Manhattan Club Lawsuit

Someone on the FB group said that Stephen Prial is Vice President, Resort Regional at Bluegreen Corporation.

I bought my TMC in 2009 and I have never used it since I purchased it. I have been paying the mortgage & maintenance fee every year, I decided to stop paying this year $2,573.40. Will this affect my credit?

Chris V.

Do you mean the monthly mortgage payment and the maintenance fee?

hello julie osikova,

the real estate tax has nothing to do with mortgage payments. your maintenance fee includes ny real estate tax. if real estate tax is deductible where you live, ask TMC financial services dept what the separate amount they pay in tax for the week (s) you own.

julieosikoya wrote:

Chris V.

Do you mean the monthly mortgage payment and the maintenance fee?

When you say you’ve never used it, is it because you couldn’t get a room or did you purposely not use it? Just curious because so many owners have never used their unit because they couldn’t get a room.

We own another timeshare in CA which is deeded exactly the way TMC was suppose to be deeded. We get a separate very amount bill sent to us directly from the City to individually pay our own property taxes which is the honest way to have your taxes paid if a deeded timeshare. TMC could not approach it this way because they oversold the same unit/time by about 14,000 so many of us would be paying for the same tax bill. In other words because of the fraud several of us own the same house. So TMC didn't set it up this way for individual tax bills like they should have otherwise we would have figured out the scam a long time ago. In reality with so much oversell its unlikely more that 14,000 of us have stopped paying fees. So it would be unlikely the entire building would have a Lein placed on it.

hello sharon v68

you report good information concerning the difference in paying for real estate taxes between the CA & NY timeshares. given the way the fraudsters at TMC do all business, i wouldn't put it past them to add extra $$$ to our tax burden. note above that i asked TMC financial office about the amount of tax i owe, and they said that they lump our tax obligation into our MF's. they gave me an individual tax figure that i accepted without question (it seemed rather high for one week's ownership........around $300 that i recall.) it is notable that with all the complaints we have presented against TMC, this tax issue has not been addressed. hopefully, one of us owners has the ability to delve into this important matter of determining each owner's individual tax burden for weeks owned. this could turn out to be another issue to be investigated by legal authorities. overall, TMC needs to be monitored concerning their non-adherence to the terms of the NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S SETTLEMENT. there are so many illegal issues involved here that the matter has become so muddied and clouded that we're losing sight of these illegalities.

sharonv68 wrote:

We own another timeshare in CA which is deeded exactly the way TMC was suppose to be deeded. We get a separate very amount bill sent to us directly from the City to individually pay our own property taxes which is the honest way to have your taxes paid if a deeded timeshare. TMC could not approach it this way because they oversold the same unit/time by about 14,000 so many of us would be paying for the same tax bill. In other words because of the fraud several of us own the same house. So TMC didn't set it up this way for individual tax bills like they should have otherwise we would have figured out the scam a long time ago. In reality with so much oversell its unlikely more that 14,000 of us have stopped paying fees. So it would be unlikely the entire building would have a Lein placed on it.

Yes, Chris, I get the breakdown showing my portion of the taxes when TMC sends me the info. on the outrageous fee billing. I definitely use every deduction I can. I just received my 2 bills for this billing period and of course, the amount had gone up again.

I'm still planning to be at the Manhattan Club June 23-30 using my fixed penthouse week. The other one I usually try to trade as I too find that weeks I want to use it are not available.

I am beginning to have some serious doubts thinking an Eichner "plant" might be on our site.

Gail, I do believe you are right. I’ve felt that for some time now.

I have an important message for the BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND THOSE PREACHING ABOUT NOT PAYING THEIR MAINTENANCE FEES. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read about an owner NEVER HAVING STAYED IN THEIR TMC UNIT. Those of you on the Board have the power to make change and fix the reservation issues and yet you refuse to fix the very problems that have caused the HO Association to be in deficit which you claim causes the maintenance fees to go up (over 400%)! And yet you demean and criticize those very owners, who are not on the board and have no authority to fix anything, for not paying for something they cannot use! Some owners have never used their unit in spite of being an owner for as long as 10 years in some cases! YOU BOARD MEMBERS ARE THE ONLY REASON THERES A DEFICIT IN THE HO ASSOCIATION COFFERS! YOU ARE DIVERTING THE MONEY INTO THE POCKETS OF THE VERY CROOKS THAT THE NYAG INVESTIGATED. You believe you have effectively fooled the unsuspecting owners into believing that the fault lies with the delinquent owners. You perpetuate the problems by preventing very capable, business savvy owners from being elected by the people to serve on the Board. The entire voting process is a joke and it’s more evident now than ever! YOU HAVE NOT FOOLED EVERYONE AND I AM CERTAIN YOU SIMPLY DI NOT CARE BECAUSE OUR VOICES ARE SO SILENT IN THIS ONGONG SCAM!

