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SPM leaving A Place at the Beach III Atlantic Beach NC !!!

theo

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Only reason the board got rid of SPM was to probably get rid of the people who knows exactly what was going on. What a joke VRI is not going to save us any money it's a huge company which is owned by ILG and while all these nice options for owners may look good I'm willing to bet this new company ain't going to put up with too much BS I have heard our board can be very difficult to deal with.

I don't know APATB, or its' Board, or SPM --- and I admit that I don't even comprehend your point above, but fwiw I have a fair number of years of ownership at several different resorts managed by VRI. In my own first hand experience and observation over a few decades now, VRI is an excellent management company.
I frankly can't imagine selection of VRI as being anything but good news, particularly if the likes of DRI and Festiva were among the possible alternatives. :eek:
You should probably be celebrating instead bemoaning; VRI hasn't successfully managed 125+ resorts for many years now without knowing what they're doing.

It is true that Interval Leisure Group is the parent company which owns VRI, as of a few years ago (2013 ?). ILG also owns Interval International --- so what?
Why on earth would you possibly see the ILG corporate ownership of VRI as being in any way relevant to competent on site management of your resort? o_O
 
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Egret1986

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Only reason the board got rid of SPM was to probably get rid of the people who knows exactly what was going on. What a joke VRI is not going to save us any money it's a huge company which is owned by ILG and while all these nice options for owners may look good I'm willing to bet this new company ain't going to put up with too much BS I have heard our board can be very difficult to deal with.

The Board still has not been forthcoming about what brought on the flurry of emails and letters, and the decision to not renew SPM's management contract. The owners should still be made aware of what this is all about.

However, how much do you really know about VRI and whether or not money will be saved? Like another recent guest on TUG, you appear to be taking a stance about VRI and have little knowledge or experience to back it up. The other person titled a very recent post about a different company (not VRI) as VRI SCAM.

What the heck??????? :rolleyes:

"What a joke......"????? ".....willing to bet this new company ain't going to put up with too much BS..."????? o_O :doh:
 

RLS50

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As stated previously personally I was a supporter of the changes and upgrades done under SPM's leadership. This resort had gotten run down and dumpy and SPM transformed it, even if that resulted in slightly higher MF's.

But this sounds like it might work out okay for APATBIII owners. I have no idea if DRI and Festiva were also considered, but if they were, IMO owners should be thankful it wasn't either of those companies.
 

Kozman

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I owned at a previously VRI managed resort and did not find much to complain about. They are a tad on the more expensive side but I don't see them trying to take advantage of the owners for their own profit to the extent DRI and especially as Festiva has. VRI also has an internal trading program via Trading Places that is an alternative to the ever increasing cost of RCI.
 

Drinkingbeer

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Only thing I got to complain about now is the fact that there were board members that were using time share weeks to stay at the resort for free along with their family members over the course of three years or longer.
 

Junie

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Letter from HOA recently did state that board members were offered/using "comp" time/days at the resort. What they were being compensated for, was not mentioned. I don't know how it is that SPM "suddenly" figured that out. Stays have to be checked in at the resort, even for regular weeks owners, so it seems someone must have known how the "system" was working as the keys were handed out. I do feel the appearance of the resort improved a great deal under SPM. VRI's choice should be a positive one, as well.
 

pedro47

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Sound like the owners needs an all new HOA board. VRI is a good management company. How long is their written contract for and what are their terms and conditions ? This is what the owners need to know.
 

allsmiles277

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Letter to Owners - Jan. 5, 2017
Posted on Thursday, January 05 @ 14:13:13 EST by tchadmin
Contributed by tchadmin

A Place at the Beach
January 5, 2017

This is an open letter from the Board of Directors to whole and timeshare owners of A Place at the Beach (“APATB”).

The Board received a letter from a Board member on September 8, 2016 announcing his resignation and that he had found some concerning information tied to past use of ‘comp days’ by Board members and their families. We immediately requested that SPM provide a complete report to us on this alleged use of ‘comp days’ and their recommendations, if any. We did not receive a response from SPM with their conclusions and recommendations until October 23, 2016. We quickly noticed that SPM did not consider all the available information. Due to the incomplete nature of SPM's conclusions and recommendations, we felt compelled to have our attorney analyze the allegations with the available and relevant information. The APATB attorney had to recuse himself as he represents both the HOA and SPM; this notification came on November 4th. Due to this limited conflict of interest, we solicited the assistance of another disinterested attorney with experience in this area. He agreed to take our case on November 22, 2016. He completed and delivered his legal opinion on December 30, 2016. The Board scheduled a meeting to review his opinions, conclusions, and recommendations on January 2, 2017. We formulated and initiated our plan of action at that meeting. The legal opinion is attorney-client privileged and details the strengths and weaknesses of any available legal claims. We have been advised by legal counsel that it is in the best interests of the Association to keep the opinion confidential. The opinion was not shared with SPM, Bill Schiavone, Helen DeFlorio or Rita Knish. In addition, Bill, Helen and Rita recused themselves from the entire analysis process and from any votes on action on the legal opinion. Our legal counsel did not find evidence substantiating the allegations against Rita Knish. Using all available information and the recommendations of legal counsel, the Board has decided not to pursue litigation on any legal claims available to the Association although there was evidence of inappropriate SPM and Board Member involvement in the rental agreements. However, Bill Schiavone and Helen DeFlorio, who have been valued members of the Board for over a decade, have elected to resign. Finally, the Board intends to formalize a ‘comp day’ policy for consideration by the entire membership.

