Powhatan Owners Meeting Saturday, 2Dec06

[Spence]

I got my notice yesterday. Was a little surprised that they had outsourced the notification/proxy business. They must have a quorum to conduct business but for the present, your proxy means nothing other than meeting the quorum, there are no votes cast. So it is important that people send them in because it costs the HOA(us) more if they have to do another mailing because they didn't get a quorum for the annual meeting. A few years back, prior to going to my first Powhatan annual meeting I collected scads of proxies only to find that there was no voting. So please just send your proxy in.

Sunterra is still in control of the BOD-Board of Directors, there are five seats and Sunterra people occupy three of them. The other two people were selected by Sunterra but are owners who are independent of the company.

For many years Powhatan has exisited with no ongoing building program, why? Well, my understanding is that Virginia laws dictate that the project be turned over to an owner controlled HOA-HomeOwner Association when the project is 90% complete. The prior developer and then Sunterra never finished the planned/zoned number of units, stopping at less than 90% of zoned limits, so they have never turned over control. Pressures mounted and the remaining 10 or 11% are being constructed and supposedly owner control is coming.....

Sunterra no longer sells deeded property. They sell membership/points in a 'Trust' backed by deeded property held by a Trustee. The Sunterra Trust includes property at Powhatan and Greensprings and 17 or so other Sunterra properties. The new construction at Powhatan will be in the Trust.

Sunterra is actively buying all foreclosed property at Powhatan. Paying for the legal proceedings and paying for the maintenance fees, out of the goodness of their heart. My understanding is that Powhatan will now take deed-backs, saving the need for foreclosure, and Sunterra is taking all those, whether the HOA gets anything, I don't know. So what is Sunterra doing with all these unwanted weeks? They meld them into the Trust and can then sell the points as 'new.' WOW! My question is, why don't they swoop up all the off season/shoulder season weeks that go for nothing on eBay?

So Sunterra is supposedly going to turn control of the HOA to the owners. Do you know how fractured a set of owners it is? 51 or 52 owners for each unit times the number of units. Sunterra now holds the proxy vote for the new construction 10% through the(ir) Trustee and for God knows how many units they are collecting through foreclosures and deed-backs. This is going to form a voting block that will be hard to match and the owners of the Trust membership/points have no say in what the Trustee does.

Maintenance fees are up 7.18% to $835.25 for a C/D unit. New construction is called a C/D 'Deluxe' unit and has higher maintenance fees of $866.50 maybe to pay for Plasma big screens or something, I don't see where any person would ever be confronted with the $866.50 for the new construction 10% because that property will be in the Trust and the owner would pay the melded maintenance fees of the Trust depending on the share of ownership (points) that they buy.

C/D new construction Deluxe units will have a higher points value per unit for those wanting to book. Building 84 the burned out building is, by my understanding, being rebuilt to the specs of the new contruction. Old owners I guess will now own 'Deluxe' units with Deluxe maintenance fees, so I guess there will be people confronted with the $866.50. Good question. I guess Bldg84 will also be valued at more points now.

While I'm not collecting proxies because it has no meaning. I do encourage owners to send them in and to respond to this thread with your questions and concerns as I am planning on going to the meeting.

[Andi]

Spence:

I own at Powhatan and have been paying a $200 reserve fee added on to the maintenance fee for a number of years and was under the impression that this was only to be for a couple of years supposedly to bring the resort rating back up but have not seen any evidence that it is improving. I can see no benefit for the resplendishing the reserve. Do you know anything about the reserve fee and how long we will be saddled with it.

Andi

[Spence]

A reserve fee is a 'normal' componenet of a maintenance fee, in addition to the regular operating costs that go to pay salaries, taxes, insurance, repairs, etc. they collect money in advance for refurbishment that can be expected to happen every 5 years or so. This is supposed to 'even out' payments and obviate the need for special assessments if projected correctly.

[Spence]

OK, I'm here at Powhatan in a newly refurbished upstairs 2BR. Annual meeting is tomorrow, last chance for any questions or concerns.

[pedro47]

Are you going to the Greensprings meeting next week?

[Spence]

Originally Posted by pedro47

Are you going to the Greensprings meeting next week?

Haven't decided yet.

[swift]

How are things going after the fire?

[Spence]

More info here.

[Spence]

Originally Posted by swift

How are things going after the fire?

More info here.

[pedro47]

Good report Spence