# Employee of timeshare owners assoc. steals money, doesn't pay vendors & secure loans!  We have to pay



## liwarren (Dec 16, 2022)

Got a letter for our 2023 assessments.  They fired an employee which had been stealing money, not paying vendors and took out 3 "sizable" loans through finance companies in New York that specialize in making loans against future receivables.  We are required to pay more now and then they will assess how much MORE we will have to pay in a special assessment after all the information is put together. Evidently all the loans this PAST employee has taken out are all delinquent.  So, because of the operation of this home owners association the timeshare owners are left holding the bag!  NOT HAPPY.  This timeshare is in Missouri, btw.


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## dioxide45 (Dec 16, 2022)

It seems that the HOA wasn't carrying proper insurance coverage or Crime & Fidelity to insure against this type of thing? I beleive this is legally required by HOAs in Florida. Has the HOA taken legal action against the employee? Filed criminal charges? They likely won't recover the stolen money, but they need to be held accountable. If Crime & Fidelity insurance is required in MO, then the BOD needs to be held accountable because the breached their fiduciary responsibilities if they don't have it.


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## Happytravels (Dec 16, 2022)

WOW, I'm afraid one of ours has got something fishy going on as well.  Our mf's WERE very reasonable for the place, nothing fancy but in a location we loved. We have owned since 2000.   We owned 4 weeks at one time.  Then they hit us with the SA and we gave one back and then another.  We have had SA on every week since 2014.  (My husband thinks the past couple of years is because everyone needed new cars.) We see very little work being done on the property, even for the SA we already paid for (supposed to be new siding, I think maybe half was done).  The office has been closed for more than two years due to covid.  I'm not even sure when the last time management has been on property to see what it looks like or anything.  Kinda scary!!   I called to ask what the SA was for one year and they said it was for taxes and insurance.  That makes no sense to me. So now we have just the two summer weeks. We are thinking about surrendering another week. Was kind of wishing another company would come in and buy it but it hasn't happened.  I guess the other thing is if you go to their website, you can rent a week outright (including taxes) for less than our mf's by about $30.00.  My guess we are paying Marriot prices for an extended stay.  We just love the place though, so hard to give it up.


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## liwarren (Dec 16, 2022)

dioxide45 said:


> It seems that the HOA wasn't carrying proper insurance coverage or Crime & Fidelity to insure against this type of thing? I beleive this is legally required by HOAs in Florida. Has the HOA taken legal action against the employee? Filed criminal charges? They likely won't recover the stolen money, but they need to be held accountable. If Crime & Fidelity insurance is required in MO, then the BOD needs to be held accountable because the breached their fiduciary responsibilities if they don't have it.


Yes they have taken legal action against this person and written that they have a forensic investigator on the case which has turned up extensive findings.  I have been searching and cannot find out if Missouri is REQUIRED to carry crime & fidelity insurance which I am hoping they are.  I really don't even USE this timeshare!  I just use it for my access to Interval as my main timeshare is Wyndham which is RCI anyway.  I could easily give it away but hesitate due to who knows how much $$ will be in the future for special assessments and I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy!  Evidently this timeshare needs a better HOA board to stay on top of things.


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## klpca (Dec 16, 2022)

Was there an annual audit by outside auditors? If they failed to detect it because of inadequate audit they may have some financial responsibility. 

If this person stole as much as it appears they did, how did the board not notice anything? They may have some liability too. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.


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## pedro47 (Dec 16, 2022)

I agree with dioxide45, someone from the HOA Board needs to file a claim with their HOA insurance carrier; alone with a coy of the police report.
Good luck.


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## vacationtime1 (Dec 16, 2022)

Was the thief an employee of the HOA or of the management company?

Shouldn't that make a difference?


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## chapjim (Dec 16, 2022)

Happytravels said:


> WOW, I'm afraid one of ours has got something fishy going on as well.  Our mf's WERE very reasonable for the place, nothing fancy but in a location we loved. We have owned since 2000.   We owned 4 weeks at one time.  Then they hit us with the SA and we gave one back and then another.  We have had SA on every week since 2014.  (My husband thinks the past couple of years is because everyone needed new cars.) We see very little work being done on the property, even for the SA we already paid for (supposed to be new siding, I think maybe half was done).  The office has been closed for more than two years due to covid.  I'm not even sure when the last time management has been on property to see what it looks like or anything.  Kinda scary!!   *I called to ask what the SA was for one year and they said it was for taxes and insurance. * That makes no sense to me. So now we have just the two summer weeks. We are thinking about surrendering another week. Was kind of wishing another company would come in and buy it but it hasn't happened.  I guess the other thing is if you go to their website, you can rent a week outright (including taxes) for less than our mf's by about $30.00.  My guess we are paying Marriot prices for an extended stay.  We just love the place though, so hard to give it up.


