Pt at Poipu Special Assesment

[Bloopie]

The problem is how do you walk away? I would love to walk away and would even be willing to pay the transfer fee. The problem is that DRI won't take the timeshare back. If you know of another way, please let me know!

Please pass on information to us as well. We are so disillusioned that we are also ready to just walk away, even owning 7 weeks. The writing is on the wall as to the future and method of maintenance by Diamond resorts. What a disappointment!

Joan and Peter Seda
psedamd@charter.net

 

[Kauaigrl00]

<<. Maybe this explains why that group seems to have lost steam?
>>

No that had nothing to do with them losing steam - they needed help from owners and were not getting it - 500 out of what - thousands?? They needed the owners list to get a hold of people.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

The problem is how do you walk away? I would love to walk away and would even be willing to pay the transfer fee. The problem is that DRI won't take the timeshare back. If you know of another way, please let me know!

At about 8:30 am this morning, at the DRI Member Forums "CeliaD", who is one of the official DRI representatives on the Member Forums, responded to someone's inquiry about a buyback program by pointing the person back to a post from Aug 4 that discussed DRI's voluntary surrender program. That gives some reason to believe that the Voluntary Surrender program might still be in effect. Note, BTW, that the terminology appears to be extremely important. If you ask DRI if they have a "buyback program" or "resale program" they will say "no". If you ask the right person if they have a Voluntary Surrender program they might say "yes".

I suggest you visit the member forums, open the thread on "Surrender of Ownership" in the forum on "North America - Using Points & Membership", and ask point blank if the Voluntary Surrender Program is still in effect.

 

[FanFiltration]

There will be a meeting regarding this special assessment in the San Francisco area on Thursday October, 20th. I plan to be there with a fellow owner. I'll take notes, and will be sure to post back here.

DRI The Point at Poipu (water intrusion)
Meeting time / Location:

7:00 P.M. October 20th
Embassy Suites
150 Anza Blvd.
San Francisco Airport Waterfront
RSVP 855-624-4390

FF

 

[Bloopie]

Thank you. I went ahead and posted a reply asking that. I called collections last week and was told no surrenders. I hope that will be an option.

At about 8:30 am this morning, at the DRI Member Forums "CeliaD", who is one of the official DRI representatives on the Member Forums, responded to someone's inquiry about a buyback program by pointing the person back to a post from Aug 4 that discussed DRI's voluntary surrender program. That gives some reason to believe that the Voluntary Surrender program might still be in effect. Note, BTW, that the terminology appears to be extremely important. If you ask DRI if they have a "buyback program" or "resale program" they will say "no". If you ask the right person if they have a Voluntary Surrender program they might say "yes".

I suggest you visit the member forums, open the thread on "Surrender of Ownership" in the forum on "North America - Using Points & Membership", and ask point blank if the Voluntary Surrender Program is still in effect.

 

[pseda]

How did the meeting go? Did anyone ask about a special vote by the owners? Haven't had time to look it up but does it state in the owners policy that the resort managers are to inform and allow us to vote on special assessments? Appreciate any information.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

How did the meeting go? Did anyone ask about a special vote by the owners? Haven't had time to look it up but does it state in the owners policy that the resort managers are to inform and allow us to vote on special assessments? Appreciate any information.

What it says about special assessment is that the Board can set special assessments and owners are obligated to pay them. There is no requirement to hold a vote, conduct informational meetings, share documents, etc. The Board, acting in it's infinite wisdom as our duly elected representatives, decides what we will pay.

It's just like taxes. We elect our senators and representatives to represent us, and they decide how much we will pay.

 

[JohnandSue]

There is a group forming to fight this assessment, if you are an owner and are interested in getting on list,
contact solstammy@charter.net

https://www.diamondresorts.com/hoa/20111005/PoipuOwnerLetterandInserts.pdf

Don't know if the above link will work unless you are an owner.

The water intrusion project is going to be a big one. $5893 per week owned.
$2000 this year along with the normal yearly maintenance fees. the same the following year.

They will take Bldg 4 off line the 2nd half of 2012. The following years two more buildings will be off line, and the final year will have the last bldg offline for repairs.

I'll be in Kauai later today and can ask questions if anybody has some. Let me know.

