Silver Lake Resort Special Assessment

[bankr63]

Silver Lake Resort had a special meeting of the board on Tuesday (October 17) to vote on a SA for owners. Got the notice of the meeting on Thursday (October 19th) so no time to respond - too bad too because my daughter was in Orlando this week too (but I doubt she would have wanted to go to a board meeting to proxy for me).

Posting here in case anyone comes across any more information. A bit worried as we own one of largest 3BR LO and they say the SA will be assessed by unit type.

 

[bermondseypete]

Also got the letter but based in the UK. Visiting florida in November - sounds like they are going to make up their budget deficit by charging those who do pay their dues more!! Outrageous and I suspect its deliberate to get rid of deeded weeks owners to take resort back.

 

[danjaclabs]

We just got back from there and sat thru a Capital Sales pitch..wanted us to pay $17,000 over 10 years at 16% interest plus monthly maintenance fees and we would get over 560,000 annual points and hand over our deeds (We have 2 2 bedroom 2 bath sleeps 8 units flexible) ummm no thanks we walked. We have received an $1100 assessment on our accounts to be paid every 3 months (333.00) beginning in November. Just appeared in owners portal in the last few days. Others are posting on Facebook also received.

 

[LeesaD]

We just got our SA notice. Is there anything that can be done? Never received notice of meetings. Never even received any notification that Capital Vacations bought the resort. Found out when we were there in May. If we never went we never would’ve been notified. Have owned there for over 25 years. Newbie to this forum but does anyone know can they just impose an $1100 SA without even being notified of a meeting? My husband called today and said he wanted a list of what the money will be used for and they said they can’t give him that. Do they legally have to follow some rules? The rep my husband spoke to actually said to him ‘we bought the resort at a deficit and have been running since then at a deficit so we have to make up for it’. Seriously!!! I saw someone mentioned a FB group? Can you let me know name if it’s a Silver Lake owners group? Thank You for any info.

 

[LeesaD]

We just got back from there and sat thru a Capital Sales pitch..wanted us to pay $17,000 over 10 years at 16% interest plus monthly maintenance fees and we would get over 560,000 annual points and hand over our deeds (We have 2 2 bedroom 2 bath sleeps 8 units flexible) ummm no thanks we walked. We have received an $1100 assessment on our accounts to be paid every 3 months (333.00) beginning in November. Just appeared in owners portal in the last few days. Others are posting on Facebook also received.

Can you tell me Facebook group?

 

[danjaclabs]

Can you tell me Facebook group?

It's Silver Lake Resort Owners Group on Facebook..just created last week due to all of this. We did just receive our statement for special assessments and a letter was included that states due to rising payroll, enhancing services and quality of resort, blah blah blah and then wanting to add a pickleball court, fire pits and new gym equipment and expanding it. Seriously, firepits in Florida and a resort, I have never seen the grills used, lol!!! You should be able to FOIA the information including minutes of the special meeting from the board of directors. I was able to find the 2023 consolidated budget mailed sometime this year.

 

[Kozman]

I just received my special assessment notice for my 3br LO. It was $450 over a three month period ($1350). If you pay in full there is a 15% discount. Why do we need these extra amenities? So they can tout sales to new prospective owners. I don't know the makeup of the board but many companies come along and take over a resort. Then they vote their own employees onto the board since they purchased HOA weeks in the take over and have enough votes to over ride any owner votes. If you don't plan on walking I'd say take the opportunity of the 15% discount.

 

[Clintech]

I just got my “Special Assessment” today in the mail, and I am confused by it. Is this our yearly maintenance fee invoice, or something in addition to it? My $1100 bill amounts to $1500 Canadian, and something I can ill afford and unwilling to pay if it is in addition to our yearly fees.

 

[TUGBrian]

A special assessment would be in addition to your annual maintenance fee yes.

 

[Clintech]

A special assessment would be in addition to your annual maintenance fee yes.

We have been owners at Silver Lake for 31 years with a fixed week contract. This special assessment came as a huge surprise to us, without warning, which is why at first I thought it was for our yearly fees, which are due in Dec. If this is in addition to our yearly fees, I have no intention of paying and quite willing at this point to let our timeshare go. Can anyone advise me the best way to do this? I read someone was told they had to pay a large amount of money in addition to signing over their deed? Can I simply stop paying? We are Canadian, so I am thinking the most they can do is take us to small claims court, which would likely not be worth it for them.

 

[dioxide45]

We have been owners at Silver Lake for 31 years with a fixed week contract. This special assessment came as a huge surprise to us, without warning, which is why at first I thought it was for our yearly fees, which are due in Dec. If this is in addition to our yearly fees, I have no intention of paying and quite willing at this point to let our timeshare go. Can anyone advise me the best way to do this? I read someone was told they had to pay a large amount of money in addition to signing over their deed? Can I simply stop paying? We are Canadian, so I am thinking the most they can do is take us to small claims court, which would likely not be worth it for them.

