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 ?