Al

From the letter:


The Project—Extensive Repairs to All Buildings
Following the investigations and realizing the extent and complexity of the repairs needed, your AOAO Board worked with
a team of experts including an envelope repair and retrofit designer, a structural repair designer, a local architect as a liaison
for permitting, and a nationally recognized project manager to establish the scope of the project. In general, the project will
repair damage to wood framing and replace structural ties, straps and fasteners, as well as structural deficiencies based on
current building codes. The project is also designed to stop leaks and the conditions causing damage. This will extend the
service life of the buildings. More specifically, the project includes:
• Making roof repairs
• Installing new drainage cladding (siding) system and proper flashings
• Retrofitting existing structural fasteners and connections
• Repairing or replacing wood framing
• Installing new structural shear walls
• Installing new above-grade and below-grade waterproofing
• Repairing or replacing windows and doors
• Retrofitting air conditioning units and installing new flashings
• Repairing interior finishes as necessary
• Permanently replacing all soffits

Water Intrusion Assessment Cost
The total amount of the water intrusion assessment, which includes all construction costs, legal and consulting fees, permits,
Hawaii general excise tax and other items is approximately $65.8 million, or $5,893.32 per interval.
Project Timeline
The project will start in June 2012 and take approximately five years to complete. The current schedule calls for one
building, Building 4, to be completed by the end of 2012, two buildings to be completed each year through 2016 and one
building in the first half of 2017. With buildings being out of service for the next five years, space will be limited; therefore
if you are planning to visit the resort during this time, please make your reservation early. If you are a fixed unit/week owner
and your reservation coincides with the time your building is being repaired, you will be notified that your unit will be
unavailable during that time and you will be moved to another unit. Best efforts will be used to place you in comparable
accommodations.

Water Intrusion Project/Association Website
Additional information and updates can be found at our owners-only website. If you have not used the website before, simply
go to DiamondResortsHOA.com and enter the same username and password that you have created for DiamondResorts.
com. If you are having difficulty accessing the website, call 1.855.624.4390 to speak to a representative. After you have
entered your username and password, select “The Point at Poipu” under the drop-down menu and click on the “Water
Intrusion Project” tab at the top of the page.
If you are unable to attend any of the meetings, the informational meeting presentation will be posted on the Water Intrusion
Project page. Several Frequently Asked Questions and photos of the damage are also posted. Please frequent this site for
up-to-date information about The Point at Poipu, the progress of the project and to ask questions

 

[JohnandSue]

The problem is how do you walk away? I would love to walk away and would even be willing to pay the transfer fee. The problem is that DRI won't take the timeshare back. If you know of another way, please let me know!

There is a group forming to fight this assessment. If you are an owner and want to get on a list to get information please contact solstammy@charter.net

 

[JohnandSue]

How did the meeting go? Did anyone ask about a special vote by the owners? Haven't had time to look it up but does it state in the owners policy that the resort managers are to inform and allow us to vote on special assessments? Appreciate any information.

Check out Facebook "Point of Poipu Angry Owners", there is a lot of information. There is a group of owners uniting.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Check out Facebook "Point of Poipu Angry Owners", there is a lot of information. There is a group of owners uniting.

That search term doesn't return anything on Facebook. Edit I found it when I searched "Poipu Point"; don't know why it didn't show with the other search term.

 

[Carolinian]

What it says about special assessment is that the Board can set special assessments and owners are obligated to pay them. There is no requirement to hold a vote, conduct informational meetings, share documents, etc. The Board, acting in it's infinite wisdom as our duly elected representatives, decides what we will pay.

It's just like taxes. We elect our senators and representatives to represent us, and they decide how much we will pay.

Timeshares whose governing documents require a member vote on a special assessment do exist in timesharing, and I have owned at a couple of them, but they are a distinct minority and mostly member-controlled resorts.

If members can snag contol away from DRI, perhaps they could amend governing instruments there to insert this requirement.

Members do not generally object to a needed and well planned special assessment. The one that has been brought to a vote by members at a resort I owned at where members had to vote on them, passed unanimously.

 

[sb_sparky]

Hi Al:

My husband and I still find this whole thing astounding; especially when we've been paying for maintenance since resort inception 1995. Why was this not caught before it became so extensive? What type of maintenance was being done all along? We really question the denial by the insurance co as well. We'd like to see the letter from insurance company as well as actual policy coverage. Also, where are the notes that determined to not go after insurance denial vs deciding to assess owners this astronomical fee. Then, the audacity to just dump it on us with letter re: collections etc if not paid. This isn't how you do business and we find it terribly offensive. We have 7 weeks at the resort and now, can't even donate them away secondary to fee we don't approve of. Please keep us posted as to what's occurring re: this issue. I have searched many hours and unable to come up with other owners to see what the general consensus is.

Sincerely


Joan and Peter Seda
psedamd@charter.net

We are sending you a message now...

