Letter from Ocean Walk Resort Condominium Association, Inc RE: 2024 Maintenance Fees

[Bob & Mary]

Fellow Ocean Walk Owners,

Have you read the recent letter from the Ocean Walk Resort Condominium Association, Inc.? I found it confusing and less than helpful. Apparently, the monthly maintenance fees are increasing over 1000%. Yes, that is more than a ONE THOUSAND PERCENT monthly increase.

In 2023, our monthly maintenance fee for our 105K points was about $64. ($699.30 Annual HOA Fee + $69.30 Wyndham Program Fee = Annual $768.60 Total. Divided by 12 = $64.05/monthly cost)

Now for 2024, the association "informs" us that the Timeshare Units' monthly maintenance fees will range from $718.96 to $1,923.16 PER MONTH. That is outrageous.

So assuming I have read this correctly, what do we do about this???
Regards,
Bob

 

[Ken555]

Is this a timeshare or a fully owned condo? I assume a condo… and if so, I suggest you ask for copies of the reserve study from the last three years. From that you should be able to determine if the board has performed well or not. The simplistic reserve items listed in this letter is incomplete - you need the reserve study created by a third party professional, which I am assuming is required by law in your state (it is in mine).

As for insurance costs, well… either your association has been woefully underinsured for years and only now rectifying that mistake, or something else is going on. We all know insurance has increased considerably, but not by the % you see in this letter.


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[paxsarah]

I don't think you can read it that way. As I understand it, this is only the HOA that oversees the common areas (EDIT: and this post is where I learned that), and the budget included herein only pertains to that. It doesn't include the HOAs pertaining specifically to the timeshare owners or the whole condo owners. Nothing here is broken down by cost per 1,000 points, and as best I can tell, the only indication here of what will happen to your actual maintenance fees is that there's been about a 42% increase in the portion of timeshare maintenance fees that goes towards the common areas/facilities. (Which I got by dividing $613,423 into $1,474,593, from the timeshare income line of the operating budget.) What this doesn't tell you is what the increase will be in the portion of your maintenance fees that goes toward timeshare unit maintenance, nor how much of your maintenance fees proportionally go towards each of those categories. So there's no way from this letter to break it out in $ per 1,000 points.

Will you see a significant increase? I think almost certainly yes. But you don't know by how much yet, at least not from this letter. Which was poorly communicated and I'm sure leaves the vast majority of timeshare owners confused.

 

[TUGBrian]

insurance line item went up 745,000 FOR THE YEAR!

florida has opened pandoras box with insurance costs and the new laws on reserve funding/etc.

 

[TUGBrian]

based on the proposed budget the total mf collected is only rising 1.2m for 2024. (from 3.3m to 4.5m) and as mentioned above 750k of that is only for the insurance premium increase.

while still a staggering increase for a single year, certainly not 1000%

 

[Bob & Mary]

I don't think you can read it that way. As I understand it, this is only the HOA that oversees the common areas, and the budget included herein only pertains to that. It doesn't include the HOAs pertaining specifically to the timeshare owners or the whole condo owners. Nothing here is broken down by cost per 1,000 points, and as best I can tell, the only indication here of what will happen to your actual maintenance fees is that there's been about a 42% increase in the portion of timeshare maintenance fees that goes towards the common areas/facilities. (Which I got by dividing $613,423 into $1,474,593, from the timeshare income line of the operating budget.) What this doesn't tell you is what the increase will be in the portion of your maintenance fees that goes toward timeshare unit maintenance, nor how much of your maintenance fees proportionally go towards each of those categories. So there's no way from this letter to break it out in $ per 1,000 points.

Will you see a significant increase? I think almost certainly yes. But you don't know by how much yet, at least not from this letter. Which was poorly communicated and I'm sure leaves the vast majority of timeshare owners confused.

Is this a timeshare or a fully owned condo? I assume a condo… and if so, I suggest you ask for copies of the reserve study from the last three years. From that you should be able to determine if the board has performed well or not. The simplistic reserve items listed in this letter is incomplete - you need the reserve study created by a third party professional, which I am assuming is required by law in your state (it is in mine).

As for insurance costs, well… either your association has been woefully underinsured for years and only now rectifying that mistake, or something else is going on. We all know insurance has increased considerably, but not by the % you see in this letter.


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PaxSarah & Ken555, yes, it is a timeshare. We own 105K points there. The letter is less than complete or clear. I've called and left a VM with the Business Manager. I am awaiting his return call, More to follow... THANKS!

 

[Bob & Mary]

An Update: I spoke with Steven Coleman, OWRCA Business Manager. He told me the lawyers required the association to send this letter to all owners even though it normally would not be sent to timeshare owners. These costs are what Wyndham is being charged per unit. Wyndham then does their calculations and passes on the costs to us. Coleman recognizes that the letter was incomplete and confusing.

The bottom line is that Ocean Walk Timeshare owners MAY BE looking at "only" a 40% increase in monthly maintenance fees. (I really feel bad for those fixed-income full time owners living in the South Tower!)
Thanks,
Bob

 

[dioxide45]

Is this a timeshare or a fully owned condo? I assume a condo…

It's both. There are timeshare units and whole ownership condo units at OceanWalk.

 

[Ken555]

It's both. There are timeshare units and whole ownership condo units at OceanWalk.

Then my advice stands. Get a copy of the reserve studies, and the board minutes for each meeting over the last three years.


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[jules54]

I also received this letter. Hubby rarely reads anything timeshare related, but this happens to be the letter he reads. He was WTH and explained it was for full time owners. I understand maintenance fees will go up for timeshare owners also, it would take me all day to explain the system to him.

My question is who is composing these letters and what is their position? It seems to be industry wide because Capital sent out a maintenance fees and special assessment letter that is just as confusing.

 

[nkldavy]

Insurance rates will be five times higher than two years ago ... largely due to the hurricanes of the past few years and insurance companies leaving Florida. And because of law(s) passed by Florida in the wake of the Surfside Condo collapse in Miami area a couple of years ago, a second Reserve fund is now required that will be used for periodic structural examinations and repairs if needed. Funds cannot be transferred out of this account for other uses.

 

[Bob & Mary]

I also received this letter. Hubby rarely reads anything timeshare related, but this happens to be the letter he reads. He was WTH and explained it was for full time owners. I understand maintenance fees will go up for timeshare owners also, it would take me all day to explain the system to him.

My question is who is composing these letters and what is their position? It seems to be industry wide because Capital sent out a maintenance fees and special assessment letter that is just as confusing.

In this case, a poorly trained managers who lacks writing skills. On the phone he was easy to understand and explained it well.

 

[Bob & Mary]

Insurance rates will be five times higher than two years ago ... largely due to the hurricanes of the past few years and insurance companies leaving Florida. And because of law(s) passed by Florida in the wake of the Surfside Condo collapse in Miami area a couple of years ago, a second Reserve fund is now required that will be used for periodic structural examinations and repairs if needed. Funds cannot be transferred out of this account for other uses.

No doubt. One catastrophe is all it takes…