Westin St. John [Master Thread]

[DavidnRobin]

While I have seen the pictures on MyStarCentral of the renovations to the Hillside Units - does anyone have any pictures of their recent stay? While we were there this past August, work was being done on Blding 33 and 34 (our unit) was next. We are already booked to go next year and just curious of the new look?

Yes - in my trip report from June.

 

[DavidnRobin]

WSJ/SVO Management Response

So... I wrote a strongly worded email via MSC to WSJ Association Management concerning the 25% increase in base MFs (as well as a doubling of MFs over a 5 year period) - as well as the question regarding Owner deliquent MFs and defaults and the burden to WSJ Owners where we take all the loss but not the gain (e.g. villas being put into a rental pool that only benefits WSJ/SVN) - this was their response:
*******

Thank you for contacting Association Management.

The Board of Directors and the Association reviews and analyzes all avenues to achieve the lowest possible dues increase. Their goal is to bill out fees without sacrificing the level of amenity that you as an owner have come to expect. They must also ensure the resort continues to meet certain brand standards.

Unfortunately many items in the annual operating budget are not fixed expenses and are outside of the control of the Board of Directors. Many of these items include: utilities, insurance, and supplier cost. In addition, the cost of business in the islands has increased which has created a big impact in the amount billed annually.

As you know your Association has been adversely impacted by the current economy. The increase in owner delinquency has created a shortfall in the Association's cash flow. The Board will continue to reinforce collection efforts to recover lost funds. Those owners who default on their payment will loose their usage benefits for the year. We will also continue to send delinquent notifications and interest and late fee will be assessed to delinquent accounts. In addition the Board of Directors has implemented cost savings initiatives to minimize any shortfall which includes energy audits, compact-fluorescent bulbs, and a reduction in the maximum hours hourly employees can work. A working capital reserve fund is being added to insure that the association doesn't run out of funds in the future. Unfortunately reserve funds cannot be used to make up for a deficiency in operating funds.

The Association will also consider different alternatives to gain revenue such as unit rental.

Being a condominium, all Owners share the responsibility for ensuring that the Association meets these obligations. As the economy improves and delinquencies eventually decline, allowances will be re-evaluated for a potential reduction. However for now, we must all share in ensuring expenses are fully paid and uncollectible accounts provisioned.

We hope this gives you a better understanding of the situation. If you have any other questions please feel free to contacting Association Management at 1-800-729-8246/407-903-4670.

Sincerely,
XXXX {Note: I removed name since I am unclear about policy here...}
SVO Association Management

 

[DanCali]

The Board of Directors and the Association reviews and analyzes all avenues to achieve the lowest possible dues increase...

I guess a decrease is not even an option!

 

[LisaRex]

The Board will continue to reinforce collection efforts to recover lost funds. Those owners who default on their payment will loose their usage benefits for the year.

BFD. What I want to know is what is in it for ME to cover someone else's MFs? It is absolutely ridiculous to expect one set of owners to subsidize delinquent owners -- and get zero benefits for doing so. At the very least, we should be given pro-rated SOs to make up for the SOs that have been forefeited. At most we should be given a refund once that villa is rented.

I am also scoring over my OA trying to find where I've agreed to be responsible for other owner's MFs. I don't think such language exists. It's akin to a landlord at a strip mall saying, "Hey, I know you're a good paying tenant. But the guy next door to you is not. So because I don't enjoy losing money, I'm going to split the cost of his rent with all the other tenants. And, no, you don't get to use his space."

 

[DavidnRobin]

BFD. What I want to know is what is in it for ME to cover someone else's MFs? It is absolutely ridiculous to expect one set of owners to subsidize delinquent owners -- and get zero benefits for doing so. At the very least, we should be given pro-rated SOs to make up for the SOs that have been forefeited. At most we should be given a refund once that villa is rented.

I am also scoring over my OA trying to find where I've agreed to be responsible for other owner's MFs. I don't think such language exists. It's akin to a landlord at a strip mall saying, "Hey, I know you're a good paying tenant. But the guy next door to you is not. So because I don't enjoy losing money, I'm going to split the cost of his rent with all the other tenants. And, no, you don't get to use his space."

I have started looking at the OM for how non-Developer owned VOIs are handled in the case of deliquency and/or default by an Owner. As you know these docs are huge...

Unfortunately - it appears that Owner-owned (non-Developer owned) VOIs are on the hook for unpaid MFs.