We have owned at Diamond Resort's Point at Poipu since 2005 and have been current on our fees since we purchased our timeshare. It seems like there is a serious lack of information, we had no idea of this “special assessment” until the bill arrived! We are in shock and also would like to know what the general consensus of the ownership is.

Please keep us informed, we have no idea how we are going to pay these fees and are wondering if there are any other options.


.

 

[bkahoona1]

mess at poipu point

[Text of this post has been removed at the request of the poster, as a condition of a legal agreement with Diamond Resorts. - Makai Guy, BBS Administrator]

 

[Carolinian]

What it says about special assessment is that the Board can set special assessments and owners are obligated to pay them. There is no requirement to hold a vote, conduct informational meetings, share documents, etc. The Board, acting in it's infinite wisdom as our duly elected representatives, decides what we will pay.

It's just like taxes. We elect our senators and representatives to represent us, and they decide how much we will pay.

. . . and if senators and representatives tax too much or otherwise fail to represent their constituents properly, then we vote them out. In this case, the incestuous relationship of having an HOA board controlled by the management company is something that cries out to be remedied.

 

[pedro47]

I wish Diamond would stretch the special assessment payment plan over a five year period and allow owners to pay on a monthly bases.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I wish Diamond would stretch the special assessment payment plan over a five year period and allow owners to pay on a monthly bases.

Given the cash flow requirements for a construction project cash has to be available ahead of the work. Since the project is being funded on a pay-as-you-go basis (probably rightly so since they HOA does not have any assets that a bank is likely to consider as collateral for a loan), they really can't stretch things out much from the current schedule without also stretching out the time frame for the project. And the more time you add to a project the more contingencies contractors will need to add to their bids, which in turn means the overall cost for the project increases.

I think monthly payment is worth considering, particularly if that is done via automatic deduction or credit card charge, so that resources are not wasted sending out monthly bills.

 

[Kpaul]

Am I doing the math right? 6000 per interval, 50 intervals per unit = $300000 per unit?

I like the way you think! Hard to believe that they are going to spend $300K per unit for these issues and I'm a builder.
I would have to go back and look at the actual "construction" costs allocated to the assessment but a rough guess is about 80% making the "actual construction costs" around $240K per unit.
Diamond is getting the owners to pay for these units to be upgraded and then they will price out the owners with their ridiculous management fees. Then they will own units that you paid twice for, once when you purchased it and then once more when you remodeled it for Diamond Resorts.

I can't wait to see some negative press on this BS

I found this website and they have been actively communicating with owners. Their website was hacked and it looked like it was abandoned but I've seen a lot of good information that strongly indicates that they are actively pursuing options against the current management.

www.poipuowners.org
and another website that is very active on Facebook Point of Poipu Angry Owners
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Point-of-Poipu-Angry-Owners/148027451960608

 

[Kpaul]

I strongly disagree with those that believe that Diamond is not somewhat responsible because they didn't build it, they inherited from Sunterra.

Do you really believe that you would just jump in a buy or acquire a resort without any inspections or due diligence? Come on, a first-time home buyer is smart enough to take those steps.

Diamond inspected the property when they first came in, besides, Sunterra is Diamond.... the same employees that worked at Sunterra either worked for or still work for Diamond. These employees had to know something about the resort, besides the fact that it is a cash cow for DRI.

Did anyone really look at the 2012 VAO & AOAO Combined Budgets?
Besides being paid to oversee the construction project, they are billing out $3,265,745 for Management Fees & "Corporate" Admin Fees.
Plus an additional $612,732 for admin fees at the resort.......

 

[dougp26364]

I wish Diamond would stretch the special assessment payment plan over a five year period and allow owners to pay on a monthly bases.

If you create a log on at DRI's website, you havea a monthly payment option and, you can pay whatever amount you want to pay each month. You're still going to have to pay the minimum MF and SA by the end of the year but, you can vary your monthly payments to match your monthly needs. I've been paying our MF's this way for the last couple of years.

Here's the website. https://www.diamondresorts.com/index.aspx All you need to do is register for your online account and you can make monthly payments direct from your checking account, savings account or, I believe you can also put it on a credit card just in case you're collecting some sort of rewards points.

 

[dougp26364]

I strongly disagree with those that believe that Diamond is not somewhat responsible because they didn't build it, they inherited from Sunterra.

Do you really believe that you would just jump in a buy or acquire a resort without any inspections or due diligence? Come on, a first-time home buyer is smart enough to take those steps.

Diamond inspected the property when they first came in, besides, Sunterra is Diamond.... the same employees that worked at Sunterra either worked for or still work for Diamond. These employees had to know something about the resort, besides the fact that it is a cash cow for DRI.