TMC and their lawyers monitor this page, Redweek, etc. In my NY Civil court lawsuit against The Manhattan Club this week the TMC lawyers used pages from this website as part of their pleadings.

Irene Smalls

hello irene,

your comment (re TMC, ET AL, monitoring redweek.com) being WELL- noted, what's your recommendation to proceed here? others have forwarded their strong suspicions mirroring your comment; additionally, they believe we're getting comments on this forum directly from the ENEMY (posing as owners), as an infiltration tactic. your valuable input about this issue on this forum would be appreciated by all owners here.

irenes93 wrote:

TMC and their lawyers monitor this page, Redweek, etc. In my NY Civil court lawsuit against The Manhattan Club this week the TMC lawyers used pages from this website as part of their pleadings.

Irene Smalls

beckyf76

Because I couldn't get a room.

irenes93 wrote:

TMC and their lawyers monitor this page, Redweek, etc. In my NY Civil court lawsuit against The Manhattan Club this week the TMC lawyers used pages from this website as part of their pleadings.

Irene Smalls

Irene, can you share which posts were quoted in court? I think it would be beneficial to Zimmerman if he could counter the pleadings with many, many more quotes from those of us who are angry and outspoken about this entire mess.

an opinion to consider:

it is to be noted that the upcoming voting for the board of directors candidates is another slap in the face and a kick in the ass from TMC awarded to all owners. it is a distinct possibility that any new, non-sponsor board member will simply be a replacement puppet for the current non-sponsored board members. this voting thing is an effort in futility for all TMC owners. the board should be made up primarily of OWNERS WHO WILL HAVE A DECISION-MAKING VOICE. the board of directors positions should have been turned over to the owners a long time ago. as recalled, none of us challenged that issue. the current and past board makeup allows no authority to owners. this is at least one reason, for example, that our maintenance fees have skyrocketed to an exorbitant (close to) 500%.

the makeup of the board and those who make the decisions that we owners should be making, should be challenged. we need and demand a board of directors that will work IN OWNERS' BEHALF and not for the benefit of developers. THIS ISSUE SHOULD BE CHALLENGED AND CHANGED LEGALLY.

Exactly who are you talking about? Name some names. I was accused about 100 pages ago. Again many of you attack those with whom you disagree. Some of you have such a high opinion of yourselves that if someone disagrees with you, they are either stupid or a plant.

Again, about how many sign ups does Zimmerman have? I suspect not many or you would brag about it.

I agree the maintenance fees are too high. Yes they are most likely dishonest. But I enjoy my time at TMC and am lucky enough to be able to afford it and at 77 years old, I'm not going to stop paying. Why should I cut my nose off to spite my face. Perhaps l am.being selfish but I know that when maintenance fees come down for some, they will come down for all.

Bill, don’t u realize u can rent a 5 star hotel with all the extras at the price we are paying from our maintenance fees.Don’t forget we also bought the unit yet the value of our timeshare is worthless. It’s kind of laughable that the maintenance fee went up 500%. This by far was the worst investment I have ever made and will never buy another timeshare. Do I use my timeshare? Yes and enjoy it but the cost is not worth it. I use it otherwise I’m just throwing money out the window. I’ve owned it for 18 years and this is my first time considering not paying the fee. Yes I also joined Zimmerman lawsuit because I’m tired of sitting back and waiting for compensation or some sort of justice. I am no lawyer however I feel this is our last option before I walk away from this investment.

