Seapointer Special Assessment

I sold my Seapointer week, but received an Annual Report from them today. It looks like there will be a R8000 special assessment per week. 129 US owners owning 158 weeks are a worry to them, as they had to write off R800,000 in unpaid MFs.

Thanks for the heads up .....

Club Leisure Group and Stuart ''The Bullfrog'' Lamont strikes again! Wonder what they will do with the resort after they run all of the owners off? Should be valuable real estate.

In Today's email.

Urgent Notice for Seapointer owners

At a special meeting on 21st May, it was resolved to close the timeshare entity down.

Owners must now decide whether they wish to convert to Select Club for a once off cost of R4,750-00 and R310-00 annually to maintain a great timeshare option.

They may also choose ro relinquish their units to avoid any further costs.

If they do neither, they will stay on to participate in possibly a dividend payout down the line, but will have to invest in special levies to do so.

Your urgent response is requested.

Please contact the me with your week and unit nos so I can assist you in your decision,

Regards,

Carol Barnett
Carol Barnett
__________________________________________
Tel: 0027 (0) 21 433 2134
Mobile: 0027 (0) 82 964 0434
Email: carolbarnett@mweb.co.za
__________________________________________

I don't understand this: If they are closing down the timeshare, why do they turn right around and offer to let you continue some sort of membership with an ongoing levy?

muranojo said:

I don't understand this: If they are closing down the timeshare, why do they turn right around and offer to let you continue some sort of membership with an ongoing levy?

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It is the usual Stuart ''The Bullfrog'' Lamont scam. He is taking over the valuable property for other purposes and wants to pay those whom he has not run off already in self-printed points of one of his shady points clubs instead of cash. I would run not walk away from that. The deal is he gets the property and you get ''points'' in one of his steady stream of points clubs. This time it is not one of the usual - Flexi-club, CRI of South Africa, Star Club, etc - but a new one. They expect you to pay levies for the rest of your life even though all you are left holding is worthless Froggie points.

This should be a warning to another owning at a resort connected to Club Leisure Group. You can most easily tell by the involvement of Club Leisure Group's in house management company, First Resorts running the show. That is a huge red flag if you are buying timeshare in SA.

Dikhololo fought off the Bullfrog when he made a takeover attempt, but in the process I asked an officer of the Timeshare Consumer Association of the UK for the file of the South Africa board on the old Crimeshare site, he sent it to me, and I reposted all the material on Lamont and Club Leisure Group here: http://www.timeshareforums.com/foru...r-areas/93039-takeover-attempt-dikhololo.html It is in several posts, beginning with an article from the Johanesburg Star newspaper.

The SA feeding frenzy was well before my TUG days but I understand that many here bought for very low costs and with the added RCI membership thrown in, made out very well indeed. Good for them!

Maybe this is the time when they walk away and say "it was great while it lasted"...?

jlwquilter said:

The SA feeding frenzy was well before my TUG days but I understand that many here bought for very low costs and with the added RCI membership thrown in, made out very well indeed. Good for them!

Maybe this is the time when they walk away and say "it was great while it lasted"...?

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What was great about SA was the low m/f's (levies), but now the rand is not as low against the dollar and while still often good, they are no longer great. RCI has, as in much of timesharing, been playing games with SA trading power, which is also a concern. The games are obvious because what they are doing contradicts the supply/demand factors shown by RCI's own availibility tables published in the European version of their directory.

As to the Bullfrog and his cronies, that is a factor that does have to be seriously watched at a few resorts, but fortunately not at most. The red flag to look for is management by Froggies managment company, First Resorts.

We have owned at Lowveld Lodge for about 10 years, and have enjoyed many wonderful exchanges. I will be on the lookout for this weasel to start this nonsense at Lowveld. It would be a shame to have to walk away.

Dori

Quilter,
Yes, it was a nice ride--especially for those who got in prior to 2000-2002 or thereabouts. I didn't get in until 2002, but have been very successful with the minimal investment + have the pre-paid RCI membership for some time.

However, and this is the big ouch--levies are steadily climbing for some of the resorts and the exchange rate as Carolinian pointed out is not as favorable. In some cases (not all) you could get a little tiger trader in the US for similar or even lower m/f if you shopped around.

Carolinian, unfortunately, one of my units is a Bullfrog and this is the example I cite of excessive increases in levies. I have no idea if the resort will take the unit back, but will try.

Interesting that I never received this e-mail.

Guess I'll be ready to relinquish, especially if I never get access to RCI.


Steve

We pretty much stopped using our week a few years ago, so it was not too hard to walk away from this one. I don't like signing the property over to a crook, but neither do I like accruing maintenance fees I have no intention of paying.

