Talk About a Special Assessment! [Orofino, Dillon CO]

[bogey21]

My only remaining TS is a ski Week at Orofino by Straight Creek in Dillon, CO. The Week is in my Son's name but I pay the bills on it. The Board of Directors recently announced a Special Assessment to repair the concrete decks and catwalk systems. This is a structural safety issue and I have no problem paying my share.

Orofino is a mixed use community. Some buildings are 100% owned by permanent residents and others are split up into Weeks as Time Shares. The BofD has determined that the Special Assessment will be applied based on the number of Owners in each building. 100% owned units are being assessed $35,000! In my building there are 40 owners and my share is $875 which I have no problem paying. I like the Resort; the MFs are low (in the $450 range); and I want all to be safe. But can you imagine the shock those who own an entire building are feeling?

George

 

[decadude]

My only remaining TS is a ski Week at Orofino by Straight Creek in Dillon, CO. The Week is in my Son's name but I pay the bills on it. The Board of Directors recently announced a Special Assessment to repair the concrete decks and catwalk systems. This is a structural safety issue and I have no problem paying my share.

Orofino is a mixed use community. Some buildings are 100% owned by permanent residents and others are split up into Weeks as Time Shares. The BofD has determined that the Special Assessment will be applied based on the number of Owners in each building. 100% owned units are being assessed $35,000! In my building there are 40 owners and my share is $875 which I have no problem paying. I like the Resort; the MFs are low (in the $450 range); and I want all to be safe. But can you imagine the shock those who own an entire building are feeling?

George

Gotta love special assessments I am curious to the checks and balances that are in place to keep everyone honest on those.

 

[Jason245]

Sounds like reserves were underfunded. .

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[Passepartout]

Sounds like reserves were underfunded.

This would be my assessment too. Concrete decks and catwalks don't just deteriorate overnight. It's an incremental process that could (should?) have been seen coming and funded. It's called 'maintenance'.

Jim

 

[VegasBella]

Sounds like reserves were underfunded.

Exactly
But a lot of HOA's reserves are underfunded. I think that without legal interference, most boards will underfund the reserves.

 

[DaveNV]

I agree things were underfunded. That would be a heck of a bill to open.

How many owners are in the 100% owned buildings? In your building, $875 X 40 owners equals $35000. I'm wondering what each owner's share would be in those other buildings?

Dave

 

[Jason245]

Exactly
But a lot of HOA's reserves are underfunded. I think that without legal interference, most boards will underfund the reserves.

Owners don't want to pay higher fees so they get stuck with this situation. Maybe if they were charging a mf of 10 to 15 percent higher, they wouldn't be stuck with this in the future.

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[bogey21]

How many owners are in the 100% owned buildings? In your building, $875 X 40 owners equals $35000. I'm wondering what each owner's share would be in those other buildings?

Those that are in the 100% owned building are on the hook for the entire $35,000 payable in 2 easy installments, one now and one a year down the road. This Resort is mixed use, some buildings are owned by permanent residents and some are TimeShare. The 40 TS owners in my building is about the average in TS Week buildings.

Many will disagree with me but the reason I am ok with the $875 Special Assessment is because of the low MFs (in the $400 - $450 range) I have paid over the years. Personally I like knowing where the money is going.

George

 

[DaveNV]

Those that are in the 100% owned building are on the hook for the entire $35,000 payable in 2 easy installments, one now and one a year down the road. This Resort is mixed use, some buildings are owned by permanent residents and some are TimeShare. The 40 TS owners in my building is about the average in TS Week buildings.

Many will disagree with me but the reason I am ok with the $875 Special Assessment is because of the low MFs (in the $400 - $450 range) I have paid over the years. Personally I like knowing where the money is going.

George

I agree you have the better end of this, sharing the $35K with 39 other owners. But what I'm unclear on is how many owners are in the 100% owned buildings? Is it $35K per building, or are you saying it's $35K per unit?

Dave

 

[CO skier]

I agree things were underfunded. That would be a heck of a bill to open.

How many owners are in the 100% owned buildings? In your building, $875 X 40 owners equals $35000. I'm wondering what each owner's share would be in those other buildings?

Dave

Don't forget to multiply by 50 timeshare weeks in a year; that mean $1.75 million per building. Now that is a special assessment.

