Westin St John Master Thread - Part 3 [Dec. 2017 and forward]

[GrayFal]

Wow! Is it paying property tax time again? Of course no bill has arrived as usual.

I actually received mine in the mail. First time in years this has happened.

 

[LisaH]

I actually received mine in the mail. First time in years this has happened.

When is the due day?

 

[GrayFal]

When is the due day?

Tom thinks it is August 18

 

[LisaH]

Thank you! I’ll give it a few more days before contacting USVI office for payment.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I sure did find the parcel and the tax bills, but none have the required control and invoice numbers required to pay the bills online!

Ouch!
WSJ has sent these to Owners in the past - along with mailings from the USVI. I have gotten them over the years - even the one that was sent by the USVI doubling the PropTax that was recalled.

You could try calling them (also ouch) - and ask. I have called the STJ office before with success (different matter).

We have changed addresses since last year (questionable if our bills will get forwarded...) - and have to deal with somehow getting our address changed in the USVI system.

Thanks for the heads up on the PropTax being due.


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[carpie99]

Here is my list of problems ... I am really pissed that the appliances haven’t been replaced. Seems like they were in the other units on the hill was in.

Is this a Westin issue to resolve or a HOA problem?

I understand the light issue is an argument between Westin management and the company that did the repairs.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Seasonal Closings - from News of St John

http://newsofstjohn.com/2019/07/19/2019-seasonal-closings/

 

[DavidnRobin]

July 2019

Dear Fellow Virgin Grand Villas Owner:

As your owner-elected members of the Board of Directors, we recently participated in a conference call meeting of the Board. We have only a little to report to supplement the longer communication that we sent after the Annual Meeting in March, but all of it is good news.

Progress at the resort

General Manager Sam Hugli reported to the Board that all of the Virgin Grand units were available for occupancy on schedule by May 4. All units now have a state-of-the-art fire safety and sprinkler system. The resort’s generators have functioned flawlessly during power outages. The fitness center is fully operational, the all-purpose court (for pickleball and basketball) is in use, and the tennis courts are expected to be resurfaced by the end of July. New, nonmotorized water sports equipment is available on the beach. New sand to replace what was washed away during Hurricane Irma should arrive by the end of July. The door on the freecycle shed will be repaired so that it closes properly and a new lock will be installed. Once completed, we encourage owners to put beach chairs, toys, swim equipment and unopened nonperishable food in the shed upon departure. Management will also stock the shed with a few beach chairs each year from recovered chairs following the storm. (If you also own vacation ownership interests in other parts of the resort, there is more good news for you as well; although the freecycle shed on the Virgin Grand side of the road is available only for Virgin Grand occupants, additional freecycle space is now available at the big pool and on the beach near the equipment rental area.)

Speaking of the freecycle shed, here is a new benefit: every morning, the Times Digest is being delivered to a mailbox next to our freecycle shed. If you look for a Times Digest there and don’t find one, Management will increase the number being delivered. Please call the Front Desk to let Management know that more copies are needed.

Two aspects of the resort will take a little longer to restore. There are regulatory issues affecting the reopening of the Lemongrass restaurant, which may delay the reopening until the end of the year. Meanwhile, Snorkels continues to serve three meals a day and, of course, the grills are operational at the hillside pools and in the pool villas. The new Sun Terrace (where the old lobby once stood) is still a work in progress. It will have comfortable seating and tables and be shielded from the sun by shade sails and umbrellas. A trellis is planned, but we can’t yet report an estimated completion date.

Beach towel system

Over the years, many Westin St. John beach towels have “disappeared,” and owners have to pay for replacements through maintenance fees. To reduce this cost, a new system went into effect on July 1. Beach towels are placed in each unit at the start of the week. To obtain a new towel, it will be necessary to exchange a used towel for a new towel at the pool hut.

Extension 5000

As your owner-elected representatives, we have received a few reports from owners about problems in particular units, such as missing cooking equipment or an overflowing Jacuzzi. Because of the total refurbishment of the units, there are bound to be some glitches in the first year of operation. Please direct concerns first to Service Express and if you don’t obtain prompt satisfaction, leave a message on Extension 5000. That line goes directly to the General Manager and the heads of all departments; they are the people who need to hear about any problems that aren’t quickly addressed by Service Express. Of course, you can contact us if there is a serious problem that Management does not seem to be addressing properly. We do want to know if there are any serious problems, but we are volunteers with other jobs, so we hope that you will contact us only if Management seems unable to resolve your difficulty.