Given the number of trades we got in the past, I figure it pretty much paid for itself.

Tenbury is included.

actually I liked First Resorts - they at least got back to you and really helped.

the management before then - either did not understand English or just didn't want you to pay using a CC.

can you walk away and not pay further fees? or do you sign it over to them to keep from further payments?

since only paid $500 for this one - can definitely walk away from it - it did what I needed for years.

Hi there,

Has anyone decided what they are going to do with their Seapointer weeks?
Did anyone keep them and decide to keep paying the levies?
Did anyone deed-back their unit(s)?
Did anyone just stop paying?
What were your results if you don't mind sharing.
Thanks,
Ran-Ran

I deeded back.

I signed the forms and turned over the week back to them.

I'm sad to see it go like this. But I got good use out of it.

It is a little frustrating that the two options that make the most sense are.
One, revert the unit(s) back to the Seapointer and receive nothing.
Second, keep the unit(s) while paying the levy and assessments in hopes of a potential dividend.
I would like to do the second, but my fear is that the Seapointer/Lamont will eat up the profits for administration fees and other costs so there would be virtually no profit.
Then when all is said and done, they will sell the units off as condos and keep all of the sale proceeds from the sale and virtually not have had to pay for a very large portion of the units. Ugh! Double Ugh!

The Seapointer

I have owned a Seapointer since 1999 and have been reselling south africa timeshare longer then that.. I have contacts in south africa who have told me through the grapevine that the land is worth a lot of money and they will be tearing down the seapointer and selling the land. I do not recommend paying them another dime I stopped paying them when they lost RCI affiliation 3 years ago. Unfortunately this is going to happen to many more of the First Resort timeshares because they have not been using the levies for upkeep of the resorts, Tenbury in Durban for example is the next to go, unless someone steps in quick and saves them all, the resorts that are still in good condition that First Resorts manage will be voted into Flexi Club which works well if you live in South Africa only. DO NOT join flexi club if you are in the USA it will not work well for you! if at all !!! South africa is still is a good buy but stay away from first resorts and the legacy group, a big bunch of crocks! Also First Resorts will only allow you to sell your timeshare to a person living in south africa, they started that bs about 2 years ago and that is when I knew they were up to something bad!

Sincerely,
Marc Thomas

If you read the Crimeshare posts from South Africans, Flexi-club and Bullfrog's other shady clubs do not work well for South Afticans, either.

MarcT said:

I have owned a Seapointer since 1999 and have been reselling south africa timeshare longer then that.. I have contacts in south africa who have told me through the grapevine that the land is worth a lot of money and they will be tearing down the seapointer and selling the land. I do not recommend paying them another dime I stopped paying them when they lost RCI affiliation 3 years ago. Unfortunately this is going to happen to many more of the First Resort timeshares because they have not been using the levies for upkeep of the resorts, Tenbury in Durban for example is the next to go, unless someone steps in quick and saves them all, the resorts that are still in good condition that First Resorts manage will be voted into Flexi Club which works well if you live in South Africa only. DO NOT join flexi club if you are in the USA it will not work well for you! if at all !!! South africa is still is a good buy but stay away from first resorts and the legacy group, a big bunch of crocks! Also First Resorts will only allow you to sell your timeshare to a person living in south africa, they started that bs about 2 years ago and that is when I knew they were up to something bad!

Sincerely,
Marc Thomas

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I decided to relinquish my two weeks back to the Seapointer. Ugh!
My gut says that this dirtbag, whom I don't know will profit very handsomely when he sells the units as condos or sells the entire complex.
Good bye my S.A. timeshares.
On to the replacement.

Recieved today

Dear Mr XXX,

Please be advised we require an update from you regarding correspondence sent to you previously.

Please advise me whether you want to Join the FHC and accept the proposal, Abandone your week to avoid levies raised in the future, special levies and other costs involving Seapointer or remain with the Seapointer Shares and be liable for all future fees.

We await your response in anticipation.

Yours Faithfully
Brandon Govender
Conversions Administrator
Club Leisure Group
Tel: 031 717 7300 Ext 7865
Fax: 031 717 7654
brandong@clubleisure.co.za

I owned Seapointer when the South Africa craze was in full swing. I got more than my money's worth for a few years. Once RCI cut off ties and would not let me deposit the unit, I tried to sell it. I think I got scammed with a South african reseller, but it was not much money. Nothing happened.

Eventually, I stopped paying my MF. I used to get mail from the resort, but that passed after a few years. So basically I just gave up.

But I don't feel bad because with just a few of my trades I far exceeded the costs to own the resort. The trading power was awesome!