Report Abuse

Re: Marriott Aruba Surf Club - Lawsuit by Association against owners

Seems totally inappropriate that the Board of the Association would be spending owners money to sue owners for doing what 50% or more of the owners are forced to do because of Marriott's rules. The Board should instead work with Marriott to get the rules to work for the owners. If owners were unable to get good weeks and purchased multiple weeks in order to que up and get good weeks what is wrong with that? The owners spent good money for extra weeks and they are only doing what Marriott rules forced them to do. What I find most incredible is the Marriott sales people actually try to convince owners to buy multiple weeks. They tell us how we can get better weeks by owning more and we can make money by renting. Marriott is also eager to try to rent the weeks for owners (they take a huge % for doing such). So the bottom line of all of this is our maintenance fees will go up by the amount of litigation costs. The secondary market for resale of our weeks has been awful and continues to get worse. This lawsuit will make matters worse. The secondary market could actually totally evaporate (who in their right mind would want to purchase a week if they now must fear it being taken away from them if they rent it out). Another incredibly irritating point is Marriott does not use its ROFR rights to purchase units on the secondary market. This has allowed the value of our units to plummet. Marriott is currently selling the equivalent inventory to new owners for in excess of $15,000 to $25,000 yet they pass on secondary market purchase ROFR's as low as $6000? If Marriott was to use the ROFR and buy back the secondary market resales that would be the easiest most efficient way to accomplish a few things. One it would keep the market values of our units steady and closer to the value that Marriott is selling new units for and secondly it would keep owners that want to rent from being able to purchase weeks at such low prices. As owners we should actually thank the people that are holding up the secondary market right now. Yes they may own multiple weeks and yes they may rent them out but they are the only reason our resale values are not at zero..I think the Board needs to do its homework and truly understand what the problem is. The problem is not that owners are renting out weeks. That is totally normal and should be allowed without restriction. The problem is the system is broken and Marriott has rigged it to stay broken. Lets revise our rules if we need to have a fairer way for owners to participate equally in getting good weeks (regardless of how many they own). But under no circumstance should the Board continue to go after owners that rent. Lets fix the system. This witch hunt of certain owners is not a fix.