Insurance claim

The insurance claim for property damage caused by Hurricane Irma is still being processed, but Management expects to close out the claim by the end of the calendar year. Meanwhile, there is tentative good news. As you will recall, eight years ago the Board voted to create a contingency reserve fund to protect owners from a special assessment in the event of a major storm, to cover the 5% deductible on the property insurance policy. The fund now has more than $2 million, and our share of the deductible is likely to be about $1 million, thanks to a clause in the (old) insurance policy limiting the deductible for all Vistana resorts to $10 million.

Unfortunately, the insurance company declined to include such a clause in the new insurance policy, which went into effect on May 1. As a result, should there be another major hurricane, our maximum liability for the deductible will be approximately $2.5 million depending upon the insured value. The changing global climate suggests that, sooner or later, there will be another such storm that passes over St. John. Therefore, the Board plans to continue to build up the hurricane contingency fund for several more years.

Developer repurchase

Pursuant to a standing agreement, the Association offered the developer an offer to purchase 36 vacation ownership interests that we owned as a result of foreclosures. The developer accepted the offer and has paid the Association $71,704 in accordance with the first amendment to the agreement. More importantly, the developer has paid the 2019 maintenance fees on those interests and will continue to do so until it sells them.

Reminder about maintenance fees

More than a hundred interests are currently unavailable to owners who have not paid maintenance fees. In most cases, the Association has put liens on the interests, and the Board has decided to send a large number of them to its collection lawyer to begin foreclosure proceedings. Please pay maintenance fees on time and don’t risk lockouts, liens and foreclosures, which can harm your credit rating.

Reminder about air conditioning

While leaving the air conditioner running at night and when you are not in your unit seems counterintuitive and wasteful, we want to remind you that this is actually a desirable practice. The brand-new dehumidification system depends on having the air conditioner running, and the cost of remediating mold in a unit (or of treating a health condition caused by mold) far exceeds the cost of running the air conditioner. So please let the system run all the time, and do not leave windows or screen doors open.

We look forward to meeting many of you at the resort.

Larry Pelletier
larrypelletierx@gmail.com
Philip G. Schrag
phil.schrag@gmail.com


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[carpie99]

I can't describe what a pain in the butt it is for us VGV people not to have a pool towel exchange at the old lobby ... getting down to the pool on the way to the North Shore is a major annoyance.

 

[LisaH]

Here is my list of problems ... I am really pissed that the appliances haven’t been replaced. Seems like they were in the other units on the hill was in.

Is this a Westin issue to resolve or a HOA problem?

I understand the light issue is an argument between Westin management and the company that did the repairs.

Thanks for listing all the issues in 3428. Hopefully at least some of them will be remedied by the time we arrive.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I can't describe what a pain in the butt it is for us VGV people not to have a pool towel exchange at the old lobby ... getting down to the pool on the way to the North Shore is a major annoyance.

I totally agree - it is totally unreasonable for us to go from B34 to the Pool Towel Hut just to exchange beach towels (which we go thru on a daily basis) which probably takes 30 min round trip.

I guess we will just have to wash our own. Arg!

Phil - you reading this?


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[LisaH]

Finally received the tax bill in the mail. due Aug 14, 2019

 

[SandyPGravel]

Actually received our tax bill this year(today)

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[carpie99]

I totally agree - it is totally unreasonable for us to go from B34 to the Pool Towel Hut just to exchange beach towels (which we go thru on a daily basis) which probably takes 30 min round trip.

I guess we will just have to wash our own. Arg!

Phil - you reading this?


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Actually I never considered just washing and drying them ... that is better than the horrible pool exchange

 

[halsey]

Ouch!
WSJ has sent these to Owners in the past - along with mailings from the USVI. I have gotten them over the years - even the one that was sent by the USVI doubling the PropTax that was recalled.

You could try calling them (also ouch) - and ask. I have called the STJ office before with success (different matter).

