Maintenance Fees

The maintenence fees are much too high in all the resorts. Take for example a one bedroom unit one may have for one week. One can find to rent one such resort for 70$ to 100$ a day or or on average 550$ per week to rent a given place yet the maintenance fees are about the same as renting a place for which one did not pay 15,000 or 20,000 on day one to own that week. If we take a unit where the maintenance fees are 500.00$ per year per week. If we assume that the developer sold the same unit for 45 weeks. This means that the developer collects 22,500.00$ per year for that one unit. Given that the building may have 20 units he is collecting 550,000.00$ per building per year. That to me is very high for maintenance fees. I like to see what others think. My email: irini90@msn.com

I agree. I am in an older (but wonderful) timeshare, so I can't speak to the developer issue. However, I think the management companies have too much control over our finances and charge ridiculous fees.

Yah, take Hawaii, our fees for our 2 bedroom unit are 900$ a year, they claim it takes over 6.8 million dollars a year just run the place, i finance and develop commercial real estate, that is a RIDICULOUS amount of money to run a simple condo project, i know some energy costs are going to be higher, but the maintenance fees almost make these timeshares not worth it, thinking of selling, you can always find deals online for quality travel

True, there are many deals to be had for great travel. Especially in 2007 for those US citizens with a passport. So many people are not paying attention and will not have passports when they want to travel. I am very in tune with the market; I am a travel agent. I am seeing fantastic deals for this winter. If I can help you find something, just let me know!

I think the Management Co. is part of the problem as well. They have too much control because the owners are not there to keep an eye on things.

I agree about them not being worth it unless you have something really special (I do, Sanibel Island, FL). I would not join RCI; too many hassles and not worth the cost. Be careful about selling though; they are really low right now and you may not get much money for it. You may do better renting it out on Redweek and using the money to cover your fees etc. Then you can use the money you make on another trip.

Mary

I completely agree, and I have done the math before to come to the same conclusion. What is even worse, most of the timeshare co's oversell theweeks like crazy--there is no legal restriction from their overselling--they all deny it but they all do it--so they dont just sell 52 weeks a year; they may sell 500 weeks ayear, counting on most people not using their weeks there at all in some years, or banking them and exchanging them thru RCI or some other exchange, just pusing the overcrowding forward to the future while taking our money today and putting it in their own pockets and, with our maintenance dues, just buiding and expanding new units instead of doing real, actual, responsible maintenance on the units we actually bought. So I have found my units deteriorating steadily, uninsured, and finally blown down in a hurricane with no rebuild as there was no adequate insurance. This was the most basic item supposed to be covered by our dues. It was not.

aristotle1 wrote:

The maintenence fees are much too high in all the resorts. Take for example a one bedroom unit one may have for one week. One can find to rent one such resort for 70$ to 100$ a day or or on average 550$ per week to rent a given place yet the maintenance fees are about the same as renting a place for which one did not pay 15,000 or 20,000 on day one to own that week. If we take a unit where the maintenance fees are 500.00$ per year per week. If we assume that the developer sold the same unit for 45 weeks. This means that the developer collects 22,500.00$ per year for that one unit. Given that the building may have 20 units he is collecting 550,000.00$ per building per year. That to me is very high for maintenance fees. I like to see what others think. My email: irini90@msn.com

Hi, I love Sanibel Island too. I frankly don't see the value of RCI at all, even if you like/love your home unit. They NEVER EVER have anything at the places I want at the times I want. It's $89 a year just thrown away, to me. what makes it worth while for you, I was wondering?

maryd108 wrote:

True, there are many deals to be had for great travel. Especially in 2007 for those US citizens with a passport. So many people are not paying attention and will not have passports when they want to travel. I am very in tune with the market; I am a travel agent. I am seeing fantastic deals for this winter. If I can help you find something, just let me know!

I think the Management Co. is part of the problem as well. They have too much control because the owners are not there to keep an eye on things.

I agree about them not being worth it unless you have something really special (I do, Sanibel Island, FL). I would not join RCI; too many hassles and not worth the cost. Be careful about selling though; they are really low right now and you may not get much money for it. You may do better renting it out on Redweek and using the money to cover your fees etc. Then you can use the money you make on another trip.