What I have yet to find is how this is handled beyond the Owner not being able to reserve their usage. How is the VOI handled? (the VOI usage for the year does go back to the association - but unclear what happens after that...)

I have copied/pasted key areas of the OM into a Word doc - with the intent of understanding these sections - with the further attempt to force the BOD to address these issues directly with Owners by their own accord according to the OM - and if not begin evaluating approaches (including legal action) to force action by the BOD - as well as transparency.

Is it possible to copy sections of PDF files into a post? If so - how?

I ask this so other Tuggers can read/understand and input on the specific sections of the OM that involve Owner Deliquency - and the Rights of the Developer, the Association, and the Owners.

 

[jerseygirl]

David --

With most PDFs (those that were not scanned), it is possible to copy and paste.

--double click on the first word you wish to copy (it should then be highlighted)
-- then, move your cursor to the end of the section you wish to highlight, hit "shift" and then click once
-- the entire section should now be highlighted
-- hold the control key and hit "c" to copy
-- then move over to the thread, hold the control key and hit "v" to paste

It won't be formatted properly, but unless the section is HUGE, it usually only takes a few seconds to delete unnecessary returns to "clean it up a bit." And, don't worry, we'll forgive you for imperfect formatting!

I'm going out of town for a couple of days, but as soon as I get home, I'll look for the language provided by another one of my resorts. It's clear as a bell ... something along the lines of, "Owners who are deliquent more than 60 days will have their units put into the rental pool. The rental income will be transferred to the HOA to offset the unpaid maintenance fee." (This particular resort had an almost 100% successful rental program until last year ... when the success rate dropped, presumably due to the economy.)

As I mentioned once before, I once owned a resort with an "adopt a week program." You could call on March 1 of every year and voluntarily pay someone's deliquent maintenance fee to gain access to the usage week for that year only. It was very popular as it allowed for an extra week's usage with zero upfront costs. This would be my FIRST CHOICE for a remedy to the problem at WSJ. Not to be selfish (well, okay, I'm being selfish) but I don't see why anyone other than WSJ owners should benefit.

Now, if rentals could bring in even more money, I'd vote for that option as it would theoretically result in a decrease in maintenance fees and wouldn't require any sort of "fairness test/procedure for who gets to "adopt" the delinquent weeks. But, I think they might have trouble renting off-season weeks, especially since Bay Village is not sold out. Sorry, I'm back to voting for the "adopt a week" plan!
e

 

[tlpnet]

Let us know about the roofs and sidings - this was a major part of the SA.
Enjoy your trip - we may end up going to WSJ in 2010 after all (hopefully)

Building 32 and the roofs are slated for next year.

And I heard a rumor that they are using gold-lined mahogony shingles from South America, but don't worry, they got a very good price from Starwood Construction Materials SA.

-tim

 

[DavidnRobin]

Not STJ or WSJ but a trip report worth reading - amazing trip report to The Love Shack on Lovango Cay - right across from STJ - I place we snorkled at 2 years ago - golden...

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14011
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14024
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14035
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14037
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14085
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14096
http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14115

 

[DavidnRobin]

Legal Action

Has anyone heard of legal action taken by WSJ Owners towards SVO/WSJ (re: MFs)?
If so - please chime in...

Added:
Possibly by attorney Tom De Clemente and Associates????
(201) 864-0200

 

[DavidnRobin]

Has anyone heard of legal action taken by WSJ Owners towards SVO/WSJ (re: MFs)?
If so - please chime in...

Added:
Possibly by attorney Tom De Clemente and Associates
(201) 864-0200

Bumping for Tom De Clemente...
I had very interesting conversation with Tom - let's see where it goes.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Possible Legal Action by WWJ Owners

For those of you interested in whether or not there is going to be legal action by the WWJ owners, we are working on it. Tom DeClemente is working with some attorneys down in U.S.V.I. to get the ball rolling. However, it's going to take some effort on the part of the owners. There are roughly 10,000 owners at WSJ. The more owners we can get together, the more of a case we have. Starwood is not going to give us a list of them. However, they are all public records which are located in St. Thomas at the recorder's office. Tom indicated to me that some owners who will be in St. John around the New Year for two weeks plan to spend some time gathering names (we need their name, home address, telephone number, weeks/units they own, etc). However, it may take a team effort of several owners volunteering a day or two of their vacation and doing it in an orderly fashion so that different owners spending time down there don't come up with the same names as others.

