Manhattan Club Lawsuit

Susan, I agree. That is exactly what enticed us to visit TMC when were being courted by them. It's been downhill since then. We all feel your pain and are in this together. Like it or not.

No since in filling out survey. Best to write NY Attorney General. Basically, the survey was about ownership at TMC and what you experienced as an owner. I believe the original survey came from an owner or attorney for an owner as a questionnaire/survey as to overall experiences.

Just write in the letter what you experienced as an owner and how you feel about the management and the handling of your timeshare at TMC. The AG has heard or seen it all by now with all the other letters received from other owners.

Good Luck.

vanessa......................

in essence, i guess the more the merrier. more letters from us might give schneiderman more ammo to strengthen his case against the DEN OF THEIVES, AKA TMC and get this mess settled once and for all, civilly, criminally or otherwise.............finish already!

i'm mellowing out on presenting complaints. all in this forum have more than filled the ears of "the powers that be." however i feel the legal proceedings are next-to-pathetic, to wit, the length of time it's taken so far to come close to being settled. this is becoming nys state's waste of many nys taxpayers' $$$$$ considering the amount of time spent by the NYS ATTORNEY GENERAL and his staff on this case,

keep in touch.

chris

vanessa175 wrote:

No since in filling out survey. Best to write NY Attorney General. Basically, the survey was about ownership at TMC and what you experienced as an owner. I believe the original survey came from an owner or attorney for an owner as a questionnaire/survey as to overall experiences.

Just write in the letter what you experienced as an owner and how you feel about the management and the handling of your timeshare at TMC. The AG has heard or seen it all by now with all the other letters received from other owners.

Good Luck.

TMC released budget for 2018. Shows reserve for bad debt has risen to over 7 million dollars ($7,031,441). Based on the total income from maintenance fees for 14,872 timeshares of $37,122,176, this bad debt is about 2817 members not paying (using an average maintenance fee of $2,496). So approximately 18.9% of the total owners are now not paying the maintenance fee.

Those who are not paying their fees are harming those who do. However, I'm sure units are being rented out which should help the bottom line. I do not believe anyone is excused from their financial obligations unless it's done legally. So far that hasn't happened.

As an owner that like most of us cannot get a reservation at the Manhattan Club, I would be happy to give back my membership and forfeit all of the money I have paid into this bad investment but TMC will not take it back. If I invested in a bad stock at least I could cut me losses and sell but here we cannot get out of a bad deal, so our only recourse is to withhold maintenance fees. They have not lived up to their side of the deal hence why should us members be held to this awful arrangement.

true, paying maintenance fees is a contractual obligation of owners; however most of us who do not pay maintenance are not doing so primarily because the contract has been voided by TMC/EICHNER'S actions, e.g., raising maintenance fees super-exorbitantly, not providing accommodations to many owners, not having responsible owner representation on the board of directors, et al. THAT'S WHY THE NYS ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS THIS SHAM ORGANIZATION IN COURT..........for fraud, misrepresentation of the product and its benefits, all of which has been proven by recording sales presentations by staff members of the AG's office: PROOF POSITIVE. NO CONTRACT=NON PAYMENT OF MAINTENANCE FEES.

laurah136 wrote:

Those who are not paying their fees are harming those who do. However, I'm sure units are being rented out which should help the bottom line. I do not believe anyone is excused from their financial obligations unless it's done legally. So far that hasn't happened.

robert (and any other owners with similar sentiments),

don't be hasty in your willingness to "give back" your ownership and all of the $$$$$$$$$you have lost because of this sham investment in TMC. this might be just what EICHNER AND MOB are hoping owners will do, and he'll be all the more financially in the black because of our hasty decisions. we owners can do nothing anyway until this court case: nysag vs eichner, is ended by court decisions. these decisions may prove to be in our favor and eichner might just be ordered to deliver restitution for all the thievery he's committed to ALL TMC OWNERS.

robertr633 wrote:

As an owner that like most of us cannot get a reservation at the Manhattan Club, I would be happy to give back my membership and forfeit all of the money I have paid into this bad investment but TMC will not take it back. If I invested in a bad stock at least I could cut me losses and sell but here we cannot get out of a bad deal, so our only recourse is to withhold maintenance fees. They have not lived up to their side of the deal hence why should us members be held to this awful arrangement.