Mary

I am in complete agreement with your assessment of maintenance fees and I definitely agree with your math. The majority of mainteance fees seems to rise each and every year. In the vast majority of cases you come out much better financially to rent than to own without the hassles of owning.

aristotle1 wrote:

The maintenence fees are much too high in all the resorts. Take for example a one bedroom unit one may have for one week. One can find to rent one such resort for 70$ to 100$ a day or or on average 550$ per week to rent a given place yet the maintenance fees are about the same as renting a place for which one did not pay 15,000 or 20,000 on day one to own that week. If we take a unit where the maintenance fees are 500.00$ per year per week. If we assume that the developer sold the same unit for 45 weeks. This means that the developer collects 22,500.00$ per year for that one unit. Given that the building may have 20 units he is collecting 550,000.00$ per building per year. That to me is very high for maintenance fees. I like to see what others think. My email: irini90@msn.com

I don't join RCI. My condo on Sanibel is a deeded two weeks for a specific unit. That way they can't fool around with you, telling you your own place is unavailable. that's ridiculous.

marlm wrote:

Hi, I love Sanibel Island too. I frankly don't see the value of RCI at all, even if you like/love your home unit. They NEVER EVER have anything at the places I want at the times I want. It's $89 a year just thrown away, to me. what makes it worth while for you, I was wondering?

maryd108 wrote:

True, there are many deals to be had for great travel. Especially in 2007 for those US citizens with a passport. So many people are not paying attention and will not have passports when they want to travel. I am very in tune with the market; I am a travel agent. I am seeing fantastic deals for this winter. If I can help you find something, just let me know!

I think the Management Co. is part of the problem as well. They have too much control because the owners are not there to keep an eye on things.

I agree about them not being worth it unless you have something really special (I do, Sanibel Island, FL). I would not join RCI; too many hassles and not worth the cost. Be careful about selling though; they are really low right now and you may not get much money for it. You may do better renting it out on Redweek and using the money to cover your fees etc. Then you can use the money you make on another trip.

Mary

After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.

thomasc147 wrote:

After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.

I TOTALLY Agree! These Resorts have us by the Gonads, and the Maintenance fees are a BIG Stinking Rip-off! As stated above, they get 500-700 per unit, per week, or 52 x 500 (average) = $26,000 average EVERY YEAR FOR EVERY UNIT! Multiply that times however many units are in the resort and you know how much money they are bringing in on the 'Maintenance' fees! Then, like that wasn't enough, last year, my Stinking Resort, Celebrity Resorts in Indian Shores, FL., had the gall to charge me over $1000.00 'Special assessment' ON TOP of my normal $500.00 maintenance fee. I Was Steaming Mad, and so were a lot of other owners. I called the local Government offices, and they are USELESS! They said there was nothing they could do. I believe the only way to correct these situations is to get enough owners to vote out the board, if it is run by a board, and get a new board in there that have some common sense! Only problem is, with Indian Shores, it is 'owned' by a Father/Son, or something like that, and they 'make the rules', so if you don't like it, tough! Guess I will have to sell this unit to some poor unsuspecting sole! ;) By the way, I didn't see it above, but I may have missed it. Did you add up how much these original owners made on the original sale of each unit? 52 x $10,000 (one bedroom average), or 520,000 PER UNIT. Your realize how much it costs to build a 800-1000 square foot apartment/condo? Maybe 150,000!, and that is being generous as it should be more cost effective to build 20 units than one. Talk about a KILLING! Even if you pay the High Pressure Salespeople well, they are still making about a 50% profit on each unit. No wonder there are so many Timeshares Out There flooding the market! Just my 2 cents worth!

You are all so right about the maintenance fees! Where I live, we have a similar problem (along with the fact that we only have 3 resorts to choose from!). There is a local group of people here that got fed up, and they have got as many resort owners as possible together to bring a class action lawsuit against the company that owns and manages the resorts. The suit, which is currently in the high court, claims that the reason our maintenance fees are so high is that the resort management are charging the owners for maintenance of the complete site, including maintenance of units unsold (and there are a lot of those). So, if only 1/2 the weeks have been sold, I am actually paying double maintenance on my weeks, to cover the unsold units (which, by the way, are rented out as regular hotel rooms !!!!). Anyway, at the moment the class action is in the courts, and the claims are currently "just claims", but you guys may think about doing something similar.

Is your resort managed by an HOA or a management company? If it's managed by an HOA then it's time to clean house and elect new board members. If it's managed by a management company then it's time for ALL owners to contact this company with your complaints.

thomasc147 After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.[/Q

Yearly rising maintenance fees (some in the hundreds of dollars), unexpected special assessments (some in the thousands of dollars) and rising exchange fees are the main reason we have sold most of our timeshares. Timeshare ownership formerly was a cost effective option for traveling, but in the last several years the unrealistic rising costs have ruled the cost effectiveness of (most) timeshare ownership no longer exists.

We now rent.

joel382 wrote:

thomasc147 wrote:

After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.

