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Diamond Resorts reduces owner benefits again!
There is NO WAY THAT I WILL EVER give back my deed to DRI! This is EXACTLY what they want...have us pay to repair the resort and GIVE THEM a paid in full ownership. I intend to FIGHT THEM every step of the way! They MOST CERTAINLY have done nothing to earn that kind of "loving care" from me or ANYONE ELSE! I bought deeded weeks. They tried to coerce me into giving back those deeds AND BUY MY SHARE OF THE PROPERTY AGAIN as points. Now it appears that they want me to re-build the resort. After all of that, why would I give them anything? We will fight them. We will beat them in court! We will run them off of OUR resort. IF YOU DO NOT WANT DRI TO WIN go to www.poipuowners.org and register to join us. If you ARE NOT happy, register. For what they have done to our resort, I want to see them GONE! There have been court decisions which will back our cause. We WILL win! They WILL lose! www.poipuowners.org
David L.
Last edited by davidl712 on Jan 04, 2012 11:16 AM
timeshare mgmt companies can be like local govt. cronyism puts company stooges on the boards. Budgets get approved with bloated expenses. Lasttime i was at poipu they were replacing all the copiers with top of the line units. Big money. There is no incentive to save$$. if budget money is left, spend it. Just like govt pass the cost on.
Why so much for mgmt fees to the DRI parent? Just an endless money stream. Bill the property owners, they will pay or we foreclose.
With owners worldwide, DRI controls elections and the money. No way to unify and communicate among the thousNds of owners. Glorified corruption with an ocean view.
Phil S.
There have been court cases recently in which many of our concerns have been addressed AND won. The key is to create a "blueprint for ouster" once we succeed and spread it around. The timeshares in which the BOD hires a MANAGER and not a management company are the only ones that do not have these problems. Otherwise you have a license to steal situation.
David L.
BRAVO!!! That is the action needed.. I am on St Maarten but unfortunately the owners are not the same.. some only.. I am being threatened by Stephen CLOOBECK because I won.. he lost in the Court here of First Instance as well a Court of Appeal so revenge he blocked my access to four weeks... he now has blocked me access to the site and there is no other way to pay.. as he has no financial office on St Maarten and that is against the law.. His bully tactics he is using against me.... he has a serious problem and I can not wait to see him in an orange jumpsuit with the latest chains around his ankles.. I wonder why Elizabeth Brennan left?? Anybody know??
Pamela J.
Sorry so late in getting back to you.... My E-mail is _______ It is my restricted personal account so please do not copy it to anyone.
It looks like public sentiment against DRI is building quickly...we need to expose them for the Legal Extortionists they are.
Have a great day and may it be a Happy New Year.
Bill
William G.
Last edited by williamg345 on Jan 10, 2012 09:28 AM
Hi Cindi, I read your november post and found it interesting that DRI and ILX are in the same building. I'm part of the Premier Vacation collection in AZ that was acquired by DRI thru acquisition do to a bankrupt ILX.I have never put the two together before but I have read DRI's mo is acquiring properties and doing just what they want.
Patricia M.
williamg345 wrote:Sorry so late in getting back to you.... It is my restricted personal account so please do not copy it to anyone.It looks like public sentiment against DRI is building quickly...we need to expose them for the Legal Extortionists they are.
Have a great day and may it be a Happy New Year.
Bill
Hi Bill,
you did give me a different email address. did you not receive anything?
Sheri K.
Last edited by sherik43 on Jan 11, 2012 08:13 AM
Picture of Stephen J. Cloobeck of Diamond Resorts International www.examiner.com View a picture of ‘Picture of Stephen J. Cloobeck of Diamond Resorts International’ and other National Cable TV photos. Like · · 23 hours ago · Have a look at all the comments too.. join in
Pamela J.
Taken from the TODAY Newspaper on St Maarten Hilbert HAAR EDITOR.. today january 16 2011
Timeshare-owner charged with $100,000 in maintenance fees
POSTED: 01/16/12 1:01 PM
Copy of the invoice Arthur Macdonald received for his condo’s maintenance fees. Diamond Resorts sticks to new treatment of whole-owners at Royal Palm Beach Club
St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – The battle between Arthur Macdonald and the Royal Palm Beach Club has reached a new low, after the Diamond Resorts Corporation, the timeshare resort’s Las Vegas-based owner sent the 74-year-old Rhode Island retiree an invoice for maintenance fees of almost $100,000. Macdonald will not pay the fee as he is still engaged in court cases against Diamond. The next step in these procedures is scheduled for next week Tuesday, but it could still take some time before there is a final ruling.
