Finally read the Timeshare Instrument!!!
Buying resale -- great for price!
Buying resale -- bad for not being able to see the ruling documents before you commit.
The packet that we got includes the original Timeshare Instrument, dated 15 September 1994, and a Fourth Supplement to the Timeshare Instrument, dated 15 May 2002.
If anyone has supplements 1, 2 and 3 and/or knows if there are any supplements after 4, could you please let us know? They might negate the the information I am putting in below.
(According to the initial Instrument, Great Eastern controls the BOD through 2050.)
Here is what I found in the original instrument:
Section 1. DEFINITIONS
Para 1.12 "CPI Increase"refers to the annual amount (rounded up to the next $5.00) by which the Maintenance Fee may be increased by Developer. Increases in Assessments may also be restricted to such CPI increase, if negotiated from time to time between SMOA and Managing Agent, as enabled in Section 10.3. The amount of the increase is determined by multiplying the Fee or Assessment then in effect by a fraction the numerator being the Consumer Price Index, All Urban Consumers, (1967=100), as established by the U. S. Department of Labor (Index) for the December before the Effective Date, and the denominator being the Index for the December immediately before such December. The Effective Date shall be the date that such Maintenance Fee or Assessment is payable. (sic -- there should be a comma after fraction for clarity, but there isn't.)
then --
Section 12 --
Payments by Owners
para 12.2 --
Maintenance Fee
Blah Blah about being required to pay the fee.
The Maintenance Fee is hereby established to $350.00 Developer may increase the Maintenance Fee only in accordance with the CPI Increase.
Blah Blah about how you can't reserve a week if you haven't paid.
************************
So here are my issues:
1) Are there any supplements out there that I don't have that change their right to increase the MF on a different basis?
2) If there are not, I do not believe that this is a legitimate increase all at once from the $460.00. It does not say that they can add up the CPI from years that they did not make an increase and do it cumulatively.
Does anyone else think that we may have a case to fight the increase? I'd love to hear from lawyers.