I TOTALLY Agree! These Resorts have us by the Gonads, and the Maintenance fees are a BIG Stinking Rip-off! As stated above, they get 500-700 per unit, per week, or 52 x 500 (average) = $26,000 average EVERY YEAR FOR EVERY UNIT! Multiply that times however many units are in the resort and you know how much money they are bringing in on the 'Maintenance' fees! Then, like that wasn't enough, last year, my Stinking Resort, Celebrity Resorts in Indian Shores, FL., had the gall to charge me over $1000.00 'Special assessment' ON TOP of my normal $500.00 maintenance fee. I Was Steaming Mad, and so were a lot of other owners. I called the local Government offices, and they are USELESS! They said there was nothing they could do. I believe the only way to correct these situations is to get enough owners to vote out the board, if it is run by a board, and get a new board in there that have some common sense! Only problem is, with Indian Shores, it is 'owned' by a Father/Son, or something like that, and they 'make the rules', so if you don't like it, tough! Guess I will have to sell this unit to some poor unsuspecting sole! ;) By the way, I didn't see it above, but I may have missed it. Did you add up how much these original owners made on the original sale of each unit? 52 x $10,000 (one bedroom average), or 520,000 PER UNIT. Your realize how much it costs to build a 800-1000 square foot apartment/condo? Maybe 150,000!, and that is being generous as it should be more cost effective to build 20 units than one. Talk about a KILLING! Even if you pay the High Pressure Salespeople well, they are still making about a 50% profit on each unit. No wonder there are so many Timeshares Out There flooding the market! Just my 2 cents worth!

Yes and mine may be one of them soon. It's quite a racquet. Just about everything they told me 25 years ago when I bought the unit has turned out to be a lie. As investments go, it doesn't get much worse, and the yearly fees aren't much different than renting on the open market. I'm thinking about just giving my unit to a relative, but I am not sure they will want it, even minus the investment costs, when they consider the annual costs. Like most things that get accomplished it will probably take a massive organized effort to put pressure on the industry somehow, but I don't see that happening now. No one feels sorry for the "rich" people who buy timeshares, so only the owners themselves would be successful, and I don't know where to begin to try to organize or join such an effort. I don't even know where to start with my own resort.

jayjay Is your resort managed by an HOA or a management company? If it's managed by an HOA then it's time to clean house and elect new board members. If it's managed by a management company then it's time for ALL owners to contact this company with your complaints.

thomasc147 After 25 years of exorbitant and ever-increasing maintenance fees, I've become "mad as hell and I can't take it anymore." My main complaint at my resort (High Point World Resort) is that management and administration fees account for 33% of the operating costs, or $884,871 for 108 units. That is ridiculous! I feel helpless to act. Does anyone have any experience on how one begins to address this issue? Is there a regulatory agency in Florida I can contact? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm ready for action. Thanks.[/Q[/Q] We have a Board but they have been the same members forever. I am suspicious they have some ownership or connection to the management company or administration, and I am in the process of trying to find that out. I know the only real strength for change is numbers, but getting owners together in any fashion in the timeshare system is extremely difficult, time-consuming and costly. I wonder if there are attorney's in Florida and/or elsewhere that have experience in timeshare class-action lawsuits?

debi_zyx wrote:

You are all so right about the maintenance fees! Where I live, we have a similar problem (along with the fact that we only have 3 resorts to choose from!). There is a local group of people here that got fed up, and they have got as many resort owners as possible together to bring a class action lawsuit against the company that owns and manages the resorts. The suit, which is currently in the high court, claims that the reason our maintenance fees are so high is that the resort management are charging the owners for maintenance of the complete site, including maintenance of units unsold (and there are a lot of those). So, if only 1/2 the weeks have been sold, I am actually paying double maintenance on my weeks, to cover the unsold units (which, by the way, are rented out as regular hotel rooms !!!!). Anyway, at the moment the class action is in the courts, and the claims are currently "just claims", but you guys may think about doing something similar.

I thought I saw something on the Florida regulatory website concerning timeshares that said it was illegal for owners to charge maintenance fees on unsold units. I understood it that the owners were responsible for whatever the annual fee is for each unit that remainded unsold. It only makes sense, but based on my experience with the timeshare industry, I'm not surprised they are trying to stick the weekly owners with the bill.

It seems to me when buying a timeshare week, you pay the initial cost and then the maintenance fees each year .... much like your're buying to rent your own timeshare yourself via mandatory maintenance fees. In the end it really doesn't make sense to own a timeshare week with SO many rentals on the market today.

thomasc147 wrote:

I thought I saw something on the Florida regulatory website concerning timeshares that said it was illegal for owners to charge maintenance fees on unsold units. I understood it that the owners were responsible for whatever the annual fee is for each unit that remainded unsold. It only makes sense, but based on my experience with the timeshare industry, I'm not surprised they are trying to stick the weekly owners with the bill.

Sounds like an excellent law to not be able to charge for unsold units. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist everywhere in the world, especially not in countries that do not have a very mature timeshare industry.

Also, why do you have to pay a deposit at some resorts when you stay there. I know it's refunded if all is well but surely maintenance fees should cover this.

ednab2 wrote:

Also, why do you have to pay a deposit at some resorts when you stay there. I know it's refunded if all is well but surely maintenance fees should cover this.

The Deposit is in case you, or your guests, decide to trash the place. That way they can charge your credit card for repairs or missing items. This is actually a good idea if you are renting to teenagers/college students in Florida during Summer Break, if you know what I mean...