats why it would probably be better to buy Marriott Stock than any timeshare (ok ok a bit of a joke)

But thats the general idea of an honest T/S developer. In Marriott, YOU pick the week YOU want in your float if still available. Thats very important because the best week in your float will get you better trades... (Marriott is not a point system...never was)

That might give you an idea of how a deeded, owned interval condo would work.

kekouri wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

jons29 wrote:

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

===== Is the HOA what most of us call Maintenance Fees? You would be unable to use your timeshare at all until all fees due are paid in full. MD

HOA = Home Owners Association. In a deeded T/S (interval) condominium development....which is what MOST T/Ss are in the USA, the owners of the week, interval, or points will vote for members of the HOA in order to run the place and take care of it.

An HOA ( some places use different letters) is voted on by OWNERS....so, if most of the condo resort is owned by management, guess who gets voted into run the condo? The managers friends. Thats one reason wht some management companies would like to have the owned weeks converted to points. In some cases, then ALL the owners lose their rights to run THEIR condo.

But in most Mexican Resorts, the resort may be set up as a condo, but USA citizens are sold a long term lease...a Right To Use (RTU) for a period of time. (Certain Mexican Laws forbid foreign ownership in many areas). In these places, management may be the technical owners of the land, buildings and services....not the people with the RTU.

In any case, not paying your maintance fees, taxes or assessments will result in your credit rating being impacted.

One poster mentioned to try to rent your owned or RTU unit....at least you will get some $$ back. I agree. Not paying will show on credit reporting agencies and really lower your scores....they will sue you, and win. Unless you bought a Holiday Club that states you only pay fees when you use a week, you are considered an owner or leasee and required to pay the fees.

=====

So HOA (Home Owners Assoc.) is the same as POA (Property Owners Assoc.) POA is what I have been accustomed to hearing, but obviousely terminology is not uniform from timeshare group to timeshare group. MD

adahiscout wrote:

kekouri wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

jons29 wrote:

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

===== Is the HOA what most of us call Maintenance Fees? You would be unable to use your timeshare at all until all fees due are paid in full. MD

HOA = Home Owners Association. In a deeded T/S (interval) condominium development....which is what MOST T/Ss are in the USA, the owners of the week, interval, or points will vote for members of the HOA in order to run the place and take care of it.

An HOA ( some places use different letters) is voted on by OWNERS....so, if most of the condo resort is owned by management, guess who gets voted into run the condo? The managers friends. Thats one reason wht some management companies would like to have the owned weeks converted to points. In some cases, then ALL the owners lose their rights to run THEIR condo.

But in most Mexican Resorts, the resort may be set up as a condo, but USA citizens are sold a long term lease...a Right To Use (RTU) for a period of time. (Certain Mexican Laws forbid foreign ownership in many areas). In these places, management may be the technical owners of the land, buildings and services....not the people with the RTU.

In any case, not paying your maintance fees, taxes or assessments will result in your credit rating being impacted.

One poster mentioned to try to rent your owned or RTU unit....at least you will get some $$ back. I agree. Not paying will show on credit reporting agencies and really lower your scores....they will sue you, and win. Unless you bought a Holiday Club that states you only pay fees when you use a week, you are considered an owner or leasee and required to pay the fees.

=====

So HOA (Home Owners Assoc.) is the same as POA (Property Owners Assoc.) POA is what I have been accustomed to hearing, but obviousely terminology is not uniform from timeshare group to timeshare group. MD

You are right. Many different names for the same thing. Even the rules governing the group ownership has different names. ( Declaration of Condominium...& so on )

And sometimes, its the same as condo ownership, but the developers (even of fulltime real estate) note the many prospective buyers walk out when they hear its a Condo but will buy when its a townshouse association. ( Even when the rules and the propert owned is the same)

Now,,, In the North East, a Condo form of ownership is much different than a co-op ownership. ( Co-ops give out shares of stock with right to occupy)

Thanks all for your feed back. I read in our TS package that our home resort does not guarantee that our unit for rent; so if I put it in the rent and if it can't rent out my week, what will happen with it?

kimyn wrote:

Thanks all for your feed back. I read in our TS package that our home resort does not guarantee that our unit for rent; so if I put it in the rent and if it can't rent out my week, what will happen with it?

It will probably stay empty that week.....or it should. That is why the exchange companies have grown....if you can't rent or use your own place....at least you can trade it...for another time. Sometimes, if you deposit the week right, you can wait for several years .

