Carriage Hills Meeting

[Harmina]

Has anyone heard how the meeting went at Casino Rama on Tuesday evening?

 

[moonstone]

Only what I saw on CTV News. Pat Foran (CTV Toronto, consumer reporter) also did his follow-up piece on Carriage Hills. They were not allowed in the meeting but interviewed a few owners outside. He said there were about 1000 people in attendance. The biggest complaint that owners want resolved is that their heirs are being forced to accept the timeshare and be responsible for continuing to pay the ever increasing maintenance fees. I still don't know how that is possible.

I heard about an owner's children who got out of their deceased parents' Cranberry ownership. The lawyer handling the estate put a notice in the owners' small town (nowhere near Collingwood) newspaper, something about anybody wanting to lay a claim on outstanding debt to contact him within a certain timeframe or the estate would be closed. Of course the timeshare company didn't see the notice and a year after the estate was closed a maintenance fee bill arrived addressed to the estate of... The lawyer sent a reply that the estate was long closed and proof of the posted notices. The kids never heard another word from Cranberry. I don't know why more deceased owners ownerships are not handled like that.


~Diane

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I am a CPA, CA and not a lawyer, so none of this constitutes legal or tax advice, just my personal commentary.

The formal notice by the executor is a standard recommended practice, to absolve the executor of having to deal with claims long after the date of death. Smart trick to post it in the small town where they lived. The principle is that if someone owes you money, you should be on top of it and not be able to come back years later and still claim they owe you something. I suspect the attempt to hold the children of the deceased liable may come out of the wording of the wills, if they just leave "everything" to their heirs, without mentioning what they wish to do with the timeshare ownership, such as direct the executor to sell it or "quit" it.

It shows the value of consulting a proper estate lawyer these days when settling any estate. The Province of Ontario passed very onerous regulations in early 2016 to make sure all assets were properly reported to the province for probate by the executor. The objective was of course to ensure the province gets their probate fees (basically 1.5% of assets subject to probate). There are also significant penalties if assets are not reported that should have been. By paying for the professional services of a lawyer, if any mistakes are made, the estate and executor can at least make a claim for reimbursement against the professional's E & O insurance.

 

[Harmina]

Only what I saw on CTV News. Pat Foran (CTV Toronto, consumer reporter) also did his follow-up piece on Carriage Hills. They were not allowed in the meeting but interviewed a few owners outside. He said there were about 1000 people in attendance. The biggest complaint that owners want resolved is that their heirs are being forced to accept the timeshare and be responsible for continuing to pay the ever increasing maintenance fees. I still don't know how that is possible.

I heard about an owner's children who got out of their deceased parents' Cranberry ownership. The lawyer handling the estate put a notice in the owners' small town (nowhere near Collingwood) newspaper, something about anybody wanting to lay a claim on outstanding debt to contact him within a certain timeframe or the estate would be closed. Of course the timeshare company didn't see the notice and a year after the estate was closed a maintenance fee bill arrived addressed to the estate of... The lawyer sent a reply that the estate was long closed and proof of the posted notices. The kids never heard another word from Cranberry. I don't know why more deceased owners ownerships are not handled like that.


~Diane

Thank you, Diane.
I had my dates mixed up, I thought the meeting was Tuesday evening. We were unavailable to attend.
Hopefully there will be a resolution to exit legally.
That is good info regarding placing a notice in the local newspaper regarding outstanding claims against the deceased.....our small town newspaper still does that.

We uploaded the report that was on CTV news regarding last night's meeting. It seems we are getting lots of exposure. I am confident things will work out for the best interest of the owners that want out.

 

[moonstone]

Thank you, Diane.
I had my dates mixed up, I thought the meeting was Tuesday evening. We were unavailable to attend.
Hopefully there will be a resolution to exit legally.
That is good info regarding placing a notice in the local newspaper regarding outstanding claims against the deceased.....our small town newspaper still does that.

We uploaded the report that was on CTV news regarding last night's meeting. It seems we are getting lots of exposure. I am confident things will work out for the best interest of the owners that want out.

Yes, the meeting was on Tues the 19th but the story didn't air on CTV until last night (Wed). Our friends who own at Carriage Ridge, and tried to get into the first meeting last month, are now in Florida so they couldn't attend. When they return I will see if they heard anything about it. Since I am not an owner there I cant log onto the (non-corporate) owners website or their facebook page. I sure would have liked to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting!


~Diane

 

[Harmina]

There is no update regarding the meeting on the Carriage Hills Owners website.

 

[Maple_Leaf]

Here is the Pat Foran story. This sounds like a classic example of a legacy timeshare whose owners have outgrown their timeshare ownership. The Carriage Hills and Ridge boards should have put in place years ago a real estate broker to make a local market for these timeshare units while they were still worth owning. Now with a 20% delinquency rate and a $1500 annual maintenance fee these resorts are well into the legacy timeshare death spiral of increasing delinquencies and worthless deeds due to the ever-increasing maintenance fees.

Perhaps a developer will take them over and turn them into condo hotels? Hello Wyndham? Skyline?

 

[moonstone]

Perhaps a developer will take them over and turn them into condo hotels? Hello Wyndham? Skyline?

I bet that's their plan, kind of like what happened with The Lodges at Horseshoe years ago! It was gutted and renovated into a condo (privately owned units) with units selling for close to $300K to near $500K!

~Diane

 

[Harmina]

I bet that's their plan, kind of like what happened with The Lodges at Horseshoe years ago! It was gutted and renovated into a condo (privately owned units) with units selling for close to $300K to near $500K!

~Diane

It certainly is a beautiful area up there.....