Based on conversations with Tom, it appears that Starwood has broken the law by upgrading units without the 2/3 approval needed by the WSJ shareholders. Furthermore, they have no business doing upgrades when they can't properly maintain our properties. There are many postings on here about how poorly the units are maintained. It seems that in many cases, Starwood insists on using locals to do the repairs and they simply do not know what they are doing. Also, most owners are not necessarily looking to stay in ultra luxurious unit that have the most up-to-date modern amenties of a Westin hotel in a major city. We just want a nice place to stay on one of the most beautiful islands in the Carribean. One example would be the flat screen TV's that have been put in most of the units. Don't get me wrong, we all like them. However, most of us were ok with the regular color TV's that were in perfectly fine condition. Starwood practically gave them away to locals when they purchased the flat screen TV's. BTW, these flat screens have been damaged because the cleaning staff hasn't been trained how to take care of them. They have been using windex on the screens which has damaged them and will take quite a bit of $$ to repair.

With Starwood's justification that we have to keep up with Westin standards, guess what? In 2012, when the assessment is complete, it's going to be time to do another upgrade and our maintenance is going to double again. When Starwood sold me my first week in 2001, they gave me a schedule of how much money you save over a lifetime by purchasing a timeshare. It made perfectly good sense then, but not if we constantly have massive increases in maintenance fees. It's at a point now where an owner is lucky to break even on a rental. That's if they can rent at all in this horrible economy. forget about selling now. Nobody wants to buy a unit with such outrageous maintenance fees. Some owners have virtually given their units away in what is known as a "fire sale" just so they don't have to pay maintenance in the future. Some owners have abandoned their weeks altogether. Starwood is using that as an excuse to raise the maintenance further on those who do pay.

Tom has suggested (and I agree with him) that we launch a massive PR campaign to prevent Starwood from selling the Bay Vista units at the Westin. Maybe if we hit them where it hurts the most, they will start listening to us, change their ways, and understand that we are not ATM machines. I've been in touch with brokers on the secondary market and they are not aware of any of these issues at Starwood properties in the Continental U.S. nor in Hawaii. It's seems like it is only us in St. John who are being hit with these massive maintenance fees. Some ideas are for owners to picket the sales office during their vacation. Other ideas are to put ads in local publications discouraging the purchase of units at Bay Vista. BTW, some people suggested to me that this might be cutting our nose despite our face. It's not true. Starwood has nothing to do with resales of our units. That is done on the secondary market. Nobody in their right mind is going to ever buy a unit (especially the secondary market where there are no Starwood incentives to make a purchase) with such high maintenance fees. That has to be brought under control before a decent sale can take place.

If there is anybody out there who specializes in PR, maybe you can give us suggestions in this regard. Also, if anyone can suggest an orderly way to gather every owner's name, we would be interested in hearing from you.

Regards,
GeneNWendy

 

[xcg001]

HI GeneNWendy,

Let me say I support your efforts with my full heart and even though I am not an owner in St John I am willing to contribute several hundred $ to someone that can organize such thing in any Starwood resort (I bet others will too).
And I think a successful revolt at St. John will be something that will really shake Starwood as a whole (plus I think St. John not being a huge resort seems like a easier place to organize than huge resorts like Vistana).
I personally own at SBP and can not understand how can they ask for 21% increase in a resort that is not even on the beach (for reference I also own 2 other resorts at MB and these both had ~2-3% MF increase for 2010 even though their fees are much lower in the first place).
I think one of the first think needed to organize such effort will be a good website that can clearly state the problems with current Starwood management - we should take example from Worldmark owners fighting much harder fight against their developer (since WorldMark has no home resort they are trying to organize almost 300,000 owners) - check http://www.wmowners.com

 

[jerseygirl]

xcg001 --

see my response to your earlier post on this thread:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109981

I didn't realize you owned at SBP. We should join efforts as it sounds like our ideas are similar (I hadn't read your above post when I responded to the earlier one).

-- Jerseygirl

 

[Carolyn]

For those of you interested in whether or not there is going to be legal action by the WWJ owners, we are working on it. Tom DeClemente is working with some attorneys down in U.S.V.I. to get the ball rolling. However, it's going to take some effort on the part of the owners. There are roughly 10,000 owners at WSJ. The more owners we can get together, the more of a case we have. Starwood is not going to give us a list of them. However, they are all public records which are located in St. Thomas at the recorder's office. Tom indicated to me that some owners who will be in St. John around the New Year for two weeks plan to spend some time gathering names (we need their name, home address, telephone number, weeks/units they own, etc). However, it may take a team effort of several owners volunteering a day or two of their vacation and doing it in an orderly fashion so that different owners spending time down there don't come up with the same names as others.