Sometimes (if your flexible with vacation time) you might be able to use two weeks you gave in for exchange for a two week vacation back to back. It takes planning, but can be done. ( Like 2 weeks in Mexico, Key West.....or see if availability is there for a first week in Orlando (an easy trade) with a beach front unit in Ft Meyers or Ft Lauderdale.

kekouri wrote:

kimyn wrote:

Thanks all for your feed back. I read in our TS package that our home resort does not guarantee that our unit for rent; so if I put it in the rent and if it can't rent out my week, what will happen with it?

It will probably stay empty that week.....or it should. That is why the exchange companies have grown....if you can't rent or use your own place....at least you can trade it...for another time. Sometimes, if you deposit the week right, you can wait for several years .

Sometimes (if your flexible with vacation time) you might be able to use two weeks you gave in for exchange for a two week vacation back to back. It takes planning, but can be done. ( Like 2 weeks in Mexico, Key West.....or see if availability is there for a first week in Orlando (an easy trade) with a beach front unit in Ft Meyers or Ft Lauderdale.

====== Yes, with the "cost of getting there" being a big part of many vacations, staying longer is a good plan if you have that option. In Mexico last year we traded two white time Silver Crown Bransons for two consecutive November weeks at two different Gold Crown resorts in Puerto Vallarta. Got to know different parts of town! RCI? Yup. MD

I think you are correct and you have to remember that sometimes things happen and you may not be able to take that one week a year. For me I think it is a bit of a rip off seeing that we pay $36 every month and this will be the first year we have used it since aquiring it. I even looked at selling the property but I was told the resale value is nowhere near what was paid for it.

stephaniem160 wrote:

I think you are correct and you have to remember that sometimes things happen and you may not be able to take that one week a year. For me I think it is a bit of a rip off seeing that we pay $36 every month and this will be the first year we have used it since aquiring it. I even looked at selling the property but I was told the resale value is nowhere near what was paid for it.

However, the resort is not really responsible for our personal work or vacation schedules, is it? I hope you have been able to rent out the weeks you could not use or deposit them for future use with an exchange company to extend their "shelf life". And that you enjoy your resort this year.

If you can't go in 2008, consider offering your week through RedWeeks to recover maintenance fees and something toward your equity. Some resorts will try to rent your week out for you, taking a percentage of any proceeds. Of course, nobody can absolutely guarantee that a week will rent, but it never hurts to try (as long as you don't pay a big up-front fee!) MD

Problems: 8/2/07 1.continuous rising cost of maintenance fees yearly + additional assessment fees, i.e. $1,800. 2.I want to file a formal complaint on being stucked with high rising costs timeshares but its property value is low, & I want developers to share profits with captured ts owners who are footing all the bills of maintaining the timeshare resorts - at our expense.

Anybody, who agrees with me, I need your name/s, I need your support on these complaints. Thank you.

Angel: I think everyone would agree with you. But I don't know how the developers will pay back anything.

Remember....once the place is finished being built and sold, THE DEVELOPER LEAVES. They go to find another place to build and sell. They are no longer connected to the condo or project they sold out.

The people they sold it to are now the deeded owners. (You are one of them) They run the place...through an association of people they usually have voted for. ( Sometimes called a HOA- Home Owners Association).

This association then votes for a management company to run the place. Sometimes, its another division of the developer...as in Marriott, Hyatts, or some Hiltons case. Sometimes the HOA votes for a new management company (via votes from the ownership, too).

A few years ago, Shawnee Villages group of resorts management company was changed to Wyndham Fairfield. ( Some post they bought the place....but the owners are....not Fairfield...( Of course they may get control with taking over units that maint fees were not paid, or having owners of weeks switch to points.....but basic... the folks who paid the developer or those who bought a week on a resale are the owners.

angelmitc wrote:

Problems: 8/2/07 1.continuous rising cost of maintenance fees yearly + additional assessment fees, i.e. $1,800. 2.I want to file a formal complaint on being stucked with high rising costs timeshares but its property value is low, & I want developers to share profits with captured ts owners who are footing all the bills of maintaining the timeshare resorts - at our expense.

Anybody, who agrees with me, I need your name/s, I need your support on these complaints. Thank you.

adahiscout wrote:

kekouri wrote:

adahiscout wrote:

jons29 wrote:

kimyn wrote:

I am new to TS. I just wonder if we don't pay HOA for that year which means we forfeit our right to use for that year? And next year, if I decide to use, I'll pay to pay HOA for that year only, or previous year plus this year?

You will pay both years MF, plus a penalty. If you don't use, better to rent. Get back your MF, plus make a small profit.