Chris,

I agree with you. No need for any more complaints as we all have them. I too am totally mystified as to why this investigation has not been settled yet. This is beyond belief that a case can be dragged out this long. They have plenty of evidence and complaints from TMC owners, as well as, the investigation that was conducted by them "undercover". What more proof would they need? Is it because "Eichner" was one of them Attorney working in the NYC court system as a DA? I found that information online a few years ago while researching Eichner.

Otherwise, I think this would be resolved by now. Who else can we write to Governor Cuomo? If we inundate him with letters maybe his office will investigate the AG office or these proceedings.

"Based on the total income from maintenance fees for 14,872 timeshares of $37,122,176, this bad debt is about 2817 members not paying (using an average maintenance fee of $2,496)."

The accounting is not accurate. Number "14,872" refers to the amount of the interests, not number of owners. Some owners have several interests; current owner Vacation Trust Inc purchased hundreds of fractional, absolutely ridiculous, undivided interests like 0,108, 0,72, 0,79, 0.114, etc. (you name it!).

Number of owners has never been released by TMC. It supposed to be provided in Schedule A Footnote but that Footnote is absent in all Annual Budgets.

laurah136 wrote:

Those who are not paying their fees are harming those who do. However, I'm sure units are being rented out which should help the bottom line. I do not believe anyone is excused from their financial obligations unless it's done legally. So far that hasn't happened.

Well, it could be formulated vice versa: those who have pleasures for usage and those who got easy reservations via travel sites did harm those owners who were denied. The bottom line TMC was cheating with reservations for over 10 years or since the times it is known to me. Another bottom line is TMC has never provided truthful information and income on public reservations therefore everyone was harmed.

I developed a model to forecast increases in member maintenance fees due to members not paying fees. Model is based on 2016 budgeted costs. FYI cost increase is about $50 per member week for every 300 weeks maintenance fees are not paid

fibon wrote:

laurah136 wrote:

Those who are not paying their fees are harming those who do. However, I'm sure units are being rented out which should help the bottom line. I do not believe anyone is excused from their financial obligations unless it's done legally. So far that hasn't happened.

Well, it could be formulated vice versa: those who have pleasures for usage and those who got easy reservations via travel sites did harm those owners who were denied. The bottom line TMC was cheating with reservations for over 10 years or since the times it is known to me. Another bottom line is TMC has never provided truthful information and income on public reservations therefore everyone was harmed.

Do any of you contributors to this thread think that contacting a national visibility like the television program 20/20 might ever do anything to speed this thing up? They might just be looking for soething like this to sink their journalistic teeth into.??!!

Yes, yes, yes!!! I think this should be brought to the attention to WORLD because we've all been lied to, deceived, and taken advantage of. I would hope that no one else falls for the lies and misrepresentation that I know I received when I paid $60K cash for my Penthouse Suite. I was told that only owners could stay there, I was assured that maintenance fees would remain the same or slight increases may occur depending on the renovations and upgrades that are done to the TMC, and much, much more enticing information regarding my "opportunity" to own a piece of Manhattan. It was all a bunch of baloney. The last time I stayed at TMC I had to fight to get a room, and when I did, they put me in a Penthouse Suite that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months, the furniture was worn out, the lamps shades were all askew, there were no amenities (not that I go there for that) but it's the little things that really stood out for me. The little things made me take a hard look at the bigger picture and I realized I'm just throwing good money after bad and it was time to walk away. I can stay at a very nice hotel for the price that TMC costs me every year which is now up to $3,400+. I actually felt like I was staying in a dirty hotel room that thousands of other people had slept in, bathed in, and had no respect for what I thought was supposed to be an investment. I would support taking this to whoever will listen so count me in!

I am very frustrated as many of you are.

I've read your messages and I am going to be in touch with Mr. Wasser.

I paid $$42,000 for my unit...YES...$42,000! I have a 1 bedroom, 2 bath unit.

I too was told that they would buy back the unit if I wanted to sell it! When I called them, they told me that they weren't buying any units back any longer.

It's very frustrating to have to call so far in advance to use something you paid for. The maintenance fees are at a point where they're so high for 1 week stay, that I could stay in another hotel with the amount of the maintenance fee...! I've listed my unit almost 2 years ago and not even one bite. Not even for 1/2 of what I paid for it.! I feel like I was really taken with false promises. Last year the unit was old looking and worn.Where is all that money going to that we all pay?

