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Monarch 2016-19 4-Year Special Assessment/Refurbishment, etc [Update]

AlmostRetired

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The problem with trying to secure a summer week is you're going to pay a premium. I'd consider a fall season week. That will be considerably cheaper and if history continues and there is a good chance it will, you can trade back into a summer week. We own weeks 39 and 40 at the Monarch and we've traded back into the Monarch for week 30 2 years running. And in a few years the fall will be our preferred time to travel to HHI as it is the best time of year to go anyway.

Never new you could trade into week 30 with a none summer week. Good for you.
 

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Marriotts Monarch - Scheduled Refurbishment

We knew they were going to be re-doing the 30 year old buildings in 2017, but never thought of this.

Had interesting voice message from mgmt. from early Jan to sometime in March 2017, all Azalea and Camellia units will be closed off and not usable. They were calling us because we own a week in that time frame and may need to make other plans.

Assuming the other sections will have same issue later in year.
We actually space-banked our weeks a year ago.


Nkn:annoyed: :bawl:
 

TheTimeTraveler

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We knew they were going to be re-doing the 30 year old buildings in 2017, but never thought of this.

Had interesting voice message from mgmt. from early Jan to sometime in March 2017, all Azalea and Camellia units will be closed off and not usable. They were calling us because we own a week in that time frame and may need to make other plans.

Assuming the other sections will have same issue later in year.
We actually space-banked our weeks a year ago.


Nkn:annoyed: :bawl:




I actually don't blame you for being annoyed, especially if you are just receiving notice of this now as this doesn't seem to be very much notice.

Hopefully you haven't purchased any airline tickets yet.




.
 

NKN

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Monarch did mostly okay with the storm. The Monarch Owners website has a good recap there and that is where they will post the updates.

Nkn
 

AlmostRetired

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I posted this on Monarch and HHI Facebook page last week.

Feedback on the Monarch... the person who sent it did not give me permission to use the name so I will only quote
"Overall Monarch fared well. She’s built like a tank.
But lots of trees down, water intrusion units, dune erosion, walls and ceilings have been opened up at the desk for remediation efforts. Harbour Club and Heritage Club did not hold up as well "


I do not remember a refurbishment scheduled in 2017. I am curious what is going on and is it related to water damages from the hurricane.
 

bogey21

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I actually don't blame you for being annoyed, especially if you are just receiving notice of this now as this doesn't seem to be very much notice.

This is for March when I guess the Resort won't be full. Won't they just switch users into one of the other buildings?

George
 

dioxide45

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I do not remember a refurbishment scheduled in 2017. I am curious what is going on and is it related to water damages from the hurricane.

The refurbishment was planned and not related to water damage. You can find some discussion in [Link disabled]. The refurbishment also came with a three year special assessment.
 
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AlmostRetired

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The refurbishment was planned and not related to water damage. You can find some discussion in [Link disabled]. The refurbishment also came with a three year special assessment.

I consider refurbishment as updating the interior. By my definition, the work discussed in the thread was all exterior world. There is exterior work required..exterior doors first followed by windows and patio doors. I attended owners meetings the last two years but did not pay close enough attention to remember how much of that is covered by the added temporary MF increase. I would remember if any planned work required closing 50 percent of the resort....2 of 4 building. The reason will become clear at some point.
 
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bogey21

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Monarch was our favorite Resort (we owned a Crown Suite) and was our last Marriott to go when we divested a number of years ago. Seems to me only prudent to do work on the exterior as Resort is what 35 years old?

George
 

dioxide45

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Back when we owned a large portfolio of TS Weeks Monarch was always our favorite. We bought a Crown Suite Week resale at a great price; used it about 7 years while kids and kids friends were with us; then sold it (at a profit). Yes, the MF was double that of the regular units but it was worth every penny. Probably the best TS decision we ever made. Love Monarch.

George

Monarch was our favorite Resort (we owned a Crown Suite) and was our last Marriott to go when we divested a number of years ago. Seems to me only prudent to do work on the exterior as Resort is what 35 years old?

George

Twice in one thread :D. I think that is a first!
 

SueDonJ

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Twice in one thread :D. I think that is a first!

To be fair, it was once in each thread until the two threads were merged. Bogey, you never disappoint. :)
 

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Interesting about the beginning of this merged thread.

I met the GM of Harbour Club, Heritage, and Monarch late summer of this year. She spoke of the exteriors needing some work and eluded to high costs like taking down all the rails to do the work, but I don't remember any discussions of special assessments. $150 per year seems relatively small to me, maybe that is why.

She did talk about the "older age" of Monarch compared to other resorts, the need for some greater repairs, and they were seeing 3rd or 4th generation of family owners at Monarch.

Some other things, aside for explaining MF pricing, that I found interesting from the discussion, but maybe common knowledge here

1) She was going to join the CSA board in Sea Pines. She wanted to advocate for Marriott Sea Pines owners to have free or discounted trolley rides as one of her issues.

2) Parking at all Sea Pine resorts were becoming more and more an issue. I thought she said the barriers were relative new at Monarch and they needed to take similar action at harbour club and heritage.