They wouldn't take you to small claims court. Their only real remedy would be a hit to your credit report and also foreclosure. being in Canada, I doubt there will be a hit to your credit and foreclosure would get you out. Just do not pay any company that promises to get you out any money. These timeshare exit companies are pure scams that will just have you default and go through foreclosure. You can do that yourself for free.

 

[Kozman]

We have been owners at Silver Lake for 31 years with a fixed week contract. This special assessment came as a huge surprise to us, without warning, which is why at first I thought it was for our yearly fees, which are due in Dec. If this is in addition to our yearly fees, I have no intention of paying and quite willing at this point to let our timeshare go. Can anyone advise me the best way to do this? I read someone was told they had to pay a large amount of money in addition to signing over their deed? Can I simply stop paying? We are Canadian, so I am thinking the most they can do is take us to small claims court, which would likely not be worth it for them.

I too have owned since about 2000. The maintenance fees have remained rather stable with small increases. I too am shocked by the SA. As far as walking away I can only talk from personal experience. I walked away from my fixed week ownership at Sunrise Ridge in Pigeon Forge, TN in '21 when the maintenance fees were raised about 23% in one year. This sudden increase coincided with Diamond taking over the resort. I got two harassing certified letters one month apart in early '22. I sent them directly to the circle file. I heard nothing from them until Dec. of '22 when I received a plain white envelope in the mail that I almost threw away without opening since it looked like junk mail. Inside was a deed that they requested that I sign and notarize and return. They were taking the unit back free of charge. So, in my case they huffed and puffed to try to intimidate me but when that didn't work they took the deed back. I look at this as a win-win for me and them. They can recover the inventory quickly and return it to sales. I suspect they will re-deed it into their points system. Another angle is that almost all timeshares in FL are facing large increases in insurance rates due to the recent hurricane. That is putting pressure on trying to keep a budget stable. I paid the SA with the 15% discount but may walk down the line if MFs also climb dramatically. Every situation and HOA is different. So, to each their choice.

 

[Clintech]

They wouldn't take you to small claims court. Their only real remedy would be a hit to your credit report and also foreclosure. being in Canada, I doubt there will be a hit to your credit and foreclosure would get you out. Just do not pay any company that promises to get you out any money. These timeshare exit companies are pure scams that will just have you default and go through foreclosure. You can do that yourself for free.

Thanks for your advise. I did apply for Capitals "Graceful Exit" program, and they just came back with an email response. They want us to pay a total of $3770 US ($5200 Canadian) to "relinquish" our timeshare. Laughable. We have been owners with Silver Lake since 1992 have never once defaulted on our payments.

 

[fantsy]

Yeah, not happy with CV, they tried to milk us for the 17000 more and they would not explain what was happening to our Silver Lake deed. Almost got into a physical fight with the guy as he was boisterous and intimidating and I don't respond well to that tactic, I am sure he has bullied people into buying. We left and still with no answers. We were told we would not be getting our RCI point any more, Yet RCI is set to give us points at the end of the month anyway?? Has anyone gotten their RCI point since the Take over? Special assessment is a Joke, they flat out warned us they were going to do this in the discussion last April when we were there.

 

[pedro47]

Are there anyone in Florida state government or the federal government , that these owners at this resort can help them ?

 

[chapjim]

It's Silver Lake Resort Owners Group on Facebook..just created last week due to all of this. We did just receive our statement for special assessments and a letter was included that states due to rising payroll, enhancing services and quality of resort, blah blah blah and then wanting to add a pickleball court, fire pits and new gym equipment and expanding it. Seriously, firepits in Florida and a resort, I have never seen the grills used, lol!!! You should be able to FOIA the information including minutes of the special meeting from the board of directors. I was able to find the 2023 consolidated budget mailed sometime this year.

FOIA a HOA? An owner can request information from a HOA but FOIA applies to government agencies -- federal agencies or in this case, Florida agencies since Florida has a FOIA statute.

 

[handysam863]

Thanks for your advise. I did apply for Capitals "Graceful Exit" program, and they just came back with an email response. They want us to pay a total of $3770 US ($5200 Canadian) to "relinquish" our timeshare. Laughable. We have been owners with Silver Lake since 1992 have never once defaulted on our payments.

Graceful exit program is just another gimmick that capital uses for money. You have to have all annual dues paid for the year, must file a request and payment of $3k + a minimum of 45 days prior to December 1st plus pay extra fee, title, tax, condiments. Capital Vacation is by far the worst vacation club we have run across, Run if you... BTW, priceline was selling Silver Lake for $83 a nite, 2 bedroom with $22 resort fee. That's about 25 days worth of annual fees.

