Things I Learned On Friday

You may remember that I attended a timeshare HOA meeting on Friday morning on behalf of an owner that I met through the National Timeshare Owners Association.


Here's a glimpse into what was said to the owners in attendance who had some serious questions and concerns about the future of the resort, the location and use of the Special Assessment that they paid last year, the makeup of the HOA and some general timeshare questions:

"Westgate has laid off all of their salespeople."
No, they did not. Ever.

"The reason that the landscaping is in bad shape is that the last two winters have been cold."
OK, and the reason the landscaping looks good at other resorts in the area is...?

"When you use your RCI Points, the resort pays RCI."
In what universe?

"I don't know where the developer lives."
Yes, in fact you do.

"It may be illegal to have another meeting in April."
No, you don't want another meeting in April.

"I don't have the financials with me so I can't tell you how much Special Assessment was billed and how much was actually collected"
Of course you don't have the "financials" with you, because if you did you would have to give a full answer.

"We no longer have the luxury of having 150 people working to keep the resort up."
There were never 150 people working at the resort...ever...and the resort has fired all but a skeletel crew resulting in the resort being in extremely poor condition.

"The resort has to be 90% sold out in order to transfer HOA authority to the owners and we're a long way from that."
This would later be changed to "90% built." Either way, they didn't have a clue as to when authority would be transferred or when the resort would be 90% anything.

"This meeting isn't to point fingers, or discuss who is getting paid, this meeting is to discuss the "good things that are on the horizon.""
No, actually the owners came to the meeting to point fingers, because the owners have a right to know what is going on at the resort, where the money went, what the HOA members actually do for the HOA and other things that affect the resort and their ability to use their timeshare. And the owners have listened to the "good things that are on the horizon" for 3 years now with no results.

"I don't speak with the developer."
Oh, wait, that's true. The General Manager almost never sees, talks, or has communication with the developer. And that's a good sign, right?

Unfortunately, there's much more in this saga. Stay tuned...and I'm interested in hearing what goes on at your HOA meeting. Let me know so that I can share with other owners.