There have been many questions and concerns surrounding the Board’s decision to not renew the management contract with SPM. The Board has found a need to micro manage SPM’s financial reports as far back as 2012. The Treasurer’s audits of SPM financial reports have found numerous errors. Each time an error is identified SPM quickly rectifies the account in question. On one such occasion in April 2013 the error was over $50,000. There are several additional documented cases of financial issues with SPM over the past 6 years. Without our due diligence these errors would have gone uncorrected and would have resulted in significant losses to APATB over the course of 4 years. In addition, certain SPM employees were prone to publish inaccurate and incomplete communications to certain members and to the membership as a whole. For these and other reasons, the Board saw fit to transition to a new management company - VRI.

Please accept this correspondence as our official explanation of the events leading to the change in management and the resolution of the SPM allegations about certain Board members. The Board hopes to continue to serve the owners of APATB with trust and confidence. This is an unfortunate event for the Board and the Association. We believe we have dealt with these events in a professional and appropriate manner. Let us all move forward for the betterment of our fine resort. We are convinced that VRI will work with the Board to continue the progress made over the past six years.

We hope everyone enjoyed a Happy and Joyous Holiday Season.

Your Board of Directors

Pat Shaheen, President
Rita Knish, Vice President
Tom McMahan, Treasurer
Brian Minshew, Secretary
Hugo Almodovar
 

TUGBrian

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we solicited the assistance of another disinterested attorney with experience in this area. He agreed to take our case on November 22, 2016. He completed and delivered his legal opinion on December 30, 2016. The Board scheduled a meeting to review his opinions, conclusions, and recommendations on January 2, 2017. We formulated and initiated our plan of action at that meeting. The legal opinion is attorney-client privileged and details the strengths and weaknesses of any available legal claims. We have been advised by legal counsel that it is in the best interests of the Association to keep the opinion confidential.

am i reading that right? the resort hired an attorney to look into it...paid for the service...and then said they reserved the right to keep the results of the attorneys investigation/opinion secret citing attorney-client privileged?

isnt the "client" the owners in this case?
 

pedro47

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This is very strange know one knows what is going except SPM, the Board of Directors and the lawyers. Maybe the owners needs to sue the Board of Directors to ascertain the information about their resort. Can anyone smell a dirty rat?
This is sad.
 

BocaBoy

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am i reading that right? the resort hired an attorney to look into it...paid for the service...and then said they reserved the right to keep the results of the attorneys investigation/opinion secret citing attorney-client privileged?

isnt the "client" the owners in this case?
Technically, the "Association" of owners is the client and this is a significant legal distinction. This is very common practice. Shareholders in a corporation do not see this kind of thing. More relevant, large condominium associations generally do not share attorney-client privileged material with their members, especially where the issue was controversial. I would probably want to see the material too if I were an owner at his resort, but unfortunately keeping it secret is what I would expect to happen based on the way things work elsewhere.
 

pedro47

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The true will be leak to the owners someday, people loved to leak private information to the press and to the public. That is why we have tabloid newspapers & journalism.
 

theo

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The truth will be leaked to the owners someday....<snip>

I am inclined to disagree in a situation such as the one described above, where any such "leak" could easily morph into "actionable liability".
 

Drinkingbeer

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I see that VRI is off on a roll cannot find a general manager and one of the seasoned maintenance guys walked out the other day. I say they are off to a good transition
 

Kozman

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We are scheduled for a week at APATB soon. I'll try to sniff out any info from owners there and report back. It is my first time back to Atlantic Beach since the debacle at Peppertree AB II.
 

pedro47

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I see that VRI is off on a roll cannot find a general manager and one of the seasoned maintenance guys walked out the other day. I say they are off to a good transition

The pay is to low for the many,many headaches that will challenge the new GM.
 

Drinkingbeer

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How is VRI working out so far? There are several projects that were supposed to be done that are not being completed around the resort I for one don't think they are prepared for the onslaught of the upcoming summer
 
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