Are they replacing some concrete, or laying golden brick roads.

 

[bogey21]

Is it $35K per building, or are you saying it's $35K per unit?

It is $35k per building divided by the number of Owners in that building. If there is one owner; i.e. 100% owned, that owner is on the hook for the entire $35k (but probably lives there year round). Most of the buildings that were sold as TS Weeks have between 35 and 45 owners. In my building there are 40 of us. Hence my share is $35,000 divided by 40 or $875. It will likely be divided into 2 payments, one soon and one late next year.

George

 

[chapjim]

Catch-up time for the $450 annual maintenance fees.

 

[bogey21]

Don't forget to multiply by 50 timeshare weeks in a year; that mean $1.75 million per building. Now that is a special assessment.

Not exactly. I'm estimating that there are 25 buildings. Multiply my estimated 25 buildings by $35,000 and you get $875,000. The money is to repair all the concrete decks and the entire catwalk system. Apparently something collapsed and a structural engineering firm determined that most, if not all, were unsafe and needed to be replaced. The Bod decided (correctly IMO) to replace them all. Hence the Special Assessment.

George

 

[DaveNV]

George, how many units in a typical building? Is it likely one owner would own an entire building? Still expensive, certainly, but how many folks are sharing the burden in an average building?

Dave

 

[CO skier]

Not exactly. I'm estimating that there are 25 buildings. Multiply my estimated 25 buildings by $35,000 and you get $875,000. The money is to repair all the concrete decks and the entire catwalk system. Apparently something collapsed and a structural engineering firm determined that most, if not all, were unsafe and needed to be replaced. The Bod decided (correctly IMO) to replace them all. Hence the Special Assessment.

George

My only remaining TS is a ski Week at Orofino by Straight Creek in Dillon, CO. The Week is in my Son's name but I pay the bills on it.

So wouldn't there be 49 other owners who are sharing your unit for one week each during the rest of the year, and wouldn't they each also be receiving a special assessment for $875? ($43750 total for the unit.) Then multiply by the other 40 or so units in the building?

... or the reverse, using your numbers

$35,000 per building divided by 40 units divided by 50 weekly intervals per unit equals a per week owner assessment of $17.50 for timeshare owners?

I am just trying to get it to balance one way or the other. If the total project cost for 25 buildings with 35-45 units in each building is $875,000, it should not cost you anywhere near $875 for one week in one of the buildings.

 

[fayhaff]

Orofino Special Assessment Dillon

Owners of Orofino by Straight Creek in Dillon CO have received a Special Assessment of $35,000 per unit to cover structural repairs to the 'concrete decks and catwalk system' and stairs.
1. An owner has set up a community Facebook page Odillion.
2. We have been told by the Board of Directors that they are planning to charge owners of each unit according to the numbers of weeks owned in that unit - generally between 35 and 42 / unit (ie around $800-$1,000/week owned - apart from 3 poor owners who are being asked for $11K +each!). This is about twice the normal annual maintenance fee (easily the cheapest of the timeshares we own but also has the fewest communal facilities). This doesn't seem fair but is it legal?
2. Apparently for each unit 50 weeks were offered for sale to allow 2 weeks for maintenance. No mention is made of who owns or has access to the unsold weeks! Any ideas how we can find out this info?
3. Apparently there is also a clause in the contract to say owners who are up-to-date with their dues can give their unit back to the Association for a fee of $1,000 ie approx. 2 years maintenance fee. So there is a way out for owners who no longer use their timeshare - which seems unusual but good news! The special assessment would need to be paid presumably first now - but there may be a bunch of units up for sale soon on Ebay etc. We are not planning to sell as it is a great resort for skiing with easy access to Keystone, Copper, Breckenridge etc and so far very low maintenance - that may all change now!
4. There has been a lot of email traffic amongst the owners with first names starting G to J as we were sent the assessments able to see and reply to each others emails - they presumably sent them in batches. If there is anyone out there on TUG who has received a different batch of emails, (ie A-G or K-Z first names) please could you let them know about the face book page Odillion and let us know with a post on here so we may be combine the groups to see each others posts?
5. There are various posts about the structural issues (costs, using salt for snow on concrete etc) so grateful for any advice.
6. The management co has changed twice recently and has now been taken over in the last month or so by Key to the Rockies. Does anyone know anything about this company?
7. Finally there is apparently a meeting coming up this week - but we have not been notified of it officially, and don't know when it is. Are there any owners who know when it is and/ or might be in a position to go?
I am copying this onto our email traffic as people may or may not know about TUG and if I can figure out how onto the Odillion Facebook page too. IT is not a strength of mine!

