cloud3
TUG Member
MF & Special Assessments [Mexico] [ merged]
I want to canvass TUG to get some feedback regarding the legitimacy of a special assessment from a right-to-use timeshare resort. The resort is located in Mexico but my question is whether or not a resort that does not have any fee simple owners can legitimately request a special assessment from its members? I have paid special assessments in the case of a timeshare that I owned outright but never for a right-to-use timeshare.
There is nothing in my purchase contract about special assessments although there is a fairly standard clause about obeying the Rules and Regulations of the resort. I did find a booklet of Regulations (altho I don't think it came with the purchase contract) that has a clause related to a "Extraordinary Maintenance Fee". It refers to "fortuitous cases or any other natural phenomena that put in risk the conservation of the Facility". However, in this case the extra charge is not associated with any disaster but rather just a shortage of funds for the "renovation and refurbishment of units and the common areas" to quote from the letter describing the special assessment.
The resort takes in about US$20 million revenue from maintenance fees and rentals and claims to have spent almost US$6 million on maintenance in the last 5 years (way beyond industry standards, they claim). The special assessment requested is 60% of the annual maintenance fee so it is not an insignificant amount.
This Resort does not publish a budget or report to members on it's expenditures so there are no financial records to determine if this extraordinary fee is justified or not. 60% seems high to me - what are other's experiences? Is a legal contest worthwhile considering this is Mexico? Does anyone else have any experience with special assessments like this? Thanks for any and all advice.
I want to canvass TUG to get some feedback regarding the legitimacy of a special assessment from a right-to-use timeshare resort. The resort is located in Mexico but my question is whether or not a resort that does not have any fee simple owners can legitimately request a special assessment from its members? I have paid special assessments in the case of a timeshare that I owned outright but never for a right-to-use timeshare.
There is nothing in my purchase contract about special assessments although there is a fairly standard clause about obeying the Rules and Regulations of the resort. I did find a booklet of Regulations (altho I don't think it came with the purchase contract) that has a clause related to a "Extraordinary Maintenance Fee". It refers to "fortuitous cases or any other natural phenomena that put in risk the conservation of the Facility". However, in this case the extra charge is not associated with any disaster but rather just a shortage of funds for the "renovation and refurbishment of units and the common areas" to quote from the letter describing the special assessment.
The resort takes in about US$20 million revenue from maintenance fees and rentals and claims to have spent almost US$6 million on maintenance in the last 5 years (way beyond industry standards, they claim). The special assessment requested is 60% of the annual maintenance fee so it is not an insignificant amount.
This Resort does not publish a budget or report to members on it's expenditures so there are no financial records to determine if this extraordinary fee is justified or not. 60% seems high to me - what are other's experiences? Is a legal contest worthwhile considering this is Mexico? Does anyone else have any experience with special assessments like this? Thanks for any and all advice.
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