Carl:

I don't want to insult you with my response, but your proposal to issue bonds to pay maintenance fees for people who "say" they can't pay is not a sound idea. I don't want to sound unsymapthic for people facing fananical difficulties, but if they can't pay their maintenance fees, they also can't afford to vacation on Sanibel. Sanibel is not a "cheap" place to visit, everything a person buys on Sanibel is more expensive than off the island and it costs $6.00 to drive to the mainland.

Would the administrators of the fund be expected to require a financial statement from those who claim they can't pay, before giving them Carte Blanc? Would they also be expected to give them money for food? If so, would they require that they eat in house for every meal or would they also pay for meals at the most expensive restaurants on the Island?

It is unfortunate that in today's society, too many people feel that someone else, the government, corporations, other people, etc. have the obligation to support them in a life style they can not afford. Maybe that works in Denmark, but as far as I am concerned it doesn't work in Kansas, the United States or on Sanibel Island.

Lynn Perkins

Right on Lynn!! I almost fell out of my chair when i read that convoluted stuff. It really doesn't work in europe either.

I must agree with Lynn that there are many scams around, and people should be careful not to fall for them. They come up with some very convincing sales patter, and unfortunately some people do fall for it. I have heard of a number of instances where people have paid money to these firms, and then shortly afterwards have found that the firms have gone bust. They are constantly opening and closing.

Why would you want to give your unit for nothing to a firm which is going to rent it out. You could rent it out yourself and receive the money, which should cover the cost of the maintenance. There is a danger that after giving the unit away, you would still receive maintenance bills (as they do not notify the resort of any sale) plus you won't see your unit again.

There is now legislation in Europe to clamp down on these scam firms, which is due to come into effect soon.

I fully understand where you are all going!
I better restate my questions, we are on the wrong track, as we say in the railroads!
I have no references to paying maintenance fees for other owners in need.
I wish to protect the net worth of our association by not allowing time share gougers to take advantage of our owners in need!
Let us (the association) keep the units for free,
then repay missing fees by renting them or selling them when prices go up.
If units sell for less than $1,500 a week, our common fund should purchase them, not let the out side competition take them over.
Think about our many units acquired from our owners for non payment and sold by auction by our association with bills into 10's of thousands paid by our owners to our own management association for legal and 45% commission fees that could have been listed for nothing in our own sales listings?
If owners wish to give their units away, give them to our association!
They can rent them and pay the fees with the rent year after year if they do not sell them at a profit and pay it to the association.
The suggested "Fond" would be a tool available to pick up cheaper than normal units and milk them with an annual rental income.
Our net worth would be larger with the amount of units we acquire, and future growth (which should be a natural) will cover the growth our our common "Fond". We will not be saturated with non rented units!
If maintenance fees go higher than $1,000 a week, we can forget about owners buying out of season units.
If our maintenance fees keep going up uninterrupted as they have been year after year it would be a natural for us to study where we are going wrong.

Our present budget is not transparent, as they say "It is as thick as mud"
We can't tell how the Fees are distributed, who are checks made out to? and can't tell what stays home, who gets what on site, and what goes outside of West Gulf Drive, to Periwinkle Way and what goes to Fort Myers and how much to Orlando for using the Hilton name? Hospitality told me years ago it was more than $100,000 to Orlando that we could save using Hospitality as Managers on site.
Our low season owners need some attention by the board
in order for them not to start a fire sale!
If I knew that low cost units would NOT be given away but placed in trust in our OWN association, as a value to the association, we would at least not go broke!

I still do not know what we are spending to use the pools? How can we justify 100's of $$$ to clean our units once a week? I do not see that many cleaners around on Fridays! What are we paying Hospitality to handle out keys once a week?
Boards back in time could tell you how much we spent weekly for weekly linen and soap supplies for each unit!
Did I make my questions too long?

Public replay to Carl:

You have rasied many issues and I am only going to address a few.

First, we have had very few cases, if any where the delinquent fees have approched $10,000.00. We have a couple, one in bankruptcy and another in an estate that are far above the usual delinquency amount, but they are being resolved.

When we sell accociation acquired units through our closed bid auctions, we incur no sales costs. When we sell the acquired units through HGVC Realty, their commission is 25% and we get a discounted rate from them.

Our delinquency rate is very low, below 5%, and is not a major problem for the association. It is not uncommon is lose a few dollars on sales of units in weeks in the high 20's and all the 30's, but we usually make money on all the other weeks. All in all, I think we gain a few dollars on foreclosure sale.

Our main objective is to get new or existing owners to buy the delinquent weeks. Our association is not in the rental business and we welcome those who wish to add to the presently owned weeks.

As a Board, we are always sorry when we have to increase maintenance fees, but look around at your other expenses. Do they go up or down? Our Board is in the same economical situation with the economy in general, our costs go up and we have no other way to cope with it.

Lynn L Perkins