In response to the outrage expressed by owners regarding the assessment for water intrusion issues at The Point at Poipu, Kauai, a Diamond Resorts International (DRI) representative issued the following statement:
“Diamond Resorts does not buy back properties or points nor do we release owners from their financial obligations in the form of a voluntary surrender. You may have seen postings online which states we do, however the voluntary surrender program ended on (or around July 1, 2011). As this program was not a requirement of Diamond Resorts, there were no efforts made to inform our members/owners that this program was ending.
As a result of our recent article concerning this issue at the Point at Poipu, Kaui, a Diamond Resort, Advantage Vacation has received a wide range of comments and complaints from owners on our blog. Following you will find a sample of what is being said about this extremely high assessment:
“This an example of gross mismanagement and fraud by Diamond Resorts”
“Exhibit “C” contains the threats of what Diamond intends to do to any owner who is late in paying these outrageous fees. After 2/15/2012 account submitted to collections and additional fees imposed.
After 3/15/2012 account sent to an attorney, collection agency, an assessment lien, foreclose on the lien, small claims suit or legal action.” This owner went on to say “I would expect they would try and be apologetic instead of threatening the owners.”
Another owner issued a call to all owners to get involved by saying: “Please call and be heard on this before the meetings in California this week. Call Diamond Resorts customer service not the “help line” or call both. The help line person was terribly unhelpful and rude. I requested written documentation of the original notice for the meeting at which this was assessed as I can’t access this information on diamond’s website. They will ruin tons of folks credit, not make payment arrangements, and repossess most of the fee simple ownership through this process. It is outrageous.”
A relatively new owner had this to say: “I purchased my interval in September of 2010. There was no mention of this issue when considering my purchase. However, in the water intrusion assessment package, it mentions that this has been under investigation for over 3 years. Shouldn’t they have been under an affirmative duty to specifically point out that this is an ongoing issue and there could be a significant assessment that would affect my decision to purchase. This seems to me to be an example of gross negligence on the behalf of Diamond Resorts and their sales staff.”
More comments and accusations of mis-management of Diamond Resorts International (DRI) timeshare from disgruntled owners:
“Water Intrusion Assessment Scam is another name for Improper Maintenance by Diamond Resorts. All the alleged delays for improper maintenance are attrributable to alleged due diligence in seeking reports and filing insurance claims. What A SCAM. Diamond Resorts has now deemed the time shares worthless and created a bottomless pit to assess maintenance fee assessments for life on defects they have known about and hidden for years.”
“This is really outrageous. DRI knew about this for years and let it fester. Owners need to organize and get control of the board and management away from DRI. The HOA board has three DRI employees out of five members, an unethical conflict of interest. They want only refuse to obey Hawaii state law that requires them to turn over the membership list to any owner requesting it, making it almost impossible for owners to fight for reform of this badly mismanaged resort.”
One owner had a question regarding insurance:
“And why aren’t we pursuing the insurance company? These fees are crushing, turning our time of aloha into a stressful burden.”
There is no doubt the owners are dissecting the information they have received and one owner has the following to say:
“I have examined the on-line documents from DRI and am disturbed by the lack of transparency:
1. the minutes of those parts of the meetings relating to reports from experts and choosing the contractor/architect etc. were not disclosed because they were held in Executive Session.
2. the Board now consists of 5 members: 2 of whom are employed by Diamond Resorts. Do they own their own ts interval or are they held by Diamond in their name… and is that acceptable in the document detailing the governance of our complex?
3. why isn’t the reserve fund used for that part of the repairs that would normally be collected for such purposes? Even if they don’t wish to use all of it because of other emergencies, isn’t there any provisions in the governing documents that states how much can be used at one time.
4. i have looked for public reports of recent audits of the reserve fund. I have found references but have not been able to open the documents. Aren’t these of public record?”
The final word goes to this angry owner:
“We still have not received anything from DRI about this issue but know about it because my sister and some friends did. No reasonable notice or warning or any kind of offer to owners to finance this fee at a very low rate. The fee is outrageous as I OWN 2.5 weeks. The maintenance fees have more than doubled since we bought in 2005. They are not telling any potential new purchasers about this issue as my employee was there for her honeymoon in July and they said NOTHING!!!! THIS IS JUST CRIMINAL AND WE ARE NOT PAYING IT! This is mismanagement and misrepresentation of DRI. Basically they are telling us to pay or lose everything. What a way to do business. THANK YOU DRI FOR RUINING MY SON’S HONEYMOON AS HE WAS SUPPOSED TO GO IN JUNE 2012. WE WILL FIND ANOTHER PLACE FOR HIM TO STAY. DRI, YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN. YOU WILL LOSE ON THIS ONE IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!! OWNERS ARE REVOLTING!!!!”
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You ask DRI why they did not make an insurance claim.. They say, we did however, we were denied as the water intrusion was “pre existing.” When this property was purchased was it not inspected? This assessment is absolutely absurd. Just last week while we asking questions during a sales presentation at the Point of Poipu a manager representing DRI sat down at our table with our sales rep and offered to credit our assessment in full if we were to upgrade and buy $10,000 in additional points. Great deal DRI, NOT! DRI you are nothing but a joke!