Based on conversations with Tom, it appears that Starwood has broken the law by upgrading units without the 2/3 approval needed by the WSJ shareholders. Furthermore, they have no business doing upgrades when they can't properly maintain our properties. There are many postings on here about how poorly the units are maintained. It seems that in many cases, Starwood insists on using locals to do the repairs and they simply do not know what they are doing. Also, most owners are not necessarily looking to stay in ultra luxurious unit that have the most up-to-date modern amenties of a Westin hotel in a major city. We just want a nice place to stay on one of the most beautiful islands in the Carribean. One example would be the flat screen TV's that have been put in most of the units. Don't get me wrong, we all like them. However, most of us were ok with the regular color TV's that were in perfectly fine condition. Starwood practically gave them away to locals when they purchased the flat screen TV's. BTW, these flat screens have been damaged because the cleaning staff hasn't been trained how to take care of them. They have been using windex on the screens which has damaged them and will take quite a bit of $$ to repair.

With Starwood's justification that we have to keep up with Westin standards, guess what? In 2012, when the assessment is complete, it's going to be time to do another upgrade and our maintenance is going to double again. When Starwood sold me my first week in 2001, they gave me a schedule of how much money you save over a lifetime by purchasing a timeshare. It made perfectly good sense then, but not if we constantly have massive increases in maintenance fees. It's at a point now where an owner is lucky to break even on a rental. That's if they can rent at all in this horrible economy. forget about selling now. Nobody wants to buy a unit with such outrageous maintenance fees. Some owners have virtually given their units away in what is known as a "fire sale" just so they don't have to pay maintenance in the future. Some owners have abandoned their weeks altogether. Starwood is using that as an excuse to raise the maintenance further on those who do pay.

Tom has suggested (and I agree with him) that we launch a massive PR campaign to prevent Starwood from selling the Bay Vista units at the Westin. Maybe if we hit them where it hurts the most, they will start listening to us, change their ways, and understand that we are not ATM machines. I've been in touch with brokers on the secondary market and they are not aware of any of these issues at Starwood properties in the Continental U.S. nor in Hawaii. It's seems like it is only us in St. John who are being hit with these massive maintenance fees. Some ideas are for owners to picket the sales office during their vacation. Other ideas are to put ads in local publications discouraging the purchase of units at Bay Vista. BTW, some people suggested to me that this might be cutting our nose despite our face. It's not true. Starwood has nothing to do with resales of our units. That is done on the secondary market. Nobody in their right mind is going to ever buy a unit (especially the secondary market where there are no Starwood incentives to make a purchase) with such high maintenance fees. That has to be brought under control before a decent sale can take place.

If there is anybody out there who specializes in PR, maybe you can give us suggestions in this regard. Also, if anyone can suggest an orderly way to gather every owner's name, we would be interested in hearing from you.

Regards,
GeneNWendy

I am at WSJ right now and will write more under another thread shortly. I have played around on this website which shows every owner at WSJ:

http://www.virginislands.us.landata.com/#

Anyone can set up a free account but I have never tried to go beyond this first step. However, under "PRICING" it states:

Subscribers will pay a fee of $ 75.00 per month per account and for that fee will receive the following benefits:
• Unlimited view of index data.
• Purchase document images at a discounted rate (where applicable).
Current Price List and Image Availability for Subscribers
Application Price Per Doc/Page
St Thomas Land Records $1.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View YES YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St Croix Land Records $1.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View YES YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St. Thomas Historical Images $1.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View YES YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St. Croix Historical Images $1.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View YES YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES


• A history of all purchased document images will be maintained and these document images will be available for subsequent view/print/save where available.
• Master Accounts: Anyone who registers using the Register link on the main page and then subscribes to the site will be a Master Subscriber. The Master Subscriber Account feature will be useful for large firms, companies etc. that would like to enable more than 1 user in the same company or firm under the Master Account. A Master Subscriber Account may enable up to 5 Sub-Accounts to be added at any time. The fee for each Sub-Account will be $ 25.00 for setup which includes access for the rest of the first month up to the billing date for the Master Account. Additional Sub-Account subscription months can be added at the rate of $ 25.00 per month per Sub-Account.

