Many of the Point at Poipu timeshare resort owners have formed an owners organization to share information and to educate other time share owners at The Point at Poipu Diamond Resorts. The current issue regarding the water intrusion assessment has a lot of owners concerned about the management, or mis-management, of the Point at Poipu resort, in addition to other issues.
The owners have posted an article on their website poipuowners.org in order to share the Ten Hottest Questions being asked. In an effort to assist The Point at Poipu timeshare owners that may not be aware of the website article, Advantage Vacation is posting the article in two parts.
The article is written in a question and response style. The first five questions and answers follow:
Question 1: Are you a deeded owner at The Point at Poipu?
Response: If the answer is yes, move directly to question 2.
If you are not a deeded owner at The Point at Poipu you most likely belong to the Diamond Resorts International (DRI) Hawaiian Collection (HC) or other DRI trust. Or you are visiting the Point at Poipu on an exchange and thus have no voting privileges pertaining to The Point at Poipu Association.
Question 2: Are you concerned that DRI has 60% control (3 of 5 members) of both VOA/AOAO Board of Directors (BOD’s), but has a disproportionate ownership (approximately 10%) of the property?
Response: Having 3 DRI employees on the BOD is a conflict of interest. They can make decisions that favor themselves, not necessarily the interests of the deeded owners. They are in total control of the destiny of The Point at Poipu; for instance, should deeded owners wish to seek bids from other property management companies, the DRI controlled Board can AND HAS, prevented this from happening. Under current conditions, deeded owners will never have the opportunity to request and receive competitive bids. In addition, DRI can raise maintenance fees up to 20% at their discretion.
Question 3: Are you concerned that DRI will not release the list of deeded owners despite multiple requests to management for this list?
Response: The AOAO By-laws and Hawaiian law states that the list of deeded owners must be released upon request. The significance of the availability of the owners list cannot be overstated. If DRI alone has access to the owners list, they can control proxies as well as all dissemination of business matters to the deeded owners, thus influencing the outcome of the BOD election. DRI has failed to release a deeded list despite a recent Hawaii court decision where Maui Circuit Court Judge August ordered the management company to give a list to time share owners. Without the deeded list, owners are unable to communicate in an organized fashion to support or challenge DRI practices. Obtaining a deeded owners list is the essential first step for owners to regain control of the BOD.
Question 4: Are you concerned that numerous letters and complaints and inquiries to management and the legal department of DRI have gone unanswered or have been answered unsatisfactorily and with prolonged delays without notification?
Response: One particular DRI employee indicated that many of these complaints are misunderstandings and fabrications of the truth. In response to this claim, DRI has been asked to release a public statement addressing the identified concerns of deeded owners. They have not complied and apparently have no intention to do so. In addition, it appears that DRI is making a deliberate attempt to keep us uninformed by not scheduling weekly owners’ meetings nor publishing a timely newsletter reporting association matters, both of which were done in the past.
Question 5: Are you concerned that DRI, through the DRI Board of Directors, voted themselves a $1.6 million (approximately $170 per deeded week per year) pure profit administrative fee from an annual $15,000,000 budget for managing The Point at Poipu? In addition, are you also concerned that DRI collects profits (fees) from all other aspects of their management; i.e. reservations and many other services?
Response: This pure profit administrative fee seems completely out of line and we can find no other management company that does this. Requests have been asked of DRI to validate their reasons but they have not done so. Other management companies stated they could manage The Point at Poipu for an approximate profit of $500,000. This is significantly less than what we are now paying.
The remaining five questions and the response to each will be posted tomorrow, Friday, October 28, 2011.
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