Did anyone really look at the 2012 VAO & AOAO Combined Budgets?
Besides being paid to oversee the construction project, they are billing out $3,265,745 for Management Fees & "Corporate" Admin Fees.
Plus an additional $612,732 for admin fees at the resort.......

Do you really believe any management company is capable of inspecting over 100 resorts when you're buying another company out of bankruptcy?

If you're placing blame, maybe you should look at the powers that be with Sunterra who all but ignored what had to be a known problem while they were in the drivers seat.

And who's to say they didn't know there was a problem? They may have know there was an issue but not the full extent of the problem. They may have also believed that there was a legitimate chance of litigation against the original contractor or a chance at an insurance claim, only to find out after a couple of years that those were dry wells.

The problem for owners is simple, there is a major structural issue with the resort. Pointing fingers now won't make that go away. There appears to be but one option and that's to fix the resort. It wouldn't matter if it's DRI, Sunterra, the original builder or the next management company to come along should the owners be able to oust DRI. You're still stuck with the same issue. You MUST fix the structural problems of the resort.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I strongly disagree with those that believe that Diamond is not somewhat responsible because they didn't build it, they inherited from Sunterra.

Do you really believe that you would just jump in a buy or acquire a resort without any inspections or due diligence? Come on, a first-time home buyer is smart enough to take those steps.

Just curious - when you hire someone to inspect a house before you purchase it, do you require that the inspector remove the exterior siding and sheathing in three or four areas around the house to inspect for damage? Does your inspector remove panels of sheetrock in the kitchens and bathrooms to check for evidence of leakage from plumbing?

If not, how do you assure yourself that the house you're buying doesn't have concealed damage?

 

[craigrow]

Just curious - when you hire someone to inspect a house before you purchase it, do you require that the inspector remove the exterior siding and sheathing in three or four areas around the house to inspect for damage? Does your inspector remove panels of sheetrock in the kitchens and bathrooms to check for evidence of leakage from plumbing?

If not, how do you assure yourself that the house you're buying doesn't have concealed damage?

..........

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I strongly disagree with those that believe that Diamond is not somewhat responsible because they didn't build it, they inherited from Sunterra.

Do you really believe that you would just jump in a buy or acquire a resort without any inspections or due diligence? Come on, a first-time home buyer is smart enough to take those steps.

Let's see - the resort was almost entirely sold out at the time that DRI took over Sunterra. IIRC the sales level was about 90%, maybe more.

Are you really, seriously suggesting that DRI is financially liable for paying for damage to the 90% of the units that were bought before it was even involved with the resort???

The logic here totally escapes me. If were to buy two units in an existing condo project, and it were later found that the building had substantial problems that I didn't identify when I did my inspection, I would expect to pay my share for the condos that I bought. I certainly wouldn't expect to pay extra for the repairs to the entire project simply because the inspection I did for my units didn't reveal that there was pervasive damage in the entire building.

******

There is a common thread running through many comments, such as yours, that "DRI bought the resort", as if the site were like some resort hotel that rents rooms by the night or week. DRI didn't buy the resort; they bought about 5% to 10% of the units at the resort, plus the company that holds the contract to manage the resort and the right to conduct sales operations on site.

The resort is owned by those who own the deeds. Personally, while I certainly understand the frustration, I get a bit exasperated sometimes reading comments from people who hold deeds at the resort but don't realize that makes them the owners.

 

[timeos2]

Oone group -two fights

The owners are understandably upset about this and looking for someone to blame. It appears the Board/DRI has already exhausted the options for such a recovery for the most part - with only those that purchased very recently holding a tiny hope that the disclosure they were given did not adequately cover the damage now being scheduled for repair - and as all too often occurs either the time to recover or the companies involved are long gone. Further legal action would only add to costs with near zero chanc of any additional recovery.

Sooner or later the owners have to realize they have two issues now. One is getting the resort repaired and paying for it. That isn't going away no matter what.

The second is a long lingering issue that while the individual owners control 63% or so of the votes they have allowed a minority to take and hold control of the Association by failing to exercise their voting power. Maybe this is the wake up call for that silent group but history says that beyond the relative handful now claiming foul the vast majority will remain silent and things will continue as they are.

It takes a truly organized and well funded group to dislodge any entrenched management. So far these owners have not shown the will or interest in actually taking control of the resort but are only moaning about a problem that the management did not create but has to handle.

The earlier attempt they made through that owners group appears to have tried and even raised money but then fell apart. Now they can't even get their website updated it seems so the chances of any success don't look too good.

In any case they have two different battles not one. The main source of contention - the repairs/cost - isn't going away no matter what they do or don't accomplish with the effort to change management.