Non Subscriber
Non subscribers do not pay a monthly fee and receive the following benefits:
• Unlimited view of index data.
• Purchase document images (where applicable).
Current Price List and Image Availability for Non-Subscribers
Application Price Per Doc/Page
St Thomas Land Records $2.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View NO YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St Croix Land Records $2.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View NO YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St. Thomas Historical Images $2.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View NO YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES

St. Croix Historical Images $2.00 PER PAGE See Image Availability
Image Availability Not Purchased Purchased
View NO YES
Print NO YES
Save NO YES


• A history of all purchased document images will be maintained and these document images will be available for subsequent view/print/save where available.

Payment for subscription services, document images, and fees is to be made by credit card. We accept MasterCard and Visa.

Online credits may also be purchased using a credit card. Online credits may be used to pay for services, document images, and fees. Online credits are for use on the Internet Site only.

This might be a much easier way to get the information we need than going to St. Thomas.

We went to the "Owners Update" today.....what a joke!!! It should be called "I know nothing about what is going on with your Villa or maintenance fee but will sell you another one!" I thought we were going to actually get some answers to our questions...NOT. More to come in another thread soon.... I promise.

Carolyn

 

[GeneNWendy]

Regarding land data website

Carolyn,

I looked in that website a little bit myself in the past. There is a lot of information available through it, but can you get an owner's home address (not just their WSJ address) off of it? Also, what about a home telphone number? I admit, I didn't spend a lot of time on the website, but if that information is available online, you would be right. We could save a lot of time that way and avoid a trip to St. Thomas.

Regards,
Gene Jaspan

 

[DavidnRobin]

Many ownerships listed at the WSJ Recorders office website have two addresses listed under two different names - which I assume are Developer Owned.

Many others are incomplete. I was ableto go through 100s when the site was free - with a few simple search terms.

I have a bunch of WSJ Owners addresses- and many are lurking here.

 

[DavidnRobin]

C&B closes at WSJ - new restaurant to open (Cruz Bay Prime)

Island’s Newest Restaurant: Cruz Bay Prime
Written by Tradewinds Staff
Tuesday, 24 November 2009 10:32

When the Westin Resort and Villas restaurant Chole and Bernard’s shut its doors over the summer, it left a fine dining hole on the hotel’s property and on the island.

Next month that hole will be filled when Cruz Bay Prime opens at the location. The restaurant will be operated by Westin Resort and will feature prime U.S.D.A. beef as well as fresh seafood selections and locally grown produce, according to the resort’s interim general manager Kim Chappell.

“The beef is about as good as you can get,” said Chappell. “We’re working with our purveyors now and we’re also working to have our vegetables and produce grown locally just for the restaurant.”

Cruz Bay Prime will be open five nights a week for dinner and will also feature several appetizer options and traditional steak house family style side dishes.

While the menu is sure to be out of this world, the prices will be down to Earth, Chappell added.

“Price wise, we’re really working to keep things down,” he said. “The cost of steaks are high, but we’re going to make sure that everything is reasonably priced. We don’t want people to think that just because it’s a hotel restaurant the prices will be astronomical.”

“The menu prices will be similar to other first class restaurants in town, if not a bit lower,” Chappell said.

The restaurant will also be a causal affair, with no dress code, Chappell added.

“It’s going to be first class, but not fancy,” he said. “You can still come in and enjoy our food in shorts. It won’t be stuffy or fancy, it’ll be fun.”

Resort officials are currently hiring a chef and full staff and expect to have Cruz Bay Prime open by December 16.

With the new steak house restaurant on site, Westin St. John hopes to attract a loyal following of hotel and timeshare guests as well as locals.

“We’re really excited about this and we hope that it will become a restaurant where people are going to want to come back again and again,” said Chappell. “We want to accommodate our timeshare and hotel guests and attract locals as well.”

Cruz Bay Prime will feature live music on Friday and Saturday nights and will serve dinner from around 5:30 to approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. For more information call the hotel at 693-8000.

 

[tomandrobin]

Hmmm...

Well I like a good steak dinner, but not sure about this new restaurant. Hopefully, it will have a Caribbean flair to the menu.

Since I won't be back to St John until 2011, it has at least 20 months to settle in before we are back.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Attention all owners of WSJ villas

If any of you are interested in being part of a class-action suit, please send me a private thread with your name, e-mail address, home address, telephone number, week and unit number owned. I will add you to a database I have of several WSJ owners. The more people we get, the better the case we have.

