# Legacy Resorts Threatened By Takeover Entities.



## palmtree7339 (Oct 19, 2016)

Legacy Resorts Threatened By "Takeover Entities".

This is a major issue that all owners of units at legacy resorts, (those resorts built in the 70's & 80's), that remain basically owner-controlled by virtue of their elected HOA Boards, should presently be deeply concerned with.
Here is one of the current methods by which these resorts can be "taken over" by various industry entities, such as major timeshare developers, vacation & holiday clubs, etc. 
Once this occurs, all control of maintenance fees, employment of staff, purchasing of supplies through vendor contracts, all operating procedures, salaries granted to personnel, decisions regarding access to rentals and exchange companies currently available to owners of units, resort financial audits and budgets, procurement of resort insurance, and a host of current amenities and privileges, could likely be subject to dramatic alterations that may directly favor the the "takeover entity" financially, and negatively affect the majority of the resort's unit-owners, who unfortunately, do not, by and large, cast their annual election ballots.
Takeovers occur when these "outside entities" are allowed, by vote of the resort's current elected HOA bodies, (and in some cases, with the active encouragement and assistance of some resort management companies, as well), to purchase large blocks of delinquent weeks, that were previously deeded back to resort ownership.
As a result of the scenario above, these industry entities automatically gain the powerful voting power that comes with their ownership of these large blocks of the resort's total unit inventory.
This then can often lead to a "takeover entity" gaining control of the outcome of the resort's annual elections, and thus they also gain the ability to determine who will be elected to serve as members of the resort's HOA Board of Directors, the legal body responsible for the resort's entire overall operations.
It is no secret that these takeover entities are beginning to nominate and elect Board members who very often maintain close personal relations that would cause them to favor the "takeover entity", and thus not necessarily for the good of the majority of the resort's unit-owners.
Legacy resort unit-owners must now recognize the huge importance of utilizing their voting power, by casting their annual election ballots wisely, in order to fully protect their own individual ownership interests, both now, and in the coming future.

Frank Debar, Chairman
Florida Timeshare Owners Group


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## AwayWeGo (Oct 19, 2016)

*The Entity That Buys Them Has To Pay Fees On Each 1 Of Them.*




palmtree7339 said:


> Takeovers occur when these "outside entities" are allowed, by vote of the resort's current elected HOA bodies, (and in some cases, with the active encouragement and assistance of some resort management companies, as well), to purchase large blocks of delinquent weeks, that were previously deeded back to resort ownership.
> As a result of the scenario above, these industry entities automatically gain the powerful voting power that comes with their ownership of these large blocks of the resort's total unit inventory.


For the independent owner-controlled HOA-BOD, it can be a situation of damned if you do & damned if you don't. 

That is, for an outside entity to take control through buying blocs of delinquent units, there has to be a big bloc of delinquent units -- i.e, the independent resort is already facing financial trouble in the form of too many deadbeat owners.  In that case, it's no wonder the HOA-BOD sells blocs of units to outside entities -- or even to an inside entity.  

At 1 extremely nice timeshare where we previously owned (twice), the independent management company, as part of its contract negotiated with the independent HOA-BOD, handled foreclosure & repossession of delinquent units.  In exchange for taking on the expense of handling all the steps involved in gaining title to the delinquent units via foreclosure. the management company got to keep all the foreclosed units, with the right to sell'm, rent'm out, vote'm, & I don't know what-all.  

It was a great deal for all concerned, until economic conditions went south & owning a block of formerly delinquent timeshare units turned into a liability instead of an asset. 

One complicating factor was that the neither the management company nor the resort itself had the right to sell timeshare weeks on site.  Only the _Developer Of Record_ (a big timeshare company) had that right.  

As the management company's stock of unsold units grew, the money they were paying to the resort in maintenance fees roughly equaled the money the resort was paying the management company in management fees.  That is, by owning & paying fees on a big bunch of timeshare units they couldn't sell, the management company was basically working for free -- shelling out in maintenance fees about what it was collecting in management fees, an untenable situation if there ever was 1. 

The management company's way out was to turn over its entire stock of owned units to the timeshare company that was _Developer Of Record_. I don't even think the timeshare company paid the management company anything for the bloc of formerly delinquent units.  Like individual owners who just want to get out from under, the management company just wanted to unload its ongoing maintenance fee payment obligation, after a lengthy period of trying & not succeeding to sell timeshare units.  In taking over that bloc of units, free & clear, the timeshare company then owned enough units to outvote the independent HOA-BOD & the rest is history. 

At least the company could sell timeshares on site -- in fact, already was selling points in its timeshare exchange club via sales presentations conducted right there at the timeshare resort.  

That particular timeshare company had already discovered that to have something it can sell to vacationers via high-pressure sales presentations, it's cheaper & quicker & easier to move pieces of paper than to move dirt & rock & concrete & brick & lumber & plaster & carpet & furniture & appliances, etc.  Instead of building more timeshare units, it gobbles up existing units via foreclosure, takeover, & buyouts.  

Sure, lots of what the company takes over are dog & cat offseason units.  _Mox nix_.  What it sells are points, which are described as being good for prime season reservations at the nicest resorts in the choicest seasons -- & the points are good for that, unless all those units are already spoken for by the time the new points owners put in for reservations.  If all that are available turn out to be offseason dogs & cats, well *. . .* better luck next year. 

So it goes. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## ginah777 (Nov 13, 2016)

*Meeting coming up*

Isn't there a meeting come up for Legacy owners?  Is anyone attending it? I wonder if they will cover this.


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## ronparise (Nov 14, 2016)

Frank

You have done a good job explaining what's happening but you haven't, at least to my way of thinking just what the problem is

As I see it the maintenance fees are now being paid and the folks that had been in control (And responsible for the management decisions that resulted in a high number of unproductive intervals) are being replaced

What's wrong with that?


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