What a crock!  Taxes and insurance are budget items, not something to be covered by a special assessment.


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## emeryjre (Dec 16, 2022)

I am not a lawyer, but something is not right in either the fraud case and theft or the need for an SA on taxes.  My guess and this is just my opinion, you board, HOA, management company or whoever is in charge is misusing it's authority to steal from owners.  Since nobody has really pushed them on the issues, they are becoming more blatant with time. 
I know people can be afraid to push authority figures and hold them accountable, but this is what needs to be done.  Never easy, it takes time and energy, creates friction and perhaps enmity with the people you are asking to be accountable.  But the alternative is to accept it and do nothing.


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## kanerf (Dec 16, 2022)

Time to file a class action lawsuit against your HOA.  I would deficiently speak to a few law firms about this.


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## dougp26364 (Dec 16, 2022)

A similar thing happened to us several years back with a timeshare we had sold. 

Two small timeshare in Branson controlled by a LLC. The principle of the LLC and his family were taking HOA funds and spending them as if they were their own personal piggy bank. 
He went to jail. The timeshare shut down for a couple of years until new management was found. Then they wanted back MF’s even though the timeshare was closed. 
We found out about it because the Schmuck took all the processing fees to change the title, then never recorded the title with the state, even though they had changed the name of record in their files. When we received the bill for back MF’s, we had to sort through the paperwork to prove we had sold it.
It was a considerable mess.


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## rickandcindy23 (Dec 16, 2022)

Please tell us what resort this is.


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## liwarren (Dec 16, 2022)

The name of the resort and website is Treetopcondos.net.  (Treetop condominiums).  It is at Village of Four Seasons, Missouri.  There are timeshare units and private owners also there.  I only know that this person was working for the property owners association.  Evidently after she gave a financial update at a board meeting in September the board realized there was a problem.  They fired her in October.  I'm really at a loss as to what I should do from here.  My maintenance fees are very very low and that is why I have kept this timeshare.  We bought it many years ago and never have stayed there.  Just bought it for the exchange opportunities.  (which has been great for last minute exchanges).  I am thinking that this is a board problem and not the innocent responsible owners problem and they should exhaust all options instead of putting this off on owners which is an easy out.


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## rickandcindy23 (Dec 16, 2022)

The fees at that resort are incredibly low.  What is the SA amount they want owners to pay? Is it still undecided what you will have pay?


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## pedro47 (Dec 16, 2022)

Did the HOA report this to the police and do they have a copy of the police report to share with owners???


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## liwarren (Dec 16, 2022)

The police are investigating this we were told.  They said they could not give any further information as the criminal investigation is ongoing.  This was all written in a letter to the timeshare and private owners a long with our current bill for 2023 maintenance fees.  That's really all I know.  I doubt we will have access to any police report.  It will probably get published in the newspaper before owners will find out!


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## dioxide45 (Dec 16, 2022)

liwarren said:


> I am thinking that this is a board problem and not the innocent responsible owners problem and they should exhaust all options instead of putting this off on owners which is an easy out.


Even if there is a judgement against the person, the money is probably unrecoverable at this point unless they had some type of fidelity insurance. Realize that the board is the owners as is the HOA. Someone somewhere has to come up with the shortfall.


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## nshugg (Dec 17, 2022)

pedro47 said:


> Did the HOA report this to the police and do they have a copy of the police report to share with owners???


The police won’t do a thing.


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## Herbalwise (Dec 17, 2022)

We found out the hard way (although not as bad) that the owner's need to be up on what's happening with the Board of Directors (BOD) and the HOA by attending meetings and/or looking over annual financial statements. For too many years we just let them run the Tahoe Ridge Resort at South Lake Tahoe into a "distressed property" state through inaction and incompetence. Then then the Resorts West company was forced to sell to Holiday Inn Club Vacations at a fire sale price while the individuals all said Adios!

Now our property is greatly reduced and Holiday Inn will never fix it up to the level it was, as that's not their brand. And BTW, the sale went thru without ANY notice to the owners.

Don't trust others to look out for you. Get involved!


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## Larry M (Dec 17, 2022)

Well, the longer version of this story is here, but the part that's relevant to this thread follows.