We have changed addresses since last year (questionable if our bills will get forwarded...) - and have to deal with somehow getting our address changed in the USVI system.

Thanks for the heads up on the PropTax being due.


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We have received our property tax Bill's from Vistana every year, never from USVI gov't. This is first year we have not received one from Vistana so I reached out to them after seeing this discussion. They responded today that yes they do mail them to owners of all properties except Virgin Grand Villas - what? why? We have been receiving it for years from Vistana, formerly SVN. Without the control and invoice number on the back of the bill, I am unable to log on to get a copy. Why is VGV suddenly excluded from this service?

 

[DavidnRobin]

We have received our property tax Bill's from Vistana every year, never from USVI gov't. This is first year we have not received one from Vistana so I reached out to them after seeing this discussion. They responded today that yes they do mail them to owners of all properties except Virgin Grand Villas - what? why? We have been receiving it for years from Vistana, formerly SVN. Without the control and invoice number on the back of the bill, I am unable to log on to get a copy. Why is VGV suddenly excluded from this service?

Email Phil and ask.
Previously, I have received them from both entities. Nothing yet, but probably a forwarding address issue.


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[halsey]

Yes, Phil is following up with Vistana as had heard from another concerned owner yesterday as well.

 

[ekinggill]

Trip report...July 19 - 26...Unit 3425 (1BR)

So great to be back in the USVI. This was our first stay not using our deeded week. The process was painless and it actually wasn't that hard to find open dates. As I would learn over the course of the week...the resort was not full.

Arrived in STT on Thursday early afternoon on AA. Bags delivered quickly. Amalie Car Rental ready and waiting. Great new hybrid AWD Grand Cherokee. Stayed one night at a family run boutique hotel, Olga's Fancy. Great views, relatively cheep, very clean. (No elevator is the only negative.)

Brunch Friday morning at Tap and Still on the way to Red Hook. Great burgers. No problems with the car barge. New barge Grand Vic is awesome.

Arrived at the WSJ. Check in at the new location is better than the old. It is air conditioned and in-spite of (or maybe because of) our desk person was a trainee, we checked in faster than ever before. Even though it was not our week, we got our own unit to stay in. Pretty cool.

The villa itself is pretty much like before. The view is actually a little better as the trees had started to grow into our view. Kids found pullout sofa comfy. A number of things were missing from our unit...not all of the glassware was there, there were no linens for the sofa bed even though our reservation was for 4 people, no soap for the dishwasher. Housekeeping quickly brought the rest up. My oven did take an eternity to heat up...but I remember it being like that before the storms.

Grills by the villa pool both worked. Villa pool itself is just like before.

Resort pool is fixed up very nicely. Chairs are comfy, plenty of them, plenty of umbrellas. We arrived at the pool as late as 10:30 and still got great spots. A couple of issues. A number of times the poolside was dirty in the morning, (sand on chairs from late night partying, tables dirty, iguana dung un-picked up) and there were not nearly enough servers walking around the pool to take drink orders. One pool island has two small palms growing on it, the other has one dead palm. I did miss the shade of the big trees.

Even though the island wasn't very busy, private chartering a boat was difficult. (I guess there are just way fewer boats to go around.) We called Jason Siska from Island Roots, our every-year Captain, and he said he was already booked up for three weeks out. Trevor Sichel, who has a business filling up boats for Captains, hooked us up with Carpe Diem. Great boat, great Captain. Snorkeled The Indians and a couple other spots. Lunch at Pirates Bite. Drinks and tacos at Lime Out. (GREAT!)

Beaches: We had heard horror stories about Maho becoming a *bleep* show. Loud people, crowded, no place to park. That was not our experience. We brought a shade tent, found a nice spot and set up. I snorkeled the reef on the west side of the bay and I must say it was a little sad. Still millions of the bait fish, but the toll the hurricanes took on the reefs over there meant way fewer aquarium fish and interesting small living things. There are signs of recovery...I hope the crowds don't spoil it. Snorkeling in the grassy center of the bay was great. Tons of turtles, stingrays...even some squid.

Another day we went to Trunk, which was packed. This was a great snorkel. While there was lots of dead coral, there still were lots of fish.