 

[Kanestone]

Hi, Canadian owner here. First post.
Went to an owner update "free trip" last week. I have a deeded Silver Points account with RCI (not a week deposit). They told us that I had a year to convert those SilverPoints in the "Trust" were I would no longer get RCI/SilverPoints but "Capital Vacation club points". The value of the Capital Vacations points were 160 000 points which I could have redeemed at a 0.015 rate = $2,400 USD. I could have then used the redemption to pay my MFs, and still had roughly 93 000 points to use for vacationing. But to be able to convert to "Trustee", I had to purchase an additional 100 000 points for 15k USD.

So I would end up with 260 000 points where I would use 120 000 to pay off the MFs, leaving me 140 000 points for vacationing, I would have to "bank" 2 years worth of points to be able to stay in a 2BR at Silverlake.... but never pay MFs again...

Does anyone know what will happen to my RCI/Silverpoints should I not action on it? The sales person told us that RCI exchange fees will go from 299 to 599$. Thanks.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Hi @Kanestone ,
Welcome to TUG
Question :How is the TS salesperson able to predict the future / re : RCI fees ?
Answer : Lips are moving = Lies !!!
[ yes- RCI will increase fees at some point in the future - but not because some TS salesperson says so ]

The goal is to panic you into a rash and costly change of your existing contract.
I am not a Silver Lake owner - but I can 99.9 % guarantee that your existing ownership is better than anything they are trying to sell you.

I suggest you read as much as you can of the TUG Capital Vacations sub-forum.

 

[Kanestone]

Hi @Kanestone ,
Welcome to TUG
Question :How is the TS salesperson able to predict the future / re : RCI fees ?
Answer : Lips are moving = Lies !!!
[ yes- RCI will increase fees at some point in the future - but not because some TS salesperson says so ]

The goal is to panic you into a rash and costly change of your existing contract.
I am not a Silver Lake owner - but I can 99.9 % guarantee that your existing ownership is better than anything they are trying to sell you.

I suggest you read as much as you can of the TUG Capital Vacations sub-forum.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I understand the tactic behind it, but I also like the fact that Capital Vacation Club points can be used at a 0.015 redemption rate to offset MFs. My ideal option is getting a Capital Vacation "club" membership without acquiring their 100 000 annual points for $15k, then transferring my deed into the program, and use the redemption to offset MFs. I might not have enough points to travel every year, but I would still be MFs free. But what will happen to my RCI/Silverpoints if I do not action now is my concern.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I understand the tactic behind it, but I also like the fact that Capital Vacation Club points can be used at a 0.015 redemption rate to offset MFs. My ideal option is getting a Capital Vacation "club" membership without acquiring their 100 000 annual points for $15k, then transferring my deed into the program, and use the redemption to offset MFs. I might not have enough points to travel every year, but I would still be MFs free.

Are you 100 % sure that Capital cannot raise the MF and reduce the redemption rate = you lose

But what will happen to my RCI/Silverpoints if I do not action now is my concern.

I would read your original contract & possibly contact RCI

 

[SilverLakesHate]

We have been owners at Silver Lake for 31 years with a fixed week contract. This special assessment came as a huge surprise to us, without warning, which is why at first I thought it was for our yearly fees, which are due in Dec. If this is in addition to our yearly fees, I have no intention of paying and quite willing at this point to let our timeshare go. Can anyone advise me the best way to do this? I read someone was told they had to pay a large amount of money in addition to signing over their deed? Can I simply stop paying? We are Canadian, so I am thinking the most they can do is take us to small claims court, which would likely not be worth it for them.

We are also Canadian & also bought around that time (1991, when only clubhouse & a couple of buildings). Went more when kids were little & have always thought it was one of the better resorts.
I called in January to pay via credit card & didn’t know until recently that I paid for a special assessment & now they want my maintenance fee. I’m super pissed.
This Capital Vacations is bad for service & don’t care to talk to anyone or reply to emails.
I’m on a number of large boards & think they didn’t follow protocol. The Board of Directors & chair person should be sued for damages. There can’t be many proxies sent in and the votes were whoever lives near by. There is no public view of financials or minutes of board meetings. I did know management changed until after the fact & board now made this decision to charge extra assessment. In theory if this board is just a rubber stamp and doesn’t represent owners properly, this extra charge can be more often. No need for good management practices if you can just raise management fees & make short fall with another fee. This reminds me of some shady partnerships where the board is friendly to management & scams shareholders (because the shareholders can’t get the list of all voters to kick out management). I have a cousin that hosts a business show on US network TV & thinking of getting her opinion, maybe her investigative TV show could expose as I am sure many people get ripped off. I also have a number of friends that are partners at law firms. I usually don’t get angry but now I’m really pissed !!