GeneNWendy

For those of you interested in whether or not there is going to be legal action by the WWJ owners, we are working on it. Tom DeClemente is working with some attorneys down in U.S.V.I. to get the ball rolling. However, it's going to take some effort on the part of the owners. There are roughly 10,000 owners at WSJ. The more owners we can get together, the more of a case we have. Starwood is not going to give us a list of them. However, they are all public records which are located in St. Thomas at the recorder's office. Tom indicated to me that some owners who will be in St. John around the New Year for two weeks plan to spend some time gathering names (we need their name, home address, telephone number, weeks/units they own, etc). However, it may take a team effort of several owners volunteering a day or two of their vacation and doing it in an orderly fashion so that different owners spending time down there don't come up with the same names as others.

Based on conversations with Tom, it appears that Starwood has broken the law by upgrading units without the 2/3 approval needed by the WSJ shareholders. Furthermore, they have no business doing upgrades when they can't properly maintain our properties. There are many postings on here about how poorly the units are maintained. It seems that in many cases, Starwood insists on using locals to do the repairs and they simply do not know what they are doing. Also, most owners are not necessarily looking to stay in ultra luxurious unit that have the most up-to-date modern amenties of a Westin hotel in a major city. We just want a nice place to stay on one of the most beautiful islands in the Carribean. One example would be the flat screen TV's that have been put in most of the units. Don't get me wrong, we all like them. However, most of us were ok with the regular color TV's that were in perfectly fine condition. Starwood practically gave them away to locals when they purchased the flat screen TV's. BTW, these flat screens have been damaged because the cleaning staff hasn't been trained how to take care of them. They have been using windex on the screens which has damaged them and will take quite a bit of $$ to repair.

With Starwood's justification that we have to keep up with Westin standards, guess what? In 2012, when the assessment is complete, it's going to be time to do another upgrade and our maintenance is going to double again. When Starwood sold me my first week in 2001, they gave me a schedule of how much money you save over a lifetime by purchasing a timeshare. It made perfectly good sense then, but not if we constantly have massive increases in maintenance fees. It's at a point now where an owner is lucky to break even on a rental. That's if they can rent at all in this horrible economy. forget about selling now. Nobody wants to buy a unit with such outrageous maintenance fees. Some owners have virtually given their units away in what is known as a "fire sale" just so they don't have to pay maintenance in the future. Some owners have abandoned their weeks altogether. Starwood is using that as an excuse to raise the maintenance further on those who do pay.

Tom has suggested (and I agree with him) that we launch a massive PR campaign to prevent Starwood from selling the Bay Vista units at the Westin. Maybe if we hit them where it hurts the most, they will start listening to us, change their ways, and understand that we are not ATM machines. I've been in touch with brokers on the secondary market and they are not aware of any of these issues at Starwood properties in the Continental U.S. nor in Hawaii. It's seems like it is only us in St. John who are being hit with these massive maintenance fees. Some ideas are for owners to picket the sales office during their vacation. Other ideas are to put ads in local publications discouraging the purchase of units at Bay Vista. BTW, some people suggested to me that this might be cutting our nose despite our face. It's not true. Starwood has nothing to do with resales of our units. That is done on the secondary market. Nobody in their right mind is going to ever buy a unit (especially the secondary market where there are no Starwood incentives to make a purchase) with such high maintenance fees. That has to be brought under control before a decent sale can take place.

If there is anybody out there who specializes in PR, maybe you can give us suggestions in this regard. Also, if anyone can suggest an orderly way to gather every owner's name, we would be interested in hearing from you.

Regards,
GeneNWendy

Has anyone heard of legal action taken by WSJ Owners towards SVO/WSJ (re: MFs)?
If so - please chime in...

Added:
Possibly by attorney Tom De Clemente and Associates????
(201) 864-0200

 

[DavidnRobin]

eBay Auction (ended) on a 2Bd/3Ba TH - week #25

wanted to bump-up this thread and...

there was an eBay auction that just ended for a WSJ Hillside (81K SOs) 2Bd/3Ba TH villa - week 25, unit 3410

(I haven't been tracking eBay sales for a while, but just happen to check yesterday when I returned to TUG)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180442835671

that has a winning price of $20,252.00 (!!!???)

considering that I own week 23-24 of this same villa - this makes me happy since I paid much less than this for our 2 weeks.

