2010 Maintenance Fee Thread

[DeniseM]

ada903 - If you can scan the letter (put a post-it over your personal info.) and send it to me as an attachment to email, I can post it on TUG.

Please send it to dbmmayer @ gmail.com (without extra spaces)

 

[ada903]

I will scan it at work tomorrow and send it to you!

 

[bulldogz]

I have a nice printed flier from them stating clearly they are reducing refurbishment fees for the Courts for the remaining three payments; the reduction does not apply retrospectively to the two payments that were already made in 2009, but it applies to the remaining three payments: "the three remaining payments will now be in the amounts of $251.24 for villas and $376.86 for townhomes, which are reductions of $89.44, and $134.16, per payment, respectively. These amounts represent a 26.3% reduction from the originally budgeted 2010 payments. The refurbishment project fees will be billed separate from the maintenance fee and two months prior due to their due dates of May 1, July 1, and October 1.". My maintenance fee bill is due April 2, 2010, in a total of $953.17 (excluding the optional $5 for ARDA), and I own a townhome (not a villa).

ada903,

when did you receive the flier? I have not yet receive mine. I just checked Starcentral and do see the Maintenace Fee... (whew)... Its not as bad as I expected... and the bonus of reduced refurbishment cost ($400)

wonder what they cut back from the refurbished cost?

 

[ada903]

The flier came last year, when they initially sent us the refurbishment fees due info. I scanned it and email it to Denise, so she should be able to post it soon. All that my letter for this year says is that they were able to cut down the refurbishment fees due to "cost saving initiatives".

 

[jarta]

bulldogz, ... "wonder what they cut back from the refurbished cost?"

I had lunch yesterday with a member of the HOA Board I used to be on. Ongoing major balcony restorations are being done on all the townhome units where I live.

The bids from contractors for this year's work are about 20% less than what had been bid per unit for the same balcony work last year. The economy affects everyone. Contractors need to keep their crews busy and are taking less money to do the same jobs. 3 years ago contractors were King - if you could even get them to bid on projects.

So, while I do not know for sure, it could be that the savings did not come from changes in the specifications which lower the quality of the finished product. They may have come because the bids for the work came in lower than budgeted or expected. ... eom

 

[DeniseM]

SVR Courts Special Assesment & SVN Invite

This document was provided by ada903 - THANKS!

 

[ada903]

Thanks Denise, and apologies for my scribbling all over, I was calculating my dues for my three units, all of which had large refurbishment fees due

 

[YYJMSP]

Westin Lagunamar

I don't recall seeing this listed yet -- we just got our 2010 MF invoice today (due Mar 2nd)

The back of the sheet says:

1BR Studio - $448.84 ($385.40 assessment + $63.44 replacement reserve)
1BR Premium - $758.60 ($651.38 + $107.22)
2BR Lockoff - $1207.44 ($1036.78 + $170.66)

 

[GeneNWendy]

Let your resort prove that!!

I challenge the resort where your timeshare is located to show you their detail financials, which proves that money from rentals of locked out units goes back to the homeowners association. I can almost guarantee they won't release that information, at least not voluntarily.

 

[vistana101]

MF at WKORV

Does anyone know the MF for a two-bed lockoff island view, EOY ODD at WKORV? (current fees-already checked ones from developer list, anyone know how much gone up?)

 

[DeniseM]

It is a little more than half the EY rate - Approx. half + $30 + SVN fee.

Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas (2 bdm.) - $ 2,346.36

There is a sticky at the top of the forum with this year's MF - I moved your post to that thread.

 

[jjking42]

wow what were they last year ?

I saw this auction and thought it was wrong
http://cgi.ebay.com/148K-Staroption...dZViewItemQQptZTimeshares?hash=item45f109c157

 

[DeniseM]

Hi Jim - in 2004 the MF for my WKORV 2 bdm. was $1,200 - this year is it $2,300 - an increase of $1,100 in 6 years. :annoyed:

For the past 5 years, Starwood has been hammering us with double digit MF increases, and this year Maui county decided to add an extra high property tax just for TS owners, PLUS Starwood is charging us for other owners who are in arrears on their MF. Nice, huh?

It's killing the already ailing resale market.

 

[stive1]

Haven't seen it listed any where and was curious if anyone knows what the MF are for an EOY SVR Cascades Lock off unit. I saw the EY fees but did not know if it would be 1/2 of that amount or if they ran a higher percentage similar to what my EOY Desert Oasis runs vs the annual amount.

 

[lily28]

MF for my eoy odd svr cascade for 2010 is $410.03, the third renovation assessment is an additional $266. I think cascade has higher MF than other phases in SVR

I just saw you ask for the MF for the lockoff. Sorry, mine is only a 2 bedroom

 

[nodge]

"EVERYBODY WINS"

[...]