 

[Talent312]

A Tale of Two HOA's --

1. My hotel-system MF (HGVC) is high due to an apparent focus on keeping the property, services and amenities in pristine condition (along with buying iPads for board members).

2. OTOH, my independent has focused on keeping it's MF's low, but that has come at the expense of deferred maintenance & updates, which are only starting to be addressed.

Its a trade-off to be sure, but there ya' go.

.....
BTW, we saw a bear wandering around our Gatlinburg TS two weeks ago.
It prolly wouldn't have been allowed at a HGVC.
.

 

[DeniseM]

Gotta love special assessments I am curious to the checks and balances that are in place to keep everyone honest on those.

In theory, Special Assessments must be approved by the board of directors, who are elected by, and represent, the owners.

Some boards are completely under the thumb of the management company, and just rubber stamp whatever they propose.

At a mixed use resort like this, the full-time owners may have a great deal of influence over these decisions.

The definitive answer is: who knows?

 

[bogey21]

$35,000 per building divided by 40 units divided by 50 weekly intervals per unit equals a per week owner assessment of $17.50 for timeshare owners?.....I am just trying to get it to balance one way or the other.

Maybe I confused things by the use of the word "buildings". Maybe I should have said "ownership entities" or something like that. The bottom line is that there are a number of buildings. I don't know off hand how many as I haven't been there for years as my Son is the skier now.

About half the buildings are owned by permanent residents who own a whole building and live in it as their primary residence. The rest of the buildings were sold as TimeShare Weeks. My fuzzy recollection (understand that I haven't been there in years) is that there are two condos in each building. As to my condo either all of the Weeks were not sold or some owners own more than 1 week. Frankly I don't know and don't care.

What I do know is that the cost to fix a building is $35,000 and that the BofD chose to allocate it between the owners in each building. In my case there are 40 of us thus $35,000 divided by 40 equals $875. In the case of buildings owned by permanent residents $35,000 divided by 1 equals $35,000. In another building $35,000 divided by 35 is $1,000.

It is possible that someone who has multiple weeks (but is only counted as one owner) is getting off better than someone who only owns one week. I don't know if this is the case or not and frankly I don't care. I have better things to do with my time.

It is a nice resort in a great location; the MFs have been low for years; and the BofD is going to have a heck of a time collecting these Special Assessment so I'm going to stay out of their way and pay my $875 in two easy installments. If someone else wants to argue about how they calculated who owes what or otherwise get in the middle of this thing, that's their call.

George

PS One might argue that MFs should have been higher to cover stuff like this. I disagree. I have owned at this Resort for about 15 years. If you divide the $875 Special Assessment by 15, that means my MF would have been $60 higher each year. Had this been the case who knows if all of this money would be available today to address the current problem?

 

[Jason245]

Maybe I confused things by the use of the word "buildings". Maybe I should have said "ownership entities" or something like that. The bottom line is that there are a number of buildings. I don't know off hand how many as I haven't been there for years as my Son is the skier now.

About half the buildings are owned by permanent residents who own a whole building and live in it as their primary residence. The rest of the buildings were sold as TimeShare Weeks. My fuzzy recollection (understand that I haven't been there in years) is that there are two condos in each building. As to my condo either all of the Weeks were not sold or some owners own more than 1 week. Frankly I don't know and don't care.

What I do know is that the cost to fix a building is $35,000 and that the BofD chose to allocate it between the owners in each building. In my case there are 40 of us thus $35,000 divided by 40 equals $875. In the case of buildings owned by permanent residents $35,000 divided by 1 equals $35,000. In another building $35,000 divided by 35 is $1,000.

It is possible that someone who has multiple weeks (but is only counted as one owner) is getting off better than someone who only owns one week. I don't know if this is the case or not and frankly I don't care. I have better things to do with my time.

It is a nice resort in a great location; the MFs have been low for years; and the BofD is going to have a heck of a time collecting these Special Assessment so I'm going to stay out of their way and pay my $875 in two easy installments. If someone else wants to argue about how they calculated who owes what or otherwise get in the middle of this thing, that's their call.