Here is the contradiction. Those who stopped paying to do not reserve usage which means there are more rooms available to cover the no-payment bills. MC was and is aggressively renting to the public. So, where is that idea about losses coming from? Or MC does not want to tell which pocket the rentals money go to?

@ johnc300: my fees were raised in my second year of ownership (2008 or 2009) at 80%. Number of the delinquent members was next to zero at that time. What was a forecast model back then?

beckyf76 wrote:

Yes, yes, yes!!! I think this should be brought to the attention to WORLD because we've all been lied to, deceived, and taken advantage of. I would hope that no one else falls for the lies and misrepresentation that I know I received when I paid $60K cash for my Penthouse Suite. I was told that only owners could stay there, I was assured that maintenance fees would remain the same or slight increases may occur depending on the renovations and upgrades that are done to the TMC, and much, much more enticing information regarding my "opportunity" to own a piece of Manhattan. It was all a bunch of baloney. The last time I stayed at TMC I had to fight to get a room, and when I did, they put me in a Penthouse Suite that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months, the furniture was worn out, the lamps shades were all askew, there were no amenities (not that I go there for that) but it's the little things that really stood out for me. The little things made me take a hard look at the bigger picture and I realized I'm just throwing good money after bad and it was time to walk away. I can stay at a very nice hotel for the price that TMC costs me every year which is now up to $3,400+. I actually felt like I was staying in a dirty hotel room that thousands of other people had slept in, bathed in, and had no respect for what I thought was supposed to be an investment. I would support taking this to whoever will listen so count me in!

Same happened to me. The last time I stayed at MC I got a filthy and outdated unit. Just wondering what the owners of that "deeded" unit would feel. On another hand I had never seen or stayed at my purchased unit and have no clue how it looks like.

For owners who are not aware of these videos/podcasts about the Manhattan Club here are the links. Timesharing Today has been keeping up on the legal issues, status, and reporting using Youtube. Here are several of the TMC relevant ones. These include reports from Attorneys involved, and Redweek's Jeff Weir. Also discovered a video from Eichner about the beginnings of TMC.

TSToday Radio - AUGUST 20, 2015 https://youtu.be/6N1Of2mKLC0

TST Around the Industry - The Manhattan Club https://youtu.be/9N78pPGIs9Y

TSToday Radio - JUNE 6, 2016 https://youtu.be/i0leUBpTaKg

The Manhattan Club - back story https://youtu.be/WQex3bDJEdM

The real issue is MC has no legal rights to advance offerings to public rentals because there is no such a provision in the Offering Plan nor in the Purchase Agreement. Provision states that units might be rented only if rooms were not reserved by owners. Public reservations could be accomplished not earlier than 48 hours prior to reservations, not like MC is offering rooms to public all year round in advance via travel websites.

Here is the quote from my Offering Plan section "Reservation and Occupancy Confirmation Procedures", pp. 93-95 (check your Offering Plans!): "Use periods which remain unreserved 48 hours to the first night thereof may be offered to rent by the Management Company to the general public".

On the top of the illegalities, that have been practiced by MC, another provision stated that owners should be served on a "first come first served basis" which means if rooms available on travel websites and /or MC website when owner calls MC to make a reservation, that owner supposed to be a "first come" and should be served first.

Obviously, MC has breached a contract.

fibon wrote:

laurah136 wrote:

Those who are not paying their fees are harming those who do. However, I'm sure units are being rented out which should help the bottom line. I do not believe anyone is excused from their financial obligations unless it's done legally. So far that hasn't happened.

Well, it could be formulated vice versa: those who have pleasures for usage and those who got easy reservations via travel sites did harm those owners who were denied. The bottom line TMC was cheating with reservations for over 10 years or since the times it is known to me. Another bottom line is TMC has never provided truthful information and income on public reservations therefore everyone was harmed.

Hi,

I am an owner at MC, and like all others hate it and am trying to get out of it. How do I sign on to any of these lawsuits? Can I contact the AG's office and sign on as part of the case?

I appreciate any direction in this matter. As you all are in the same boat, we bought this (yes stupidly) believing this would be a relaxing part of our lives and instead has become a part of our stress.

Hope we can all get out of this.

J