My timeshare resort is demanding an additional £215 per week owned to contribute to their serious financial position

Hi, My husband and I own 2 weeks time shire in Ibiza, we have owned for approx 15 years and never have missed our maintainance fees. We are due to go for our 2 weeks holiday in our resort - Es Pueto at Aldea Bonsei on July 31st and have this week received 2 letter one for each of the weeks owned saying we have to pay an additonal £215 for eaxch of the weeks as the resort is having serious financial difficulties due to 800+ members having their weeks taken from them for non payment of maintainance fees. They say if we do not pay this money before the 15th July it will result in the loss of any rights acquired as a member? The resort since we bought it has not upgraded its apartments- although I believe the company own only a proportion of the apartments the original services, maid service included have severely depleted and the resort offers non of the entertainment etc we were promised on buying , it is the smaller of two resorts they own in Ibiza, the main one being Es Pueto which I believe is fuilly owned by the company, and for some time their main priority. Can anyone advise if this is legal for us to be charged such an outragous amount for 2 weeks in a 1 bedroom apartment [this will take the fee to over £1000 for our 2 weeks] especially as we have paid £18,000 for something that has not been updated in the full time we have been a member. How can we know that if we pay this money the resort wont go bankrupt and we will have lost a further £500 it is a terrible dilemma as we are retired and cant offord to lose money so easily.

Any help any one can give would be great also if any one is also in the same situation perhaps we could communicate with other members to see if their is anything as a group we can achieve. Thank you Margaret

1. If you stop paying your maintenance fees then the resort can come after you for non-payment and that can ruin your credit score.

2. You say you are retired then perhaps you don't care about your credit score if you're not planning to purchase anything in the future involving credit .... you could just stop paying the fees.

3. This is a major problem with ALL resorts in this economy and I don't like to give advice to anyone to stop paying their maintenance fees as the responsibility then falls on other owners, but if the rise places a hardship on you then you may not have any other choice. It just depends on how much you value your ownership and how detrimental the fees will affect you.

You asked if the rise was legal, yes it's legal .... resorts can and do charge special assessments occasionally but that's usually for physical upgrades to the resort or it's condos.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, really it is not about affording the extra amount but the annoyance of being totally hand tied as to what these companies can do to you. Had we seen a fantastic upgrade or similar then absolutely that would make it worthwhile but when a resort is letting itself slip into what I would say is approx 3 star standard and has had a good deal of cash and goodwill from it's members both in the initial thousands paid up front for the weeks bought in addition to £600+ maintainance which we pay each year for our 2 weeks ownership it doesn't seem right or fair to ask for additional money when they have also indicated massive reductions in the services we can expect from them over the coming years. I'm sure we will pay up and I guess this is what they know most people will do rather than lose everything they have invested their money in. Once again thanks for replying Kind Regards Margaret

margarets242 wrote:

Can anyone advise if this is legal for us to be charged such an outragous amount.....

Such an unexpected charge as you describe would generally be (...and not fondly) called a "special assessment" here in the U.S. and would certainly be entirely legal here (...although obviously unwelcome). That said, YOUR situation is in another country entirely, with a facility whose ownership, underlying condo organization documents, usage rules, internal agreements, membership terms, etc. are all likely very clearly defined and on record somewhere, but in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations of THAT country. One cannot just compare apples in one country with oranges in another country as though they were somehow the same fruit; they are in fact very different indeed.

It would be relatively unusual here in the U.S. for a facility to impose special assessments because of delinquent owner accounts. Maintenance fees may well increase in such a situation, but the "special assessment" approach for a situation like you describe would be fought "tooth and nail" here by owners. In a developer controlled facility, however, said owners would obviously have much less (if any) leverage to successfully fight such an imposed "assessment".

In general (here in the U.S., anyhow), special assessments generally arise for one of two reasons. The most common by far is that short sighted facility management has simply failed to maintain adequate financial "reserves", thereby being unprepared to have sufficient funds on hand to pay for necessary routine repairs or upgrades. The second, less common circumstance HERE is in the aftermath of storm or hurricance or flood damage. Insurance "deductibles" and insurance reimbursements often fall short of being adequate to pay for the repairs, so the "shortfall" is then passed on to owners in the form of a "special assessment" per owned week.

Any legal input on YOUR situation is worthwhile ONLY if it originates from a legal advocate familiar with the laws and regulations of the country at issue. Any legal "advice" or "opinion" casually posted by an unqualified individual from another country on a RedWeek forum is worth exactly what you have paid for it --- maybe much less...

I wish you luck, but with due respect you would be much better served by getting some legal input from a knowledgeable advocate who is actually familiar with the applicable laws and regulations of the country in which your timeshare ownership is physically located.

margarets242 wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to reply, really it is not about affording the extra amount but the annoyance of being totally hand tied as to what these companies can do to you. Had we seen a fantastic upgrade or similar then absolutely that would make it worthwhile but when a resort is letting itself slip into what I would say is approx 3 star standard and has had a good deal of cash and goodwill from it's members both in the initial thousands paid up front for the weeks bought in addition to £600+ maintainance which we pay each year for our 2 weeks ownership it doesn't seem right or fair to ask for additional money when they have also indicated massive reductions in the services we can expect from them over the coming years. I'm sure we will pay up and I guess this is what they know most people will do rather than lose everything they have invested their money in. Once again thanks for replying Kind Regards Margaret

After purchasing a timeshare you are then beholden to the developer or HOA and they can do pretty much what they please to get extra money ..... rising maintenance fees and special assessments have always been two of the negatives of timeshare ownership .... now it's owner's bailing out. I honestly don't see how many resorts are making it in this worldwide economy.

Thank you so much for your advice which has been extremely useful and appreciated. Kind Regards Margaret