3) Harbour club - the desk closes at 10 PM I believe and they wanted to increase MF's to try to staff and have it open 24 hours for check-in. To me it might be a good way to save money - if you have 4 resorts in Sea Pines alone - do all 4 need 24 hour check-in?

4) Many complaints about having to buy a Sea Pines pass to check-in. She was advocating for a print-at-home and bring-with type of operation so you didn't pay and could drive right in. She seemed pretty confident this was going to happen in 2017 I believe.
 
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We own week 41 that we bought 3 years ago on the resale market. We love it and want to have two weeks. We are looking at week 40 as a resale.......I'm just worried about what they will find when they start opening the outside walls.

When you find a Week 40 for sale chances are the Seller will be apprehensive about the upcoming Special Assessment. Use their apprehension to your advantage and substantially reduce your offer by an amount 2 or 3 times (or even more than) the anticipated amount of the Special Assessment. Tell the Seller you are willing to assume the uncertainty regarding the Special Assessment in exchange for a lower price.

George
 

AlmostRetired

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When you find a Week 40 for sale chances are the Seller will be apprehensive about the upcoming Special Assessment. Use their apprehension to your advantage and substantially reduce your offer by an amount 2 or 3 times (or even more than) the anticipated amount of the Special Assessment. Tell the Seller you are willing to assume the uncertainty regarding the Special Assessment in exchange for a lower price.

George

Pre hurricane Matthew.... The Special Assessment of 600 per unit was required to add to the reserve fund for the outstanding work that needed to get done. The HOA decided to break this up into 4 payments of 150 each, This was instead of a one time charge.

There is no other special assessment that has been announced or suggested.

Post Hurricane Matthew ... Any financial impact is yet unknown. Most of the timeshares carry high deductibles. This will be the same for any of the timeshares on HHI. I will say based on my experience with Sandy, I am sure near zero interest loans and money from FEMA will be available for HHI. I am not sure how timeshares play in this
 

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Pre hurricane Matthew.... The Special Assessment of 600 per unit was required to add to the reserve fund for the outstanding work that needed to get done. The HOA decided to break this up into 4 payments of 150 each, This was instead of a one time charge.

There is no other special assessment that has been announced or suggested.

Post Hurricane Matthew ... Any financial impact is yet unknown. Most of the timeshares carry high deductibles. This will be the same for any of the timeshares on HHI. I will say based on my experience with Sandy, I am sure near zero interest loans and money from FEMA will be available for HHI. I am not sure how timeshares play in this

In this one and your other posts in this thread you say that the ongoing (pre-Hurricane Matthew) Monarch Special Assessment total is $450/Week, $150 in each of the three years spanning 2016, 2017 and 2018. Now you're saying it's $600 total over four years. Can you please confirm which is correct so that the information will be correct in the MF threads that get put into FAQs? Thanks!

As far as any future Special Assessments that will have to be levied due to Hurricane Matthew damage, I agree with you that it's too soon to know if any of us HHI owners are going to face those. I disagree with you, though, that we're all facing the same risk. It stands to reason that the older resorts on the island that are already looking at building exterior updates/repairs may be more susceptible to water intrusion within the exterior walls (as opposed to water intrusion at doorways/windows that probably affected at least some units at all of the resorts.) I think the condition of the exterior walls at Monarch was one of happyhills' concerns long before the storm.
 
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AlmostRetired

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In this one and your other posts in this thread you say that the ongoing (pre-Hurricane Matthew) Monarch Special Assessment total is $450/Week, $150 in each of the three years spanning 2016, 2017 and 2018. Now you're saying it's $600 total over four years. Can you please confirm which is correct so that the information will be correct in the MF threads that get put into FAQs? Thanks!

As far as any future Special Assessments that will have to be levied due to Hurricane Matthew damage, I agree with you that it's too soon to know if any of us HHI owners are going to face those. I disagree with you, though, that we're all facing the same risk. It stands to reason that the older resorts on the island that are already looking at building exterior updates/repairs may be more susceptible to water intrusion within the exterior walls (as opposed to water intrusion at doorways/windows that probably affected at least some units at all of the resorts.) I think the condition of the exterior walls at Monarch was one of happyhills' concerns long before the storm.

Logic would suggest you are correct on older vs newer resorts. No question that the building facade was one of the big ticket items to be fixed in 2018 timeframe specific to the Monarch. The Monarch buildings are also closer to the water than the other properties and during a hurricane it matters.

I decided to not go by memory and looked at the Monarch owners website for information on the shortfall. a 17/18 refurbishment is scheduled along with the building facade in 2018. It was pointed out that this would create a short fall in 2018 and the HOA decided to collect this over a 4 year period beginning in 2016. They lumped this increase together into the reserve fund. The reserve fund increased by $153 in 2016. What was unclear is how much was due to the short fall. So the best I can say is that our increase was 153 in 2016 specific to the reserve fund and a portion of the increase will continue for the next 3 years.

I can't find where I got the 450 number from for the shortfall but I had to have heard it during an owners meeting. So maybe 112 of the 153 for 4 years is for the shortfall. In any case the short fall covered over 4 years.
 

