Humongous $2200 per week 2020 assessment for Barrier Island Station Duck: A 50 Million dollar theft

[biswassb]

Barrier Island Station Duck owners just received a notification for a $2200 per week per unit special assessment. For 500+ condos, it will be $50 million fund. This is over and above $900 maintenance fee. My unit in the resort is simply not taken care of in many years. We had a special assessment only a couple of years ago which I paid but I did not see any change in the condition of the resort or my unit. I think board members stole the money. With 50 million dollar assessment it is going to be a day robbery. I ask every member to withhold payment of any assessment as well as maintenance fees until an independent legal investigation on this assessment is done because there is a huge potential theft ensuing in this resort.

 

[geist1223]

Please be aware of the penalties/civil judgment for libel/slander

 

[escanoe]

If what is above is untrue, this forum is a good place to inform people or make additional information available. That would likely serve a higher purpose than posting a legal threat.

Seriously, if the board or decision makers sued an owner for simply putting this on TUG .., but did nothing to explain what was going on could they in good faith say they were carrying out their fiduciary duties? What would the reaction of rank and file owners be?

Please be aware of the penalties/civil judgment for libel/slander

 

[RX8]

What do the annual financials show?

 

[RonB]

The OP who sez nothing was done with the first assessment must be keeping their eyes closed when at BIS. The exteriors have been completely redone. I thought at the time that the first assessment for exterior renovations would not be the last because of the lack of interior work for many years. While not happy with this, I do understand why it's necessary and mgt did explain how/where the money would be spent. I look forward to the long overdue interior renovations and intend to pony up the money. Prior mgt and HOA members is where the blame belongs. We enjoyed low maintenance fees for too many years, and the end result are these assessments.
The OP also needs to check their math. Total 2020 maintenance fees divided by the 2020 MF gives just under 4100 weeks. And if you multiply that by the assessment, you get just over $9 million. The assessment letter clearly states how that money will be spent, and why it's necessary.
I don't want to pay it, but I will, and I look forward to the improvements to come.

 

[billymach4]

Barrier Island Station Duck owners just received a notification for a $2200 per week per unit special assessment. For 500+ condos, it will be $50 million fund. This is over and above $900 maintenance fee. My unit in the resort is simply not taken care of in many years. We had a special assessment only a couple of years ago which I paid but I did not see any change in the condition of the resort or my unit. I think board members stole the money. With 50 million dollar assessment it is going to be a day robbery. I ask every member to withhold payment of any assessment as well as maintenance fees until an independent legal investigation on this assessment is done because there is a huge potential theft ensuing in this resort.

Can we have more facts... Understand the emotional distress.
Take a step back and present this issue with more background rather than mob style vengeance.

 

[geist1223]

If what is above is untrue, this forum is a good place to inform people or make additional information available. That would likely serve a higher purpose than posting a legal threat.

Seriously, if the board or decision makers sued an owner for simply putting this on TUG .., but did nothing to explain what was going on could they in good faith say they were carrying out their fiduciary duties? What would the reaction of rank and file owners be?

I am not a Member of the BOD. I do not even own at that timeshare. So no threat. However going around accusing people of criminal conduct without proof can lead to consequences.

 

[RLS50]

I am not even sure how to respond to the comments made by the OP, beyond the fact that I have no idea where the numbers came from.

Any owner at BIS-Duck can read the many documents available online to all owners explaining in detail the budget history of the resort year by year, along with the many Owner updates of the past 5 years, as well as a most recent 9 page document explaining the current special assessment of $2,200 in detail. The assessment is planned to raise somewhere between $8M-$8.5M total, and owners have the option to pay that $2,200 amount in installments over the next 4 years. The current HOA Board has been discussing the need for a Special Assessment for at least the last 3 years previously. So this assessment should have been no surprise to anyone (at least not anyone paying attention).

Basically in a nutshell, BIS-Duck owners enjoyed 30+ years of maintenance fees that were significantly lower than the national average. The total underpayment cumulatively was in the neighborhood of $12M-$18M. In the years from 1990 to 2015 the resort seems to have never had any regularly scheduled Soft goods (every 5 years) or Hard goods (every 10 years) replacements the way a more professionally managed resort would have attempted to provide. Looking at the financials there were many years where the Reserve budget was funded at totals under $50k, and definitely under $100k. That was the Reserve budget line item planned and assessed for the ENTIRE year. Imagine owning at a resort that did that for decade after decade? The reality is that a resort the size of BIS-Duck should have been assessing annual maintenance fees that would have funded and maintained a Reserve line item of somewhere between $800K-$2M.

In 30+ years, even though the annual budget was significantly underfunded by maintenance fees kept unreasonably low, owners were only hit with 2 Special Assessments in that time frame (which occurred in the last decade). Frankly owners at BIS-Duck should have been hit with a series of staggered special assessments starting 20 years ago to start bringing the resort up to acceptable standards.