The Egrets Point property on Edisto Island, SC was an independent property of 15-20 units plumb in the middle of a Wyndham property. I bought a resale (week 33, great time) in 2010 for $1500. In 2020, the HOA let owners know that a past treasurer had not been pursuing collections or foreclosures on delinquent accounts. The period in which to recover compensation had passed. They recognized that owners had just paid two special assessments for hurricane damages, but noted that more would be required to catch up on all the maintenance that was deferred due to lack of funds. The sunset clause for the unit was the first Sunday of 2026. They polled the owners for opinions on a vote to sunset early. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and they sold the property.

Each unit was refurbished and the cost was deducted from the sale price. In my case I recovered $5600, a net profit of $4100.


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## pedro47 (Dec 17, 2022)

nshugg said:


> The police won’t do a thing.


The purpose of a police report is for the HOA insurance company carrier to pay the claim.
The major insurance companies with not pay a claim without a police report. The cost of an average police report is between $5.00 to $20.00.

Did the HOA Board take out a warrant on this person?


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## chaparrusa (Dec 17, 2022)

Timeshare owners should not be responsible at all. That is the reason you hire a management company, if they were not auditing this employee's moves it is their fault. get together and sue the management company, and of course fire them. if you allow them continue managing your place the shame is on you.


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## schaef9 (Dec 18, 2022)

nshugg said:


> The police won’t do a thing.


I was involved in an embezzlement case a few years ago where the victim was a well-known college in LA. A forensic audit was required to file charges. A team of well-credentialed auditors from the college spent over two months on the audit and in the end were not willing to state, unequivocally, what the loss was. So no charges were filed due to the victim being unable to substantiate the loss. Not to police inaction. Who knows what the files look like in this case?


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## Patri (Dec 19, 2022)

liwarren said:


> The name of the resort and website is Treetopcondos.net.  (Treetop condominiums).  It is at Village of Four Seasons, Missouri.


Wow. We used to own there. Always hoped to get there, but never did. Traded it through DAE. Eventually sold it to a local, who I hope was able to actually enjoy the resort.


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## pedro47 (Dec 19, 2022)

schaef9 said:


> I was involved in an embezzlement case a few years ago where the victim was a well-known college in LA. A forensic audit was required to file charges. A team of well-credentialed auditors from the college spent over two months on the audit and in the end were not willing to state, unequivocally, what the loss was. So no charges were filed due to the victim being unable to substantiate the loss. Not to police inaction. Who knows what the files look like in this case?


This company did file a police report and no charges was file against the alleged individual.  Was this a conflict of interest when the college conducted their,own forensic audit ? Was the embezz money return to that college account?


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## Snazzylass (Dec 20, 2022)

nshugg said:


> The police won’t do a thing.


Why do you say this? I lived in a small town in IN a few years back, and took a call from the president of the local bank who said the HOA account was overdrawn. The bank was being asked to pay an online electric bill for the office manager of the HOA. I can't recall why the bank was calling the office where I worked, but you've got to love small towns - not even sure he should have done that. However, I knew exactly what was happening.

The manager and her husband were very friendly and social. They'd invite me to parties at their house around the corner from me. I'd decline. They took a lot of expensive  trips, too. I thought he was selling drugs. There was no way they afford all that...except for the $50k or so they drained out of the HOA account.

The State Police and local prosecutor immediately took over the investigation. The manager was only charged with what could be documented. She went to prison for awhile. She is out now and is still paying restitution, and lives in the same house as far as I know.

The whole thing happened because the Board, and more specifically, the Treasurer "trusted" the manager. Very dumb. Wherever there is money, there is temptation. All the Treasurer had to do is open the checking account statement each month and review it. How hard is that?

There was no SA by the way. The HOA sucked it up and made some changes and has since recovered. Lots of volunteer hours given to make the place run. There was no insurance to cover this loss either.


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## Gloria J (Dec 24, 2022)

Was this matter turned over to Eric Schmidt's office?  He is has been elected our new US Senator.  Andrew Bailey was appointed the new attorney general.    I would wait till after the inauguration in January and file a case.


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## Happytravels (Jan 5, 2023)

chapjim said:


> What a crock!  Taxes and insurance are budget items, not something to be covered by a special assessment.


EXACTLY!!


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## Mongoose (Jan 5, 2023)

pedro47 said:


> I agree with dioxide45, someone from the HOA Board needs to file a claim with their HOA insurance carrier; alone with a coy of the police report.
> Good luck.


That only works if they paid for the right financial crimes coverage.


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