Double dipping is double dipping....
While I realize these can be very frustrating- perhaps there is a valid reason (you be the judge of that)...
Since this thread seems to be frequented only by those paying the fees, I wanted to get thoughts from those collecting these as well. I just spoke with the president of a timeshare HOA in Ft Lauderdale about the increase in these types of fees.. His take is as follows:
Many interval owners now routinely exchange into other properties via weeks exchanges, points systems, etc.. As a result of this, there has been a big shift in resort usage over the last five years- from primarily owner usage to mostly non-owner and guest usage.
His point of view is that many fees and services only apply when the property is actually being used- so by redistributing the cost of these services to the individuals using (regardless of owner status) via service fees and surcharges- the HOA can help to control costs and reduce annual assessment increases to the deeded owners. Also, by contracting for many of these services rather than having direct employees responsible- the HOA avoids both liability and cost overruns.
So regardless of your point of view- it looks like these fees would be collected one way or another- either by the guest- or as more increases in annual assessments to owners..
This is the kind of logic that supports the “Death Tax” – you know, you spend your entire life working and paying “your fair share” of taxes and when you die the government claims it goes to the head of the line to collect its cut – before your wife/husband, before your kids, before your grand kids, before your charities – the government gets to double dip.
That’s exactly what those HOA’s are doing – double dipping.
They bill ALL the charges to run the resort into the MFs – the owners pay for it and then they double dip by extorting money out of innocent owners who paid their MFs at their resort but now must “contribute” to the benefit of the resort they exchanged into.
Like I said, HOA’s have learned what our government has learned – it’s easy to cook up all kinds of reasons to take money from one group of owners/citizens and give that money to another group of owners/citizens – because it’s for the “Common good”; and it benefits them directly.
Another fee that would be great to charge would be for TV usage – when I was a kid we took a car trip to Minnesota during the summer to visit relatives. I still remember my dad giving me a quarter to insert into the color TV set to watch Topper – which was in black and white.
The HOA’s might check into slapping one of those gadgets to a flat screen TV – this time instead of quarters you would swipe your credit card….. Hey, its for the Common Good.
P.S.
The entire idea of slapping fees on exchangers is ludicrous – that means that Beach Place Tower owners need to be slapped with counter fees by II. They are bringing an inferior reservation to the exchange table – one that is missing the outrageous daily parking fee. II should simply bill Beach Place Tower owners an identical amount equal to the fee they charge exchangers.
II would collect the fee, take out a processing fee, and send it right back to the owner exchanging in. But, don’t hold your breath waiting for II to do this.
Tahoe is not New York City or Boston. Sheesh.