Last year in July, Royal Palm cut off Macdonald’s water and electricity, after he refused to pay $48,279.23 in maintenance fees. The Court in First Instance later ordered the company to restore the utilities. In December, Macdonald received the invoice for the 2012 maintenance fees: $46,678.32 plus another $4,927.532 for a so-called “replacement reserve.” With the outstanding from 2011, the fees now total $99,885.07 – close to a third of what the American paid for the unit in 2010.
Arthur Macdonald in his Royal Palm unit (file photo). MacDonald’s daughter Lenna, a corporate attorney, is following the developments closely with her father. “How can this not be shocking to anyone hearing the amount,” she wrote in a personal email to this newspaper. “It makes no sense given the local market, or the costs actually associated with the individual units.”
The attorney further pointed out that the “replacement reserve” is probably a charge for renovations, furnishings and appliances in the units. “The problem is that we (my parents and I) have personally renovated and furnished the unit to the cost of some $89,000 in direct expenses, before adding in labor, including replacing exterior windows and redoing the patios; that should have been addressed by Diamond. So Diamond is charging us to renovate and furnish our unit, after we just finished doing it ourselves.”
Macdonald is a so-called whole-owner. In April of 2010, he bought the right to his apartment at the Royal Palm for more than $300,000. The contract put the maintenance fees at $500 per month, and Macdonald has been faithfully paying his dues, which also include metered services (for water and electricity).
In 2011 Diamond Resorts decided to treat whole-owners (people like Macdonald who bought in fact 52 timeshare weeks) the same way it treats interval-owners (people who bought the right to stay at the Royal Palm for one or more weeks per year). The already hefty maintenance fee of around $1,300 per interval was in Macdonald’s case unilaterally multiplied by 52. Instead of a $6,000 charge for maintenance fees, he was suddenly saddled with an impossible charge of close to $50,000.
Attorneys for Diamond Resorts argued last year in court that Royal Palm was struggling with a $10 million deficit and that it threatens to go bankrupt if it is not allowed to charge these maintenance fees.
But a press release the company issued on November 15 of last year tells a slightly different story. “We are pleased with the year over year improvement in our operating performance and continue to remain focused on the growth of our core management and member services business and our sales and marketing platform,” president and chief financial officer David F. Palmer stated in a press release about the parent company’s third quarter results.
In last year’s third quarter, Diamond Resorts saw its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increase by 14.4 percent to $29.7 million. Vacation interest sales increased 6.6 percent to $60.2 million.
This increase, Palmer wrote, “was primarily due to a higher average sale price per transaction partly offset by a decline in the number of vacation interest transactions and closing percentage.”
So while less people are buying timeshare, Diamond Resorts is still generating more money in this market because it charges higher prices.
How did all this affect the Royal Palm Beach Club? Diamond Resorts projects an operational surplus of a bit more than $400,000 for the 23 whole-owner units in the resort. This is based on almost $1.2 million revenue from maintenance fees against almost $790,000 in payroll and operating expenses. But because the budget contains a provision of $1 million for “bad debts” plus almost half a million for insurances, management fees, depreciation and reserve capital expenses, the resort books on paper a negative result of $1,053,836.
The attorneys who won the case for Macdonald last year, mrs. Jelmer Snow and Camiel Koster, labeled at the time Diamond’s action as “a typical case of taking the law into one’s own hand. Who still wants to buy timeshare in St. Maarten after this? This is unlawful.”
Snow said last year that Diamond “pretends that Royal Palm is on the brink of bankruptcy. I have the feeling that they simply need money in Las Vegas. They throw up some figures without substantiating them. This is not good for St. Maarten, not good for the timeshare industry and not good for my client.”
Pamela J.
I wish you were fighting diamond on more than just YOUR resort. Coobleck is doing the same to all his resorts...and he tried to make himself look good on undercover boss last night). Do you knowof any group that is fighting all of diamond resorts and their practices!
Karla M.
If COPP is successful in what we are doing, we will GLADLY share our "success formula" with all of the details. I sense that there is more to the need for "upfront" money on this water intrusion assessment. We are continuing to dig into the whole sordid affair and will find the answers!
David L.
Things at Poipu will soon have Diamond Resorts very much in the public eye. I would suggest that EVERY DRI resort follow our story, set up a Facebook page and start talking. Our owner's group blew into over 1,200 in just weeks! Set up an LLC and start registering owners. Have every resort start the process of legal action.
David L.