# More WorldMark questions



## tracey.a (Sep 21, 2006)

I was wondering if WorldMark has special assessments?


----------



## PA- (Sep 21, 2006)

tracey.a said:
			
		

> I was wondering if WorldMark has special assessments?



Yes, they have, and they will again.  Up to this point, they've never collected them from owners in a lump sum, they've simply adjusted our maintenance fees as needed to take care of it.

One nice thing about a club with lots of resorts is that one or two catastrophies (like happened in New Orleans last year) is not nearly as noticable as it would be if you owned a single resort in New Orleans.


----------



## mtngal (Sep 22, 2006)

WorldMark has never (at least since I bought in 1996, and I vaguely remember the term "never" being used before for this question) done a special assessment, where they asked for extra money beyond the annual maintenance fees.  There have been a number of increases in maintenance fees over those years, but never a special assessment.  The rules do allow for one, but they seem to keep enough in the reserves to handle whatever has come up so far.

On the other hand, my HOA's water board did a big one to dig a new well several years ago, and is getting ready to do another one to treat the water from that well because the federal government is about to lower the allowed rate of flouride in drinking water.  While ours meets the current standards it soon won't - and that's a huge "ouch!"  I'm grateful that WM has been able to avoid that so far.


----------



## PA- (Sep 22, 2006)

Worldmark has an assessment coming up this year at Schooner Landing and Depoe Bay.  They haven't chosen to collect it in a lump sum from the owners, but nonetheless, they HAVE had several assessments over the years.


----------



## mtngal (Sep 22, 2006)

What Philip doesn't mention is that the assessments at Schooner Landing and Depoe Bay involve other entities - WorldMark doesn't own all of either resort.  Depoe Bay has fractional units and those owners belong to the Residence Club.  Schooner Landing Timeshare Resort also has units and owners that are NOT WorldMark members.  I know noting about Schooner Landing (while Philip does because I believe he owns non-WorldMark units there), but I've heard several fractional owners at Depoe Bay talking about having special assessments against their units.

WorldMark has never assessed their owners for anything beyond maintenance dues.  Whether they will have to do a special assessment to all owners for the repairs to their units in these resorts has not been announced.  Can they do it by their bylaws?  Yes.  Will they?  I would be surprised if they have to - the situation at Depoe Bay is an on-going one, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that WM had planned for enough to cover their portion of the costs without having to do a special assessment.


----------



## PA- (Sep 22, 2006)

Yes, Schooner is only partially owned by Worldmark, but worldmark will be hit with an assessment.  New Orleans was totally owned by Worldmark.  Doesn't matter, the result is the same.  When you own property, you have an inherent risk.  Worldmark has an advantage over a single location timeshare.  They are able to spread the risks over a larger area, so that devastation in one area is not as bad as it would be in a single resort timeshare.  Thus, the owners don't even notice something as severe as what happened during hurricane Katrina to New Orleans.  It just results in a slightly higher maintenance fee than what otherwise might have been, and nobody notices.  I wouldn't be concerned about assessments if I were you.  All timeshares are at risk of assessments, and multi-resort systems are protected better than most, as long as they have adequate insurance.


----------



## roadsister (Sep 23, 2006)

tracey.a said:
			
		

> I was wondering if WorldMark has special assessments?


I have been an owner for 12 years.

*Worldmark has never levied a special assessment to owners.* It isn't like a standard timeshare where if there is a hurricane and your resort is damaged you are asked to pay a specific amount to cover the damage.

In the case of Schooner Landing, Worldmark does not own ANY units there, they own weeks.

In the case of Depoe Bay, there are fractionals that Trendwest has there and those owners will be assessed more than likely....they have received notice regarding it.

In the case of the Worldmark units there it has been stated that TW will pick up the tab for that, along with whatever insurance can be recouped. I had also heard that the developer may be liable also.

Here's my spin on the issue:

The rise in maintenance dues has been explained.....sky rocketing costs for employee health care, higher utility costs, etc.  (We ALL have seen this, personally and the work place included.) Part of the maintenance costs each year goes into a reserve for future maintenance.


----------



## mtngal (Sep 23, 2006)

We seem to be talking apples and oranges here.  If you look up the definition of "special assessment", it is "a specific tax levied on private property to meet the cost of public improvements that enhance the value of the property" (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, among others).

Therefore, a raise in maintenance fees for whatever reason does NOT fit the definition of "special assessment" - which was the question.  My example of our mutual water district does meet the criteria - the assessment they are talking about will be for a specific improvement (the filtration system) and it will be levied on the homeowners in addition to our quarterly fees.

The original question is: "I was wondering if WorldMark HAS special assessments?"  The question asked was not "Is WorldMark SUBJECT TO special assessments?"  In other words, has WorldMark ever levied special assessments on their owners, not whether WorldMark ever PAID a special assessment levied upon them.

Therefore, the answer to that is that WM has never levied a special assessment upon their members.  Their bylaws DO allow them to do so, if need be, but they haven't yet.  There has not been any announcement that WM will do so when it comes to either Depoe Bay or Schooner Landing.  Is it possible that WM will have to pay their portion of repairs to these two resorts?  I'm sure that will be the case.  Will they pay for it by levying a special assessment on their members?  I would seriously doubt it - I would guess that they have enough money in their reserves to cover their portion, these were not emergency repairs, but problems that have been known about for a while.  

I would expect that WM has done what my HOA (different entity from our water district) has done - they have anticipated repairs to our roads and have increased the reserves to cover those expected costs.  They did that by raising our homeowners dues, that's the cost of having paved roads.  But that does NOT constitute a special assessment.


----------