George

PS One might argue that MFs should have been higher to cover stuff like this. I disagree. I have owned at this Resort for about 15 years. If you divide the $875 Special Assessment by 15, that means my MF would have been $60 higher each year. Had this been the case who knows if all of this money would be available today to address the current problem?

The money would have gone into reserves. .so it should have been available. On top of that. . It would have been growing as a result of interest. .so who knows.. Maybe the 60 bucks would have been 50 bucks instead.

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[SueDonJ]

... PS One might argue that MFs should have been higher to cover stuff like this. I disagree. I have owned at this Resort for about 15 years. If you divide the $875 Special Assessment by 15, that means my MF would have been $60 higher each year. Had this been the case who knows if all of this money would be available today to address the current problem?

This goes a long way towards explaining your affinity for timeshares that aren't managed by the mega-companies, George, which you've explained time and time again on TUG. Your preference to be assessed SA's for major projects as the projects are undertaken is somewhat understandable, but I'll always prefer the method that has Reserves being collected in anticipation of the projects. Different strokes, I guess.

Are you hearing any backlash from your fellow owners, both fractional and whole-ownership? Is the majority more in line with your way of thinking?

 

[rickandcindy23]

Val Chatelle has a new management company after being managed a short time by Wildernest when Americana went out of business. Orofino and Val Chatelle were managed by the same company for many, many years. Then Americana went belly-up and turned their business over to Wildernest. We didn't like Wildernest because they were inattentive to our needs, and they don't know how to manage a timeshare, but here is what I know about what is going on at your place, Orofino:

One of the BOD was jumping up and down to show the decks are secure. He fell 20 feet when the deck collapsed. We are unsure if he lived or not.

Our new management company, Alpine Meadows, also manages French Ridge, another Silver Crown resort in Breck, so we were thrilled they took us on, since we are in Frisco, 9 miles away from their offices.

Deferred maintenance is an issue with legacy resorts, and then it takes a pile of money to get things back on track. We raised our fees at Val Chatelle last year to $675 for a ski week and $575 for a summer week. We are now increasing again for our new decks off the master bedroom upstairs. We are very short of cash right now because those are an emergency situation. Pretty soon it will be siding and paint. Shouldn't have kept the fees for a ski week at $540 for years and years. I think at least ten years since we increased before last year. What a mistake! Now people are mad at us.

 

[Jason245]

Val Chatelle has a new management company after being managed a short time by Wildernest after Americana went out of business. Americana turned their business over to Wildernest. We didn't like Wildernest because they were inattentive to our needs, and they don't know how to manage a timeshare, but here is what I know about what is going on at your place, Orofino:

One of the BOD was jumping up and down to show the decks are secure. He fell 20 feet when the deck collapsed. We are unsure if he lived or not.

Our new management company, Alpine Meadows, also manages French Ridge, another Silver Crown resort in Breck, so we were thrilled they took us on, since we are in Frisco, 9 miles away from their offices.

Deferred maintenance is an issue with legacy resorts, and then it takes a pile of money to get things back on track. We raised our fees at Val Chatelle last year to $675 for a ski week and $575 for a summer week. We are now increasing again for our new decks off the master bedroom upstairs. We very short of cash right now because those are an emergency situation. Pretty soon it will be siding and paint. Shouldn't have kept the fees for a ski week at $540 for years and years. I think at least ten years since we increased before last year. What a mistake! Now people are mad at us.

How is everyone unsure if the person lived or not?

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[artringwald]

At DRI's Point at Poipu, owners had a special assessment of $5,893.32 for each week owned. If someone owned 52 weeks to live there year round, they would have been assessed $306,452.64. Ouch! Total cost to repair the 10 buildings was $65 M. Not a chance that would be covered by reserves not matter how conservative the HOA was.

 

[Jason245]

At DRI's Point at Poipu, owners had a special assessment of $5,893.32 for each week owned. If someone owned 52 weeks to live there year round, they would have been assessed $306,452.64. Ouch! Total cost to repair the 10 buildings was $65 M. Not a chance that would be covered by reserves not matter how conservative the HOA was.

6.5m per building. ..very doable..if mf were about 500 more a year for 10 years. .

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