Unfortunately current owners are now stuck paying for the numerous mistakes made in the past. But the positive is that at least Owners should finally be able to look forward to saying goodbye to couches, carpets, etc from the 1980's.

 

[pedro47]

The $2200 assessment per unit is to be paid at one time or over a period of years.

 

[pedro47]

If what is above is untrue, this forum is a good place to inform people or make additional information available. That would likely serve a higher purpose than posting a legal threat.

Seriously, if the board or decision makers sued an owner for simply putting this on TUG .., but did nothing to explain what was going on could they in good faith say they were carrying out their fiduciary duties? What would the reaction of rank and file owners be?

What happen to Freedom of Speech ?

 

[Sandy VDH]

What is the number of units at this resort? Could be the OP is just bad at math.

 

[pedro47]

Barrier Island Station Duck owners just received a notification for a $2200 per week per unit special assessment. For 500+ condos, it will be $50 million fund. This is over and above $900 maintenance fee. My unit in the resort is simply not taken care of in many years. We had a special assessment only a couple of years ago which I paid but I did not see any change in the condition of the resort or my unit. I think board members stole the money. With 50 million dollar assessment it is going to be a day robbery. I ask every member to withhold payment of any assessment as well as maintenance fees until an independent legal investigation on this assessment is done because there is a huge potential theft ensuing in this resort.

I hope you retain a copy of that special assessment that occur years ago and what were to be completed using the owners assessment funds . That is your starting point.

Finally, I can bet you someone from your resort HOA are monitoring this website. IMHO. I am not an owner and have never visited this resort.

 

[Sandy VDH]

What happen to Freedom of Speech ?

There is a difference between freedom of speech and libel/slander.

 

[pedro47]

500 units X $2200.00=$1,100.000.00 Dollars. off top my head. please check my numbers

 

[RonB]

@pedro47 - check my post above. I have done and redone the math...

Edit to add that it is the total number of weeks, not units that count as the MF applies to each week and there are 50 weeks for each unit.

I could still be wrong though.

 

[Sandy VDH]

500 units X $2200.00=$1,100.000.00 Dollars. off top my head. please check my numbers

@pedro47 you are using intervals. 500 units is far different from 500 intervals.

Assuming there a 51 intervals per units, permitting 1 week per year for Maintenance, that means there are less than 10 units at this resort if there are 500 intervals.

That is why I was asking how many units there are. My guess is about 80 based on @RonB numbers.

 

[RLS50]

That is why I was asking how many units there are. My guess is about 80 based on @RonB numbers.

I believe there are about 110-115-ish total units? Of which I believe about 73% of owners are paying their maintenance fees. The Special Assessment was based on the expectation that about 65%-70% of the owners would pay it. I can get the exact numbers from the documents posted online.

 

[Sandy VDH]

@RLS50 Thanks that is fine. I was just trying to figure out how the OP got to 50M. Bad Math is the answer.

There are likely collecting for 500 intervals, NOT 500 units with 51 intervals each, which is where the math went wrong.

If it is more like 110 units X 51 intervals X 65% participation rate. That is 8 -9 M. Not the 50 M that the OP said.

So about 1/3 of the owners they figure will not pay, and the other 2/3 who will pay have to make up for the 1/3 that won't. So they are each really paying for about 1.5 SP to make up for the rest.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I think that when owners aren't paying MF's, the remaining owners should be allowed to book those units at reduced rates. We do that at Val Chatelle because owners are paying extra to cover the fees for those who have walked away. There is no resale value to most timeshares, and those with seasons that are not worth anything, owners should be able to rent for a minimum amount and then do what they want with the weeks. Use them, deposit them, rent to friends, etc.

 

[RonB]

And about half of the total assessment is for work to keep two of the buildings from being condemned by Duck for lack of sprinklers.

 

[Kozman]

500 units X $2200.00=$1,100.000.00 Dollars. off top my head. please check my numbers

 

[bbodb1]

What happen to Freedom of Speech ?

It is clearly a target of the woke crowd these days.

 

[bbodb1]

There is a difference between freedom of speech and libel/slander.

The truth is a valid defense.

 

[bbodb1]

A few years back, we were hit with a special assessment at La Costa BC. The parallels of the two resorts were similar - past neglect in terms of keeping the resort updated and attractive finally caught up to the present and when a hurricane hit the area, it was found the insurance was lacking. I certainly was not happy about the assessment but it appears the resort has been on much more solid footing since the assessment was made and long needed improvements made. If these actions were not taken, there was a question of the ability of the resort to continue to function. I'm not sure what happens to owners when a resort they own in shuts down permanently but I'm happy we did not have to find this out.

 

[tschwa2]

Who is the manager of the resort now a days?