As for restaurants, Lime Inn was great as always. Longboard...my wife thought was great...I found it mediocre. Morgan's was the star of the show.

Return car ferry was effortless. Amalie representative waiting as promised at the checkin desk. Immigration was pretty fast. The terminal sucks. No AC and it was hot steamy day.

All in all a great family trip once again.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Great to see Trip Reports here once again. Thanks.


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[SandyPGravel]

Virgin Grand Villas – 2019 USVI Property Tax

Dear Mrs. Gina,

The Office of the Tax Assessor of the U.S. Virgin Islands has issued the 2019 property tax bills to all property owners of record as of Jan. 1, 2019. Payment is due in full no later than Oct. 14, 2019, in order to avoid late payment charges.

Vistana Management, Inc. (VMI) just received the 2019 tax bills and is in the process of mailing them to Owners. The 2019 tax bills are currently available for viewing online. Please follow the steps below to submit your payment by Oct. 14, 2019. To locate your information online, you must have an established Parcel Number or your loan must have been paid in full as of Jan. 1, 2019.

1. Click here to conduct a tax bill search using your name and/or Parcel Number.
2. Select the Parcel Number for the 2019 tax year.
   • If you own multiple Parcels, select the Owner Name then scroll through the 2019 Account Numbers to individually select each Parcel.
3. Select the Bill Number for the 2019 Tax Year to view the amount due and print the Tax Bill Detail page.
4. Choose one of the following payment methods:
   
   Payment by Check:
   • Make your check payable to the Government of the United States Virgin Islands.
   • Write the Parcel Number on your check.
   
   Payment by Credit Card:
   • Print and complete the USVI Credit Card Authorization Form* in its entirety.
   • Write the Parcel Number in the “Apply Amount to” section of the form.
   • Provide a copy of the cardholder’s passport or driver’s license.
5. Include a copy of the Tax Bill Detail page for the Parcel that shows the amount due.
6. Request a paid receipt and include a stamped self-addressed return envelope. Please be sure to retain your paid receipt for future reference.
7. Send your check or credit card authorization form, via certified or registered mail with return receipt requested, to:
   
   Office of the Lieutenant Governor
   Property Tax Collection Division
   P.O. Box 447
   Cruz Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, 00831

If you choose to pay your tax bill using one of the methods described above, please retain the tax bill you receive from VMI for your records.

The Property Tax Collection Division does accept online Visa or Mastercard credit card payments; however, payment by this method requires you to have a Control Number and Invoice Number (same as Bill Number noted in Step 3 above) to access your account. This information will appear on the tax bill that is being mailed to you and is located on the back of the payment coupon. The Control Number remains the same each year; therefore, you may also reference last year’s tax bill to obtain this information. Click here to access the Virgin Islands online bill pay site.

VMI is happy to assist you with any questions you may have on this matter, however, please understand that VMI does not have the ability to adjust your tax bill. Furthermore, contacting VMI will not preserve your protest rights with the Office of the Tax Assessor.

Sincerely,

Vistana Management, Inc.

 

[ccy]

Leaving this Thursday for WSJ for 6 nights ...
Is there a charge to replace towels in the unit?
Also, do we need to bring our own beach towels?

 

[SandyPGravel]

Leaving this Thursday for WSJ for 6 nights ...
Is there a charge to replace towels in the unit?
Also, do we need to bring our own beach towels?

Beach towels will be in the unit. You can exchange those out at a towel hut by the main pool.
Don't know the answer to the other question, sorry.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Leaving this Thursday for WSJ for 6 nights ...
Is there a charge to replace towels in the unit?
Also, do we need to bring our own beach towels?

If you are in VGV - you might want to wash your own beach towels as they now want exchanges done at towel hut by Main Pool and that is quite a trek.

We bring a parasheet to the beach to lay over the sand.

Also - bring shade!

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[ekinggill]

We didn't find it much hassle to change out towels...between having our own car, the golf carts and the VGV housekeeping room that is never locked, we always had clean towels with little effort.

We too brought a "shade in a bag" with us. Best invention ever. Sand anchors work great.

 

[ekinggill]

BTW...with much sorrow we have decided to give away our WSJ unit. Listed on tug2.net and on Red Week. If this post breaks the rules...please delete.