As our country enters a season of financial difficulty, timeshare owners around the world are beginning to reconsider their once affordable timeshares as debt they need to get out of. Last year, the timeshare industry saw its single largest increase in maintenance fees. Over the last several years, many owners have begun to catch on to this trend.
A developer that seems to be a major player in this game of increasing fees is Diamond Resorts International. The annual maintenance fees for a DRI property have doubled since 2001, increasing from $695 to $1,400 today in 2009.
Owners of Diamond properties seem to have a common complaint and concern over how quickly the fees are increasing compared to the trend of decreased quality in the vacations. Although, DRI is not the only company guilty of this trend, they are currently in the spot light due to owners demanding answers and drawing attention to the situation.
Like many other timeshare owners, DRI owners have been feeling powerless with decisions on maintenance fees and special assessments. This is mainly due to the fact that most timeshare owners associations and board members are employees to that particular developer. It is rare to find a large developer today that isn’t designed that way. With this structure, it is nearly impossible for the owners to have control over their properties and the fees that come along with it.
However, there are a few owners who aren’t willing to sit back and let it happen without a fair fight. Out of the 10,000 owners that belong to the South Shore resort approximately 250 owners have attempted to take back control of their timeshares. The only hurdle for these active owners is trying to get contact information from DRI for the other 9,750 owners who may want to join the fight.
According to the resort bylaws and regulations, DRI is required to, “keep an accurate and current list of members of the association of apartment owners and their current addresses…the list shall be maintained at a place designated by the board of directors and a copy shall be available, at cost, to any member of the association..” However, obtaining this document has proven to be more challenging than it should be. According to owners involved in this take-back attempt, they have been trying to get a list of deeded owners since February of 2009 and state that DRI’s response each time is that it is a “strict policy not to release the list.”
Another DRI conflict involves Mike Givens, who is a consultant for a consulting management company who was threatened with a lawsuit by Diamond Resorts for making “defamatory, false and tortuously interfering” statements in an article written in The Garden Island.
Given’s attorney lashed back with a cease and desist and expressed his unwillingness to step down by stating, “I assume that you have found it profitable in the past to attempt to silence criticism of you organization by threats, harassment and intimidation…these tactics may have the opposite effect from the one you seek.”
Although there seem to be a few timeshare owners out there who are fighting against the developers and management companies, it has been proven to be a long and difficult road. Most timeshare developers have all the time and money they need to drag out lawsuits for as long as they want, and the owners are the ones left holding the financial bag. The reality is increased costs for the developers will only reflect an increased cost in maintenance fees for the owners.
Apex Professionals believes that there is a huge lesson to be learned from stories such as this. With timeshares becoming continuously expensive, and developers becoming harder to fight in legal confrontations, it is simply easier to just discontinue association with the industry. It is expensive enough as it is being a timeshare owner it will only get more expensive if you attempt to fight a monster in court, or stick around to pay the bill for the developer.
If your timeshare ownership is causing grief and financial hardship for you and your family, then Apex Professionals LLC has an option for you that won’t involve lawsuits or upfront fees for advertising and listings. It is better to get out now than after the storm has passed.
About the Author: The timeshare experts at Apex Professionals, LLC, concentrate on helping disillusioned timeshare holders to rid themselves of unwanted maintenance fees, unnecessary assessment costs, and to do away with those annoying high-interest mortgages by offering to take over unwanted timeshare agreements instantly. Related posts:
I would love to get in touch with other owners from Poipu Point Vacation Owners Association. To have some discussions about the lack of comm with owners etc.
It not fair for timeshare owners to pay a maintenance fee when they are not using the property 365 days a year. They have one week and pay maintenance fees all year, there need to be a debtors revolt on you tube, we mad as hell and we are not going to continue in these capitalistic tactics. take to U_Tube big time. EVERYBODY.
sadly that was the conclusion i came to.
as a former owner i was left with little choice.
no buy back policy,and no compensation.
they have a captive membership with knowhere to go.
I have been at this fight for over 3 years when they started randomly increasing fees. i called and complained and they wouldn’t do anything. i decided not to pay these fees and they started piling late fees on this. i am determined not to give in. if there is any legal recourse i would be glad to participate.