 

[SilverLakesHate]

I think others should contact Silver Lakes Ownership board and Capital Vacations.. I did..
Hello Julie & Taerra,
I didn’t realize that my payment went towards some sort of special assessment until I called yesterday.
This is my letter as notice to Capital Vacation senior management that I didn’t know but thought I was paying my annual maintenance fee. You have all of the conversations recorded, so check them.
I want my credit card payment put towards my annual maintenance fee and to space bank at RCI my 2024 week as requested & documented ( with the trading power of 22 as when discussed).
RCI said your company did space bank and then took it back. This is proof you know I paid my maintenance fee & then space banked.
I assume you will get this completed in short order & confirm in writing via email or notify me otherwise (since nobody has replied since I started correspondence requesting answers & phoned multiple times where they said you will call back).
Please provide this message to your shady management (I see that Capital Vacations usually does this predatory activity for all of their resorts they manage). The owners association board has not provided financials or minutes of meetings publicly. They just rubber stamp your wishes. The annual maintenance fees has reserves set aside and normal procedures would be to vote on increases for annual fee (within a range allowed by the state of Florida). This special assessment is a predatory action (money grab ) & no need for good management process as you can just give another future notice of special assessment to cover.
In summary, I refuse to pay the special assessment, want my week banked at RCI as discussed or will take action (legal if necessary) to have the owners board remove your management company.

Yours truly,

 

[Diane62]

Yeah, not happy with CV, they tried to milk us for the 17000 more and they would not explain what was happening to our Silver Lake deed. Almost got into a physical fight with the guy as he was boisterous and intimidating and I don't respond well to that tactic, I am sure he has bullied people into buying. We left and still with no answers. We were told we would not be getting our RCI point any more, Yet RCI is set to give us points at the end of the month anyway?? Has anyone gotten their RCI point since the Take over? Special assessment is a Joke, they flat out warned us they were going to do this in the discussion last April when we were there.

We are currently in Florida and are silver lake owners with 154,000 annual points. Capital Vacations sales have been very intimidating telling us that they are changing our floating deeded contract and that now we only have access to the deeded weeks. Secondly they said as legacy owners unless we converted to Capital Vacations (at an extortionate cost) our maintenance would rise by 15% each year eventually reaching 26,000+ ( I forget the exact figure) in 20 years time.
We as residents in the uk worried about the special assessment and paid it, Capital Vacations are now telling us that the figure paid last year which is our usual annual maintenance + the special assessment figure is now the base maintenance fee 1892.02 dollars per year, if they can get away with this is would be an increase in excess of 40% plus, then they say another 15% increase this year. Definitely discrimination against legacy owners who do not wish to convert to their program as Capital Vacations members will only pay 0.003 increase. Capital also say they are severing their contract with RCI and therefore our contract will change they will not at this time let us have access to the owners site and say we need to contact the Home owners association, again they wouldn't give us these details and said good luck with that!
On a positive our second week we exchanged to Orange lake resort, which is definitely in a class way above Silver lakes, we managed to speak to an amazing RCI representative who will be looking into our worries, he reassured us that our contract is binding and that Capital Vacations cannot just change that, they would need to notify and offer a buy back. We are also seeking legal advice regarding the maintenance fees, he said the special assessment cannot just be added every year and those of us who pay cannot be expected to cover every year for those who don't pay. Anyone else in this stressful situation?

 

[Diane62]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I understand the tactic behind it, but I also like the fact that Capital Vacation Club points can be used at a 0.015 redemption rate to offset MFs. My ideal option is getting a Capital Vacation "club" membership without acquiring their 100 000 annual points for $15k, then transferring my deed into the program, and use the redemption to offset MFs. I might not have enough points to travel every year, but I would still be MFs free. But what will happen to my RCI/Silverpoints if I do not action now is my concern.

Hi we are legacy deeded points owners in the similar situation as you currently in Florida and have spoken to the RCI representative for the area who has also reassured us that much of Capitals chat is just not true. He is looking into our worries, I will say we were talked into a Capital try before you buy 200,000 points at a cost of 1995.00 dollars, the detailed information did not come through until after we signed up and paid, we looked at travel to Miami for 1 week, that 1 week would use a minimum of 192,000 points, therefore one week would almost use all the points at a cost of 1995.00 dollars we cancelled the deal and luckily got most of the money back. You need a lot of points power for Capital Vacations and maintenance fees are based on that points power the more points the higher the maintenance. I'll keep you updated.