Warning/Issue with RCI banking with HICV for formerly Silverleaf Owners

[sdhakala7]

I know that I should have verified it or spotted it before (especially since I have made exchanges in my RCI account since) but last year (October/November 2017) I spacebanked with RCI my Silverleaf Timeshare using the owner's portal for Silverleaf owners. Checking my RCI account recently, I found that the week was never properly banked with RCI! Worse yet, HICV never sent me an e-mail (we checked!) or mail informing me of the status of our week and asking us how we planned to use it, which was always done when Silverleaf owned the resort. I called HICV; the person I spoke with admitted that the online owner's portal is still left up but that the online spacebank requests were ignored in 2017. Furthermore, the person I spoke with told me that they no longer send mail to inform the owners of available weeks, asking them how they wish to use their upcoming/available week, and allowing the owners to give notice by mail as to how they planned to use their upcoming week. The person I spoke with from HICV was entirely unapologetic and made no effort to make amends as well.

I am wondering about how one might press a claim for this negligence and change in long-standing policy without notice?

The Silverleaf owner's portal still exists and still purportedly allows a person to request a spacebank for a unit online even today. It has not been removed from the Internet site and no notice is given to owners as to how to properly spacebank with RCI or HICV on that Internet site. But I am now told that the online RCI spacebank requests are not honored and not processed and are ignored since the beginning of 2017. Also, I was told that I now have to call RCI to bank my week and that the resort no long manages that process as was the policy in the past 20+ years I have owned the unit! So, I had to call RCI to register my ownership (to allow me to spacebank online) and arrange to spacebank.

Since HICV has acquired the Silverleaf resorts, there has been a noticeable decline in service accompanied by an noticeable increase in annual maintenance fees. While Silverleaf allowed a discount and benefit for paying the annual fees in advance each year, HICV took a way that benefit. Instead, I have to pay monthly (and they do send monthly payment notices/requests). The increased fees have apparently been used to upgrade and refurbish some units and resorts, but the resorts, like mine at Ozark Mountain-Kimberling City outside of Branson, that were largely sold out and have less activity in ongoing sales and no development have been more neglected and have not seen material increases in value. Past owners that have not converted to HICV points and not purchased additional units or upgraded their ownership have not seen the quality or benefits of increases in management fees. Reflecting this, the initial gain in trade value of my unit after the HICV acquisition has now diminished and been lost (now lower than before on RCI). We also no longer receive an annual report and accounting for how our maintenance fees and used for our benefit (something that began after the original Silverleaf ownership sold the chain some time ago). At this point, it feels like the developer is milking our maintenance fees for profit and development, as opposed to providing actual benefits and services at our resort.

Any advice on how to complain or pursue this issue? I realize that timeshare developers have thick skins and lack ethics (Otherwise, they would not engage in the high pressure and inflated sales tactics and misrepresentations regarding the value of timeshares.), but surely there is some fiduciary responsibility related to annual maintenance fees.

I did buy my unit via resale (quite a cheap price at the time) and have had many years of great usage while our children were growing up from the 1990s for about 20 years, but we no longer use that week and have to spacebank or exchange inhouse in order to realize any value from it.

 

[Jan M.]

I thought that all resorts were required by law to send every owner an annual report. Last year I was considering booking one of the recently acquired resorts and remember reading that HIVC was doing extensive renovations and improvements on several of the Silverleaf resorts they acquired. Hopefully your resort will get its turn soon.

When HIVC acquired the Silverleaf resorts did they notify you that you would need to follow a different procedure and that the Silverleaf website would no longer function as it had in the past? Many of us don't really read all the communications we get, especially those of us who own multiple timeshares. Sometimes the people who handle the calls from the previous system's owners get callous because they are rarely dealing with happy owners. That doesn't mean you don't have a valid complaint and I would try calling back and ask to speak to a supervisor.

Maybe OP who have been through an acquisition will add their two cents worth but from reading here on TUG I've never seen comments from happy owners. And their maintenance fees always seemed to go up.

A good place to start would be to contact the Attorney General for the State of Missouri as that is where your timeshare is located and the one for whichever State HIVC corporate is located.

 

[Jimster]

You can still pay Silverleaf annually but you don’t get a discount for it.

 

[sdhakala7]

I thought that all resorts were required by law to send every owner an annual report. Last year I was considering booking one of the recently acquired resorts and remember reading that HIVC was doing extensive renovations and improvements on several of the Silverleaf resorts they acquired. Hopefully your resort will get its turn soon.

When HIVC acquired the Silverleaf resorts did they notify you that you would need to follow a different procedure and that the Silverleaf website would no longer function as it had in the past? Many of us don't really read all the communications we get, especially those of us who own multiple timeshares. Sometimes the people who handle the calls from the previous system's owners get callous because they are rarely dealing with happy owners. That doesn't mean you don't have a valid complaint and I would try calling back and ask to speak to a supervisor.

Thanks. I thought so too. I may try to see how to contact a supervisor. I do try to read all information. The Silverleaf owners' portal is still up and still usable for some functions, like paying maintenance fees, and even lists past use of my unit. That is how I found out that my unit was "released" this year after I was about to try to spacebank the unit for next year and realized the problem by checking my prior usage and called about it. There is no notice or disclosure on the owners' portal website. The person I spoke with admitted that there is no notice and that they did not send any mail to us either about it; seemed to be someone who has heard the complaint before now. A notice may have been buried in a newsletter but I would ordinarily have noticed it and the person I spoke with could not point to me anywhere where I was given notice. Seems to me that given the fees we pay we are at least owed a courtesy notice in the mail months well before the week expires, which was standard practice until HICV acquired the resort.

No annual report seen in years. I would like to see an accounting for it. I strongly suspect our fees are going up to subsidize the newer upscale units, for profits to management, and for amenities at other resorts. I remember getting an annual report each year back when I first owned and the original Silverleaf co. (which was publicly traded until it ran into a financial problem and went private) owned the resorts system. A true HOA has duties to its members. But Silverleaf has been sold and resold a few times since and the maintenance fees started going up. (They used to promise that the maintenance fees would either not go up or not go up faster than inflation in sales presentations in the 1990s.) The problem with my resort is that I bought a regular 2 bedroom/sleeps 6 unit on resale for use in the 1990s (because we wanted the free lake access); it is further from Branson, more steps and hills, and thus harder to sell; the system has moved to trying to sell nicer Presidential units and upselling owers and has limited in space to develop at my home resort, so they are actively promoting and developing the other destination resorts in the system (including another near Branson). I kind of wish HICV had chosen not to own the resort and agreed to spin if off (as happened with some other Silverleaf resorts); I suspect the owners would do better managing it themselves. (I still love the resort but the kids are now grown and the week conflicts with a summer camp and training work my wife does, so we have switched to banking it, which is not the best way to realize value.) They have reportedly done some work on units and HICV does have a more aggressive maintenance and replacement schedule but the maintenance fees have increased far more than necessary in the past ten years. (I know that we have always been effectively subsidizing amenities at the other resorts like waterparks, indoor pools, golf courses, etc. that our resort does not offer and does not have space for).

 

[sdhakala7]

You can still pay Silverleaf annually but you don’t get a discount for it.

Yup. Not a good deal. It used to be as much as a 10% discount paying in advance.