===== Is the HOA what most of us call Maintenance Fees? You would be unable to use your timeshare at all until all fees due are paid in full. MD

HOA = Home Owners Association. In a deeded T/S (interval) condominium development....which is what MOST T/Ss are in the USA, the owners of the week, interval, or points will vote for members of the HOA in order to run the place and take care of it.

An HOA ( some places use different letters) is voted on by OWNERS....so, if most of the condo resort is owned by management, guess who gets voted into run the condo? The managers friends. Thats one reason wht some management companies would like to have the owned weeks converted to points. In some cases, then ALL the owners lose their rights to run THEIR condo.

But in most Mexican Resorts, the resort may be set up as a condo, but USA citizens are sold a long term lease...a Right To Use (RTU) for a period of time. (Certain Mexican Laws forbid foreign ownership in many areas). In these places, management may be the technical owners of the land, buildings and services....not the people with the RTU.

In any case, not paying your maintance fees, taxes or assessments will result in your credit rating being impacted.

One poster mentioned to try to rent your owned or RTU unit....at least you will get some $$ back. I agree. Not paying will show on credit reporting agencies and really lower your scores....they will sue you, and win. Unless you bought a Holiday Club that states you only pay fees when you use a week, you are considered an owner or leasee and required to pay the fees.

=====

So HOA (Home Owners Assoc.) is the same as POA (Property Owners Assoc.) POA is what I have been accustomed to hearing, but obviousely terminology is not uniform from timeshare group to timeshare group. MD

I agree with you totally. Can you write me at angelmitc@aol.com Thanks!

I know people who are paying $1200 or more in maintenance fees and are paying $17,000 for there one week of points. thats a minimum of $2900 every year for the fisrt 10 years. If they bought it in their twenties and are still going strong fifty years later, by the time they go on their 50th vacation Their vacations just for accomadations will average out to $1,540 a year and this does not include their yearly taxes. Interest on the original financing of $17,000, or increases in their maintenance fees. I also forgot the exchange fees and yearly membership fees.

cynthias164 wrote:

I know people who are paying $1200 or more in maintenance fees and are paying $17,000 for there one week of points. thats a minimum of $2900 every year for the fisrt 10 years. If they bought it in their twenties and are still going strong fifty years later, by the time they go on their 50th vacation Their vacations just for accomadations will average out to $1,540 a year and this does not include their yearly taxes. Interest on the original financing of $17,000, or increases in their maintenance fees. I also forgot the exchange fees and yearly membership fees.

Exactly .... unless someone desires a timeshare week in a very high demand location with a very low supply then (in my opinion) there's really no sense in BUYING a timeshare with all the financial obligations involved.

There are thousands of timeshares for rent on Redweek alone (not counting other rental sites on the internet and brick & mortar rental outets). By renting you're not obligated to the hassles of long term ownership which include rising maintenance fees (yearly), possible special assessments and rising exchange company fees.

Remember that when you buy a timeshare you own it until you sell it. Even after death your estate is responsible for all financial obligations regarding that ownership.

adahiscout wrote:

paulp145 wrote:

When I look at Redweek sale postings for identical units, in identical weeks, I often notice the reported maintenace fees can vary. Is this accurate that different owners are charged different fees or are sellers misrepresenting actual current maintenance charges ?

===

If their use year starts on different dates, it is possible that one has paid a more recent (higher) MF than the other.

We have 2 timeshares - a floating red in Malta and a red week in Tenerife. We pay twice as much maintenance for the latter though they're both very similar.

I think we all agree, maintenance fees are sky high, but what really throws me are the extra charges. We are owners at 2 resorts that are right next to each other on Paradise Island, Bahamas. We are using a week at both places at the same time. We and another couple will stay at one resort, while my brother and his wife will stay at the smaller, older resort next door. WOW, was I surprised when I received our statement for what my husband calls "the fun place". A fee of $65.00 for a confirmation fee?! At a place where we are owners? AND, a resort assessment fee of $23.00 per person per night due upon departure?! When I called them earlier today to question these charges, I was told as of Jan. 14, 2008, there are 2 more daily assessments. $18.00 per person per night "service assessment" that goes to personal that come to the unit such as, room service, laundry, housekeeping ect. and a "villa gratuities" charge of $6.50 per night for tips to the front desk girls! It's cheaper to exchange through RCI than go to our home resort. Is this unusual? Is anyone else experiencing these unreal charges? We don't have these fees at either of our other 2 properties.