Three drawings will be held, with ten prizes awarded at each drawing. Pay by November 15, 2009 for entry in the first drawing. Pay between November 16 and November 30, 2009 for entry in the second drawing. Pay between December 1 and December 15, 2009 for entry in the third drawing.

So has anyone heard anything about the results from these three drawings?

-nodge

 

[naka4]

I had the same question. Emailed Starwood and was told because of confidentiality reasons, I could not get information on the winners or whether anyone won.

Pretty shady if you ask me.

 

[thinze3]

Is there only one size 2BR unit at WKORVN?
If so, are all the 2BR maintenance fees the same?

 

[DavidnRobin]

Is there only one size 2BR unit at WKORVN?
If so, are all the 2BR maintenance fees the same?

Correct - all MFs at WKORV-N are the same - except between EY and EOY (add ~$30 for EOY to half the EY MF) - plus the additional yearly payment of the SVN fee (~$114/yr for 1 VOI) since it is not halved for an EOY.

 

[amundson]

I'm just sayin'...could be a nice little profit.

OK, so there are some variables that go into pricing of a week, such as how many star options, resort location, yada yada, MFs, etc, etc. Did I mention MFs? Yeah right. It seems to me that resale price can be completely controlled downward by MFs alone because a buyer looks at the annual MF and says, "I can stay in a hotel or rent a unit for $X, so yeah it is ok for me to pay that many $$ in MFs and I would be willing to pay $Y to own that timeshare." But, if the MF gets too high, the buyer says "why would I lock myself into this high MF?" So, anyway, nothing new here and many already feel this pain...

But, what Dr. Evil (Starwood) could do and it would be particularly nasty, is Dr. Evil could just continue to raise MFs faster than the market prices of renting or hotel stays, driving down the price of "resales" till it gets to the point where there are more people selling their timeshares for $1 just to get rid of the MFs and we would begin to see more and more $1 sales on ebay, etc. Then the good doctor could swoop in, exercise the ROFR and purchase a few of these for themselves... call it an investment.

Its just a story, but say Dr. Evil could buy, quite cheaply, till he owns say 20% of the outstanding units, and easily cover any loss in his highly exorbitant MFs, not to mention that these units can also be rented out. Brilliant. WhaHAHAHAHAHaaaa.

Now to make this investment grow, just push that MF lever back in the other direction. Make what is called a sweeping management change, clean house, in some way instantly cut all MFs in half!! Suddenly, Tuggers love Starwood management again, and subsequently the market prices of resales recover, giving Dr. Evil a tidy little profit as he unloads his holdings.

"Mini Me, you complete me."

 

[DeniseM]

l2trade has been talking about that theory, as well. Yeah never know!

 

[DanCali]

l2trade has been talking about that theory, as well. Yeah never know!

l2trade?

I thought it was me (at least most recently).

WKV and a couple of other resorts don't have ROFR but to me it's pretty obvious this is where things are headed - at least at some of the Starwood resorts. No reason for Starwood to do it now (enough inventory from point conversions), but once Starwood can rent WMH at $500/night for a 1BR during Platinum season - watch out!

 

[DeniseM]

Uh, sorry Dan - It was you!

 

[amundson]

l2trade?

I thought it was me (at least most recently).

WKV and a couple of other resorts don't have ROFR but to me it's pretty obvious this is where things are headed - at least at some of the Starwood resorts. No reason for Starwood to do it now (enough inventory from point conversions), but once Starwood can rent WMH at $500/night for a 1BR during Platinum season - watch out!

Here is the deal though they ought to be afraid of tort law if they conspired in this way.

Also, MFs, and I guess this is kind of a question, since I am not sure what exactly goes into an MF, but if units are being rented out then, timeshare owners should not be subsidizing the maintenance for Dr. Evil's rentals... it would be easy to breakout (separately track) those revenues from hotel-type-rental activity and then take a portion of that for MFs. I imagine that is already being done? Please tell me yes. If not, then I suppose I might not be a buyer after all as renting would be the way to go... make reservations last minute for the same price and then let the timeshare folks subsidize my hotel.

 

[DanCali]

Here is the deal though they ought to be afraid of tort law if they conspired in this way.

Also, MFs, and I guess this is kind of a question, since I am not sure what exactly goes into an MF, but if units are being rented out then, timeshare owners should not be subsidizing the maintenance for Dr. Evil's rentals... it would be easy to breakout (separately track) those revenues from hotel-type-rental activity and then take a portion of that for MFs. I imagine that is already being done? Please tell me yes. If not, then I suppose I might not be a buyer after all as renting would be the way to go... make reservations last minute for the same price and then let the timeshare folks subsidize my hotel.

If Starwood owns a unit outright they pay MFs. If an owner owns a unit and converts to hotel points the owner pays MFs but Starwood can then rent it.

There are some other more subtle issues though. Starwood rentls receive daily housekeepin. It is not clear if and how the HOA is reimbursed for that. They also cause more wear and tear on a unit due to higher turnover from daily retals. Nobody gets reimbursed for that.