Vistana upgrade still not closed after 120 days

[dkostner]

I'm looking for advice on how to handle this situation. On August 15, 2024, I gave back two St. John Virgin Grand weeks along with new money in exchange for four Sheraton Flex contracts.

New Owners Administration (NOA) informed me by email in October that the closing of the new contract was held up by tax due on the returned Virgin Grand units. The St. John tax assessor, however, told me the taxes were paid in full by Vistana because my name was not on the tax roll (first use was to be 2025). I acquired and sent the receipts of the paid taxes to NOA back in October.

We are now at the end of the year and still nothing. NOA now informs me that they are waiting for a clearance letter from the tax assessor. In the meantime, I am still receiving maintenance invoices from the weeks I gave back, I cannot pay my Club Dues separately because they are attached to one of those invoices, I have not yet received 190,000 bonus options due me from the upgrade, and in a few days I will find out whether or not I have use of the new options I just purchased when the 12-month reservation period opens. This strikes me as unfair at the very least; how is it legal?

Mind you, there is no mortgage. Vistana was paid in full.

Here's what I don't understand:

1. The taxes were never in my name, so why is this an issue?
2. The taxes were paid. Why are the receipts of such not sufficient proof?
3. Why is NOA so unresponsive? They take days to respond, there is never a contact name on the responses, and their phone number goes directly to voice mail even during business hours.
4. How long can this situation continue? Can I be denied use of what is fully paid for because of this limbo situation?

There must be some recourse. If anyone has an insight on how to escalate this to someone who can actually attend to it, I'd be very grateful.

 

[Hindsite]

try costomer.advocacy@vacationclub.com

 

[sponger76]

I'm looking for advice on how to handle this situation. On August 15, 2024, I gave back two St. John Virgin Grand weeks along with new money in exchange for four Sheraton Flex contracts.

New Owners Administration (NOA) informed me by email in October that the closing of the new contract was held up by tax due on the returned Virgin Grand units. The St. John tax assessor, however, told me the taxes were paid in full by Vistana because my name was not on the tax roll (first use was to be 2025). I acquired and sent the receipts of the paid taxes to NOA back in October.

We are now at the end of the year and still nothing. NOA now informs me that they are waiting for a clearance letter from the tax assessor. In the meantime, I am still receiving maintenance invoices from the weeks I gave back, I cannot pay my Club Dues separately because they are attached to one of those invoices, I have not yet received 190,000 bonus options due me from the upgrade, and in a few days I will find out whether or not I have use of the new options I just purchased when the 12-month reservation period opens. This strikes me as unfair at the very least; how is it legal?

Mind you, there is no mortgage. Vistana was paid in full.

Here's what I don't understand:

1. The taxes were never in my name, so why is this an issue?
2. The taxes were paid. Why are the receipts of such not sufficient proof?
3. Why is NOA so unresponsive? They take days to respond, there is never a contact name on the responses, and their phone number goes directly to voice mail even during business hours.
4. How long can this situation continue? Can I be denied use of what is fully paid for because of this limbo situation?

There must be some recourse. If anyone has an insight on how to escalate this to someone who can actually attend to it, I'd be very grateful.

Try emailing customer.advocacy@mvwc.com they have been helpful to me in the past.

 

[Eric B]

I'm looking for advice on how to handle this situation. On August 15, 2024, I gave back two St. John Virgin Grand weeks along with new money in exchange for four Sheraton Flex contracts.

New Owners Administration (NOA) informed me by email in October that the closing of the new contract was held up by tax due on the returned Virgin Grand units. The St. John tax assessor, however, told me the taxes were paid in full by Vistana because my name was not on the tax roll (first use was to be 2025). I acquired and sent the receipts of the paid taxes to NOA back in October.

We are now at the end of the year and still nothing. NOA now informs me that they are waiting for a clearance letter from the tax assessor. In the meantime, I am still receiving maintenance invoices from the weeks I gave back, I cannot pay my Club Dues separately because they are attached to one of those invoices, I have not yet received 190,000 bonus options due me from the upgrade, and in a few days I will find out whether or not I have use of the new options I just purchased when the 12-month reservation period opens. This strikes me as unfair at the very least; how is it legal?

Mind you, there is no mortgage. Vistana was paid in full.

Here's what I don't understand:

1. The taxes were never in my name, so why is this an issue?
2. The taxes were paid. Why are the receipts of such not sufficient proof?
3. Why is NOA so unresponsive? They take days to respond, there is never a contact name on the responses, and their phone number goes directly to voice mail even during business hours.
4. How long can this situation continue? Can I be denied use of what is fully paid for because of this limbo situation?

There must be some recourse. If anyone has an insight on how to escalate this to someone who can actually attend to it, I'd be very grateful.

A quick look at the USVI recorder of deeds public search for the name "Kostner" shows that Virgin Grand Villas unit 3427 week 14 & 15 were had deeds recorded on December 13, 2024 with the Grantor being WVC St. John, Inc., and the Grantee being "Douglas C Kostner, Sole Ownership." The deeds were executed on November 8, 2024. The deeds include a tax clearance letter dated December 4, 2024.

Searching there for a Condo/Estate with a Unit number 3427/14 shows that unit deeded on December 21, 2001 from WVC to Mary and John Partipilo; deeded to WVC from them on February 25, 2005; deeded from WVC to Thomas and Cynthia Lyon on July 26, 2007; deeded from them to WVC on April 11, 2023. The chain of titles for week 15 is similar. It doesn't look like either of these was deeded to Douglas C Kostner prior to December 13, 2024.

You can find the USVI recorder of deeds search website here:

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It's not terribly obvious from this what has been going on, but it looks like they just finished up transferring these deeds to a name similar to your TUG username a couple of weeks ago. It's possible that, if this is you, they needed to do that in order to show a chain of ownership going through you to them; have you already signed deeds for the two weeks back to WVC? It's also possible that they completely hosed up the transaction and were not supposed to title these to you but only cancel a prior contract - had you just purchased these from WVC then decided to trade them in? I'm just assuming that these are the VGV weeks and OP is the grantee, of course, but it seems to me like this whole transaction is a bit odd or quite complicated. If you haven't yet signed a deed to transfer the weeks back to WVC and this is part of the transaction, it would be worth following up to get the second part of the transaction going.

 

[dioxide45]

So who has been paying the taxes for the VGV weeks all those years you owned it? I understand that owners pay taxes separately from the maintenance fees?