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Logic would suggest you are correct on older vs newer resorts. No question that the building facade was one of the big ticket items to be fixed in 2018 timeframe specific to the Monarch. The Monarch buildings are also closer to the water than the other properties and during a hurricane it matters.

I decided to not go by memory and looked at the Monarch owners website for information on the shortfall. a 17/18 refurbishment is scheduled along with the building facade in 2018. It was pointed out that this would create a short fall in 2018 and the HOA decided to collect this over a 4 year period beginning in 2016. They lumped this increase together into the reserve fund. The reserve fund increased by $153 in 2016. What was unclear is how much was due to the short fall. So the best I can say is that our increase was 153 in 2016 specific to the reserve fund and a portion of the increase will continue for the next 3 years.

I can't find where I got the 450 number from for the shortfall but I had to have heard it during an owners meeting. So maybe 112 of the 153 for 4 years is for the shortfall. In any case the short fall covered over 4 years.

As an Owner there is no way that I'd settle for my Board explaining a Special Assessment as incompletely as you've done above, and no way that I'd accept them folding an undetermined SA amount into the Reserves. You should be able to look at your annual Budget Statement/MF's bill, and any related GM correspondence, and see exact figures for both the SA and the Reserves. If for no other reason, you should be able to track the ongoing Reserves through the years that the SA is levied so that when it's done, you'll have a reasonable idea of how much the Reserves component should decrease in the first year following the SA.

Other than that, maybe we can get the dates correct - is the Special Assessment being levied in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019?
 

AlmostRetired

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As an Owner there is no way that I'd settle for my Board explaining a Special Assessment as incompletely as you've done above, and no way that I'd accept them folding an undetermined SA amount into the Reserves. You should be able to look at your annual Budget Statement/MF's bill, and any related GM correspondence, and see exact figures for both the SA and the Reserves. If for no other reason, you should be able to track the ongoing Reserves through the years that the SA is levied so that when it's done, you'll have a reasonable idea of how much the Reserves component should decrease in the first year following the SA.

Other than that, maybe we can get the dates correct - is the Special Assessment being levied in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019?

The HOA did send out a letter specific to the shortfall in the reserve fund but i do not remember what was in it. I just didn't care that much. I do care about being as accurate as I can be when I post so I will get you the information. I do remember it was for 16-19. I know the GM has been personally impacted by the hurricane as are all of the Marriott Sea Pines properties she is responsible for. I will email her when the dust settles from the hurricane and update the thread.
 

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[Deleted ... duplicate information already shared in Post #172 in the Hurricane Matthew-related thread here.]
 
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Another Monarch owner has confirmed this info: "The SA is 153.00 per year for 4 years. The total estimated cost of the refurb is $12 million, not yet a hard number as they are going out for bids."

And worth mentioning again, none of us HHI owners knows yet if we'll be subject to SA's levied due to damage from Hurricane Matthew. I expect MVW is working to alleviate that uncertainty as quickly as possible.
 

dioxide45

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Is this SA going to be a separate line item on the MF bill, or is the $153 just going to be added to the reserve amount for the next four years? If it is the latter, I would worry that once it is there, it stays there.
 

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Is this SA going to be a separate line item on the MF bill, or is the $153 just going to be added to the reserve amount for the next four years? If it is the latter, I would worry that once it is there, it stays there.

As usual you use fewer words than I did but that's exactly what I was trying to say in my post #43 above. A Special Assessment that's designated for specific purposes should be clearly delineated in the Annual Budget for a number of reasons, not the least of which is what the non-SA-related expenses and reserves should be during any years of SA's plus the years after.

Based on what was forwarded to me from a Monarch owner with the statement quoted above your post, this SA has been rolled into the Reserve Fee. Granted, the website and statements from the GM say that the reserves are being increased to cover the expenses for this one-time exterior repair work, but the Operating Budget doesn't make it apparent. The 2016 Operating Budget includes these numbers in the Reserve Fee line item:
2015 Budgeted Expenses; 6,100 Unit Weeks; (Per Unit Week) = $304.75
2016 Approved Budget; 6,100 Unit Weeks; (Per Unit Week) = $458.49
2015 Budget v. 2016 Budget, $ Increase = $153.74
2015 Budget v. 2016 Budget, % Increase =50.4%

It seems an odd way to include SA's that are designated for specific work. I don't remember ever seeing that this how other Marriott SA's have been assessed? Like I said, I'd be uncomfortable with the lack of transparency but the Monarch owners don't appear to be worried. :shrug:
 

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Another Monarch owner has confirmed this info: "The SA is 153.00 per year for 4 years. The total estimated cost of the refurb is $12 million, not yet a hard number as they are going out for bids."

Looking at this as an ex Monarch Owner, I think $612 is reasonable ($153 x 4). If you are a homeowner of a 30 year old home just think of the unforeseen expenses you have incurred during the last 4 years.

George
 

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Is this SA going to be a separate line item on the MF bill, or is the $153 just going to be added to the reserve amount for the next four years? If it is the latter, I would worry that once it is there, it stays there.

We're definitely concerned about this. Hopefully it does come off in a few years.
 
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