The seller had misinformation (or missing info) in the auction - which (as I sometimes do) I informed them of - they told me I was wrong (lol). e.g.

1) The VOI is Friday check-in (deeded) - not Sat, but they are playing off the old flexible weeks exchange during the Owner's season (which we all know that on paper this is true, but in reality rarely happens)

2) The MFs are listed as $1800 (I wish...) when they are in fact $2800 (due today btw) - the auction winner has a surprise coming...

3) No mention of taxes due (since 2006) - another 'surprise!' for the auction winner.

plus a few minor issues...


It does go to show that a no reserve auction is the way to go on eBay since a bidding war was created - now it will be interesting if the misinfo (or lack of) will come back to bite the seller...

The seller had a '0' ebay rating - but that did not seem to affect the ending price since many of these villa types have sold for less.

 

[DanCali]

wanted to bump-up this thread and...

there was an eBay auction that just ended for a WSJ Hillside (81K SOs) 2Bd/3Ba TH villa - week 25, unit 3410

(I haven't been tracking eBay sales for a while, but just happen to check yesterday when I returned to TUG)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180442835671

that has a winning price of $20,252.00 (!!!???)

considering that I own week 23-24 of this same villa - this makes me happy since I paid much less than this for our 2 weeks.

The seller had misinformation (or missing info) in the auction - which (as I sometimes do) I informed them of - they told me I was wrong (lol). e.g.

1) The VOI is Friday check-in (deeded) - not Sat, but they are playing off the old flexible weeks exchange during the Owner's season (which we all know that on paper this is true, but in reality rarely happens)

2) The MFs are listed as $1800 (I wish...) when they are in fact $2800 (due today btw) - the auction winner has a surprise coming...

3) No mention of taxes due (since 2006) - another 'surprise!' for the auction winner.

plus a few minor issues...


It does go to show that a no reserve auction is the way to go on eBay since a bidding war was created - now it will be interesting if the misinfo (or lack of) will come back to bite the seller...

The seller had a '0' ebay rating - but that did not seem to affect the ending price since many of these villa types have sold for less.

Sorry for my ignorance on this resort... I recall one phase is voluntary and one mandatory? Did the buyer get SOs here (not that they should use them)?

 

[DeniseM]

Yes - Hillside is mandatory -

WSJ Hillside (81K SOs)

 

[GeneNWendy]

Letter from Tom DeClemente to WSJ HOA

If any of you are interested in being part of a class-action suit, please send me a private thread with your name, e-mail address, home address, telephone number, week and unit number owned. I will add you to a database I have of several WSJ owners. The more people we get, the better the case we have.

Everyone who might be interested in the class action suit, here is a letter that Tom Declemente has sent to them outlining some of our plans to take action.



Virgin Grand Villas-St John Condo. Owners Assoc.
PO Box 105104
Atlanta Georgia
30348-5104


Dear Sir/Madam:


I am enclosing my check, paid under protest, for $31,214.17 for the following weeks in Villa XXXX: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34 as well as for Villa XXXX, week 6. The remaining $13,496.86 for the replacement reserves will be paid in the first week of March 2010.

My position and most other owners position in dealing with the absurd maintenance fees and replacement reserve costs have cost any remaining goodwill that SVO/Westin may have once had to disappear. It is our collective intention to bring this abomination to the attention of the public, the media, and the courts as to what is being done to us, the owners of this beautiful resort, who are being used by SVO/Westin as ATM’s. Many of us make a decent living but find the amount of money that is being claimed as necessary for maintenance on an annual basis to border on gross negligence and possible illegal conduct. We fully intend to pursue every lawful measure to take control of the board and to punish any we find who breached their fiduciary duty and/or legal responsibility to the owners.

It is also my position shared by most owners that the entire board should resign forthwith and that a new election be held no later than the end of March 2010 to replace the current board. Also, it is our intention to see to it that no SVO/Westin employee becomes a member of the new board as it is an obvious conflict of interest.

It is requested that all owners names and addresses and e-mail contacts be made immediately accessible so that communication between us is possible. Failure to provide this contact information by February 1st 2010 will result in an action to compel the production of same. Further legal fees and costs will be sought as it will be deemed a deliberate attempt to prevent the owners from protecting their ownership interests.

