Casa Dorada - Maintenance fee increases

[huskynut]

I've been a bi-annual owner since 2009 and have watched my annual maintenance fee on my 1BR junior suite grow from $510 to $775. Shame on me for never paying attention, but based on recent dealings with this place I decided to pull my contract out and review the maintenance fee stipulation ... here it is .... verbatim ...

in the SEVENTH clause ... "The regular fee for the first year shall be in the amount of 510.00 US cy, which may be increased in the subsequent years based on the consumer price index rate of the United States, with a maximum increase of 10% annually.


Please note it states "maximum increase of 10% annually" ..... NOT "minimum increase of 10% annually". This was very important to me when deciding to purchase this timeshare as I did not want escalating maintenance costs.

So then I decided to get the CPI from January of every year since 2009 to find out what the true % increase was (I knew inflation was fairly minimal) ... here's that info ...

CPI CPI chg % Change

Jan-09 211.933
Jan-10 217.488 5.555 2.55%
Jan-11 221.187 3.699 1.67%
Jan-12 227.860 6.673 2.93%
Jan-13 231.641 3.781 1.63%
Jan-14 235.436 3.795 1.61%
Jan-15 234.954 -0.482 -0.21%
Jan-16 238.107 3.153 1.32%

total 11.52%

So ... in my mind my maintenance fee should not have increased much more than 10-12% TOTAL since 2009.

I have already requested a detailed accounting from them, given this information, as to how they arrived at going from 510 in 2009 .... to 565 in 2011 ... to 615 in 2013 to 685 in 2015 to 775 in 2017.

I'll keep you posted .... check your contracts folks!

 

[oldbuyer]

The Mexican resorts use their own version of CPI. The actual contract is written in Spanish and the contract you have is the rough English translation. Basically they may limit the increase but I doubt there is a reference point for inflation in the original contract.
BTW Cabo Villas has a 5% limit on their old contracts (10% on newer ones) and they go up the maximum every year without any justification.
I think Casa and CV due this to get defaults so they can resell already sold out resorts.
Proving turns really do matter- sell the same unit 4-5 times in 30 years instead of once!

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Vidanta contracts version

I realize every TS system is different - but for what it is worth .

Many Vidanta contracts have a version of this and I recently read my original which has a 5% cap .

HOWEVER - the 5% is an adjustment factor cap for any Mexican inflation that exceeds the USA CPI index . Perhaps the original in Spanish in your contract is similarly worded .

Vidanta contracts prior to about 2002 have a 3 % rate listed and from what I can tell generally (today) have lower MF than the 5 % ones ( because the incremental $ increases are smaller due to the lower max cap ) .

Your current MF may be accurate if Mexican inflation up to a 10% cap is the adjustment factor ON TOP of the USA CPI numbers you list .

.

 

[huskynut]

Am I the only one with this issue?

I guess no one else on this board is taking issue with this practice of arbitrary maintenance fee increases. I've asked them (Casa Dorada) for a full accounting of my increases since 2009 and how they were calculated ... haven't received anything yet. As best as I can tell, even using Mexico's CPI, the average increase should only be 3.5%. My contract is in English and does not mention Mexico's CPI ... only the U.S. CPI.

 

[stanb]

Casa Dorada timeshare....
This is terrible business practice. My maintenance fee increased from $930 in 2008 to $1450 today. Plus, this year they added a "special" fee of $1,360. On top of this, I can't get a room unless I book way in advance (I was advised by member services to book 14 months in advance). All this after paying $39,000 for my timeshare to begin with. I feel totally used and abused. What is my best recourse???

 

[huskynut]

Casa Dorada timeshare....
This is terrible business practice. My maintenance fee increased from $930 in 2008 to $1450 today. Plus, this year they added a "special" fee of $1,360. On top of this, I can't get a room unless I book way in advance (I was advised by member services to book 14 months in advance). All this after paying $39,000 for my timeshare to begin with. I feel totally used and abused. What is my best recourse???

I was hopeful there would be more people here that share in this frustration. To me a contract is a contract. They increase the fees based on the needs of the resort (I actually had a person in their customer service area at the resort tell me that). What does your contract wording look like in this regard?

 

[Marva Swick]

Casa Dorada timeshare....
This is terrible business practice. My maintenance fee increased from $930 in 2008 to $1450 today. Plus, this year they added a "special" fee of $1,360. On top of this, I can't get a room unless I book way in advance (I was advised by member services to book 14 months in advance). All this after paying $39,000 for my timeshare to begin with. I feel totally used and abused. What is my best recourse???

My husband and I experienced all of this with Casa Dorada this past fall. A notice of "special Assessment" was sent to us, and our annual maintenance fee increased to a huge amount. We were so upset, calling them for answers. We were told a manager would return our call. Also, we sent them an email stating this is fraud how they are calculating the annual increases for maintenance fees, and we sent them copy of the US price index proving this is illegal what they are charging. Never heard back. Not sure what our recourse is. I did read somewhere on this blog a similar situation and the owner told Casa Dorada they could not afford to pay the additional assessment. The owner was told "the assessment was OPTIONAL not mandatory, but they would hope all owners would participate". The owner did not pay it and nobody contacted them again for collecting the fee.

 

[nazclk]

Is this Casa Dorada at Medano Beach?

 

[Marva Swick]

Yes, we own at Casa Dorada Medano Beach.