Hi Gail - yes I do understand what I own, I just have a different idea as to how to get to where we need to be. In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, the folks who signed on to the Zimmerman lawsuit have saddled themselves to a horse that won't be able to go the distance so you WILL NOT be able to gain the relief that you are seeking by continuing down that path. Sorry. The scenarios that you lay out as far as adjustable rate mortgages and increased taxes do not apply to us because in the examples that you cite you still have the use of your home - just at an increased expense. In our case we have the increased expense, no use of the property and the manager rents it out from underneath us so we can't even "live" there. As I have said before, good luck to you guys.

tulipblossom wrote:

John- obviously you do not understand the concept of what you have ownership in. We as individual owners do NOT get billed separately for the property taxes on the Manhattan Club property. There is one bill sent at the end of the year and the taxing authorities look to that entity, which is the Manhattan Club, to pay with one check. So, if the Manhattan Club which is us ( the time share owners) have no funds because you have advocated that all owners ceases paying the assessments,, the property will have a tax lien placed against it and it will be sold. End of story. There will not be a hearing where several thousand time share owners appear to contest the actions of Eichner in order to get relief from paying the property taxes. As far as what you outlined about some proposed settlement by Eichner later on, that is what has already transpired. There was a settlement agreement proposed and accepted and that issue is now moot. Zimmerman is approaching this on a case by case basis - not a class action suit. The one that the Attorney General was looking into dealt was a type of class action suit and there will be no "do over". Unless there are new grounds enumerated, there will be no rehashing of what was investigated by the NY Attorney General. My belief is that our assessments have been increasing in part because a lot of the owners have ceased paying their assessments. I am certainly not pleased with how they have increased either but if everyone stops paying their assessments, we will lose the building and the land. Think of it this way - you own a house with a variable mortgage interest rate on it and that mortgage interest rate continues to increase each year so you stop paying your mortgage- do you not understand that the bank will place a lien on your house and it will be sold? Or say your taxes go up each year so you decide to stop paying your taxes on your house - I can assure you, your house will have a tax lien placed upon it and it will be sold. That is exactly what will happen if there are no funds to pay the taxes on our building and our land known as the Manhattan Club. Is that what you would like to see happen?

Just some food for thought, Irene , who has worked tirelessly on our behalf , has stated that the TMC attorney's must monitor these and the FB pages, as they have mentioned this in her court proceedings!. It is for that reason, I believe all that have joined with Zimmerman, should keep their cards "close to the vest" and do not divulge any gratuitous info.. Any information, no matter how insignificant, may be substantive. Here's an exact quote.."TMC and their lawyers monitor this page, Redweek, etc. In my NY Civil Court lawsuit against The Manhattan Club this week the TMC lawyers used pages from this website as part of their pleadings." I also believe she has been the most successful in her battle against the TMC, winning the highest monetary settlement to date! Lose lips sink ships... Good luck to all.

hello joseph m,

"It is for that reason, I believe all that have joined with Zimmerman, should keep their cards "close to the vest" and do not divulge any gratuitous info.. Any information, no matter how insignificant, may be substantive."

i second your quote. TMC and its band of high-end ny attorneys will do all in their power to continue to screw and defraud us. the process of seeking additional legal means of exposing their daring and open defiance of the schneiderman settlement, has begun. to wit, wirshba, stuart EICHNER, reale and others who were members of the deposed EICHNER team are still operatives in the management of TMC. they continue to defraud in direct disregard of the legal terms of the settlement. perhaps they found a loophole that allows them to continue in their respective roles, but the intention here is to invoke other legal means to close that loophole. it remains a wonderment how they pulled off the illegally rigged election process for the new board. that, and many other issues, will be part of TMC's practices to be stopped legally. persistence is essential to legally cease these criminally illegal practices of the current board of directors. we will proceed with persistence to keep this plan of court notification and corrections moving. at the end of the day, we will prevail. this legal plan for relief from the burdens that TMC bestowed on us has been developed and will move along in a very timely manner. information will be made available to defrauded owners when this plan goes into effect.

josephm644 wrote:

Just some food for thought, Irene , who has worked tirelessly on our behalf , has stated that the TMC attorney's must monitor these and the FB pages, as they have mentioned this in her court proceedings!. It is for that reason, I believe all that have joined with Zimmerman, should keep their cards "close to the vest" and do not divulge any gratuitous info.. Any information, no matter how insignificant, may be substantive. Here's an exact quote.."TMC and their lawyers monitor this page, Redweek, etc. In my NY Civil Court lawsuit against The Manhattan Club this week the TMC lawyers used pages from this website as part of their pleadings." I also believe she has been the most successful in her battle against the TMC, winning the highest monetary settlement to date! Lose lips sink ships... Good luck to all.