The owners are beginning to come together on their own and within a short period of time there will be a massive media campaign, legal action and other initiatives in an effort to bring to light the corruption that we believe is demonstrated by the attempt to force owners to relinquish their units because they have become unaffordable. Not only have they become unaffordable but the construction of "pool villas" on hotel property has adversely affected the value of the units on the hillside and has diminished the services to the hillside owners in their ability to rent or sell. The resale value of our units has shrunk almost 40% in the last 2 years mostly because it has become very clear to prospective buyers that the units are unaffordable. This is especially egregious when it is declared by the board that a fair percentage of the owners who cannot pay require all paying owners to make up the difference. It is well known that the once legal owners are deprived of the use their villas for nonpayment that the units are used by the SVO as giveaways or rentals. The ownership association shows no income, including rents and fair market value attributions arising from the use of those repossessed units by non owners. That practice constitutes a blatant conversion of funds that should be attributable to the paying owners instead of forcing the paying owners to also pay for the owners who can no longer afford these onerous charges.

All of the above is not an idle threat. All will happen in short order unless SVO/Westin comes to its senses, reduces the maintenance for 2010 by 30% and reimburses all of us who have paid the overage and cancels all replacement reserve fees which are being charged by virtue of illegally misapplying the bylaws that govern the St. John Villa Owners Association.

I am circulating a copy of this letter to all members with whom I have contact information. I will request all owners receive this letter to circulate it to others. We will continue to fight to protect our rights from the voracious appetite of SVO/Westin. I believe you will soon be seeing many letters similar to this all decrying the betrayal of the Board and its minions to the owners. And you will see action as aforementioned.




Very truly yours

___________________
Thomas A. DeClemente

 

[Carolyn]

When we had our "owners update" in November(and I use that term loosely), we asked some hard questions about the increase in the maintenance fee. Of course the sales people play dumb and don't know what we are talking about so we pull out our letter and mf bill for our 1 BR Premium. After asking some tough questions we are told the mf increase is due to those owners not paying...duh! We were told that Starwood can "repossess" the unit in 90 days and it can be back in their system to resell in 6 months!! So we are just paying their ridiculous fees so they can make more money and resell these units. In the mean time they are also renting out these units....making yet more money while we, the fiscally responsible owners, are footing the bill for ALL of the maintenance fees.
Count us in on any class action lawsuit.

 

[GeneNWendy]

Hi David and Robin,

I received that same response from management word for word when I contacted.

Gene

So... I wrote a strongly worded email via MSC to WSJ Association Management concerning the 25% increase in base MFs (as well as a doubling of MFs over a 5 year period) - as well as the question regarding Owner deliquent MFs and defaults and the burden to WSJ Owners where we take all the loss but not the gain (e.g. villas being put into a rental pool that only benefits WSJ/SVN) - this was their response:
*******

Thank you for contacting Association Management.

The Board of Directors and the Association reviews and analyzes all avenues to achieve the lowest possible dues increase. Their goal is to bill out fees without sacrificing the level of amenity that you as an owner have come to expect. They must also ensure the resort continues to meet certain brand standards.

Unfortunately many items in the annual operating budget are not fixed expenses and are outside of the control of the Board of Directors. Many of these items include: utilities, insurance, and supplier cost. In addition, the cost of business in the islands has increased which has created a big impact in the amount billed annually.

As you know your Association has been adversely impacted by the current economy. The increase in owner delinquency has created a shortfall in the Association's cash flow. The Board will continue to reinforce collection efforts to recover lost funds. Those owners who default on their payment will loose their usage benefits for the year. We will also continue to send delinquent notifications and interest and late fee will be assessed to delinquent accounts. In addition the Board of Directors has implemented cost savings initiatives to minimize any shortfall which includes energy audits, compact-fluorescent bulbs, and a reduction in the maximum hours hourly employees can work. A working capital reserve fund is being added to insure that the association doesn't run out of funds in the future. Unfortunately reserve funds cannot be used to make up for a deficiency in operating funds.

The Association will also consider different alternatives to gain revenue such as unit rental.

Being a condominium, all Owners share the responsibility for ensuring that the Association meets these obligations. As the economy improves and delinquencies eventually decline, allowances will be re-evaluated for a potential reduction. However for now, we must all share in ensuring expenses are fully paid and uncollectible accounts provisioned.

We hope this gives you a better understanding of the situation. If you have any other questions please feel free to contacting Association Management at 1-800-729-8246/407-903-4670.

Sincerely,
XXXX {Note: I removed name since I am unclear about policy here...}
SVO Association Management