Original Message:
Re: Marriott Aruba Surf Club - Lawsuit by Association against owners (by Gordon G.):
Not opining on who is correct or not in this. Just giving some thoughts ... Owners can always rent out their units but the problem has become people have been purchasing multiple units and have been operating commercial enterprise of renting the weeks. The commercial renting of units is a violation of the plain language of the owners documents signed at purchase as well as the bylaws. A simple search online will reveal certain people who are blatantly renting units as an ongoing commercial enterprise. They appear on their own rental sites, RW, FB and other places routinely reserving weeks and renting out multiple units. The result of this action is these commercial renters have been monopolizing desired weeks in order to maximize rental profits, taking away the desired weeks by Marriott owners as well as losing the revenue for Marriott. Because of this, Marriott owners have been extremely disappointed about their inability to secure weeks due to the abundance of "rentals" by these commercial-owners. Appears Marriott (who have been aware of the problem for a couple years) are taking action to enforce the provisions of the documents and bylaws. In my opinion, they are focusing on the following language which seems quite clear:
According to the Share Purchase Agreement, it states, "PERSONAL USE: Purchaser represents and warrants to MVCIA that ... (ii) Acquisition of the Share is made for the purpose of utilizing the Improvements for personal use of the Purchaser and others deriving use rights through Purchaser; and (iii) Purchaser shall make no commercial use of the Improvements prohibited by the Disclosure Statement and Governing Documents." If that is not clear, the USE RESTRICTIONS under Article IX paragraph 9.1 states, "Personal Use Restriction: ... Use of residential Units ... for commercial purposes or any other purposes other than personal use described herein is expressly prohibited. 'Commercial Purpose' shall be broadly interpreted and shall include, but not be limited to a pattern of rental activity or other occupancy by A Member that the Association, in its reasonable discretion, could constitute a commercial enterprise or practice."
This language clearly states that the purchase of the unit is for personal use and a commercial use (e.g. Renting out as a commercial purpose") is prohibited - it states that "Commercial Purpose" is broadly interpreted and can include a pattern of rental activity. Seems that Marriott is seeking to enforce the terms of this to benefit the owners who purchased the units for Personal Use.