Sticker Shock-a surprise charge for renovation!

I own at Vistana Fountains in Orlando. I have a maintance fee that will be due in December for $698. I've been hearing for some time that the section my unit is in will be doing a "makeover" soon. Imagine my surprise when I received a notice in the mail today saying I will be billed an additional $1144.77 payable in 2 payments (Dec and April). At least they also explained why I wasn't asked to voice my opinion or vote on this refurbishment! BTW-I've actually seen resale units for not much more than this)

No real questions from me for you guys. I'm just wondering how you would feel if this happened to you. I guess I'm legally obligated & don't have any real options. I just hope if I'm able to sell it in the next year to at least get back the $1843 it's gonna cost me in the next few months.

It's happened to us. This is one reason we sold all of our timeshares ... special assessments along with yearly rising maintenance fees and rising exchange company fees. We paid the special assessment then sold that week along with the others that we owned (before another special assessment came along). We now rent with no ownership obligations, however we're flexible and can travel anytime. That's not the case with many people as they can travel only at certain times, especially those with school age children.

monte12 wrote:

I own at Vistana Fountains in Orlando. I have a maintance fee that will be due in December for $698. I've been hearing for some time that the section my unit is in will be doing a "makeover" soon. Imagine my surprise when I received a notice in the mail today saying I will be billed an additional $1144.77 payable in 2 payments (Dec and April). At least they also explained why I wasn't asked to voice my opinion or vote on this refurbishment! BTW-I've actually seen resale units for not much more than this)

No real questions from me for you guys. I'm just wondering how you would feel if this happened to you. I guess I'm legally obligated & don't have any real options. I just hope if I'm able to sell it in the next year to at least get back the $1843 it's gonna cost me in the next few months.

"Special Assessments" are indeed the unwelcome poison of timeshare ownership. In the aftermath of coastal hurricane damage, with resort insurance policies sometimes having a "million dollar deductible" (literally), it's at least understandable --- it's a recovery cost from a natural disaster. In other instances (maybe like yours), it's a lot harder to accept. There has been no hurricane, no disaster --- just inadequate financial "reserves", maybe also incompetent facility management. In either case it's a tough pill to swallow, because you never really "recoup" those special assessments in any later sale. It's likely not much consolation to you, but many others (certainly including me) have "been there, done that" --- and no one has ever enjoyed it.....

I think we'll be doing as JayJay did-pay it & sell it. Interesting in that the assessment is for new furnishings, carpet & paint. All things that I understood would be covered by the reserve portion of our maintance fees. Now they've decided to do the entire section of the resort and they're using roughly $2Mil of reserve and raising about $14 Mil thru the special assessment. Looks to me like they either squandered the reserves or they're just not using it I can only wonder if they're incompetent or might have found a creative way to pad their incomes :(