Of all my correspondence, I have only received confirmation of my emails, and that the matter has been forwarded or it is being reviewed. Danielle Smith (Newstalk 770 Calgary) is the only one that responded.
I am frustrated and find it hard to understand why no one is responding.
My husband and I are also victims of the Northmont/Sunchaser Timeshare saga.
We purchased a resale Vacation Villa Lease at a cost of $7800.00 for a one week annual Vacation Lease with 34 years remaining in the contract. We enjoyed the use of our Vacation Interest until 2013 when we were presented with the Freedom to Choose, Reason to Stay Program.
First I would like point out that the package did not come Registered Mail as it should have considering the sensitive contents and because of the imposed tight timelines to make a decision on this very significant proposal. We were on vacation when this package came in the mail and because of that faced some very short timelines to come to an informed decision.
I first called the Resort about my concerns for a 40 MILLION Renovation project that in my opinion wasn’t justified based on the information provided. We also questioned that we as lessees would be responsible for capital expenditures. We have no ownership, we get one week of vacation time per year that we were paying a generous maintenance fee per year to cover upkeep, maintenance of the property. Yet they wanted $4200 from us in a Renovation Maintenance Fee. There was no Town Hall Meetings, no presentation as they had held for other past programs as Platinum Club, RCI Conversion Program, Legacy for Life Program. Just choose your option and pay up! When I further questioned the validity of the RENOVATION PROJECT FEE (RPF) it was quickly suggested that we could pay to go. PAY to go when I saw my T.S as an asset then and was enjoying the benefits with our children and 2 young grandchildren. Why would I want to pay to go. Their suggestion sounded preposterous.
I had a clause in my contract (13) that stated” in the event of default of any payment required under this lease and in the event default of payment was not remedied within 16 months, the lessee shall be deemed to have offered to sell the leasehold interest to the Lessor’ based on a certain formula. In that clause 13 there is a second paragraph that states “IF the LESSOR ACCEPTS” and the response was they were not interested in taking back my lease. Actually over time I offered on 2-3 occasion to give them my lease at no cost to them and they refused. Slowly dawned that it was considered by Northmont as a liability and not an asset.
When I specifically asked if this would be a “one time special assessment” the response I received is that they cannot guarantee that. I was under the impression the staff had a script to respond to inquiries/concerns and it was my impression from the conversation, they were pushing for the cancel option. Something seemed very wrong with this situation and I decided to make some calls. I called Service Alberta, Service Canada, RCMP and was told not to pay until we obtained legal counsel.
So began our search and we found a social media site where other Sunchaser clients were banding together in their quest for legal counsel. We originally contacted Klym Docken but we were told they were no longer taking new clients and we were referred to Geldert Law.
This was our first Litigation Experience.
We can only say the experience has been a nightmare!
Our original intention in pursuing litigation was because we questioned the validity of the RPF and wanted an interpretation of our contractual obligations. Did they have the right to instill a Cancellation Agreement and did they have the right to charge the RPF based on our contract. It is my understanding there are approximately 6-7 different contracts since the inception / history of this Resort. Seeking Legal counsel was suggested by Northmont during our discussions about the “new program” and seeing no way out of this dilemma we decided to exercise our right to legal counsel.
It has been a stressful and long running legal battle (4+ years).
Fast Forward to October 2017:
After significant litigation involving Northmont and the Geldert Group, we are defeated. They won, we lost! While we recognize our legal representation made grave errors in their trial strategies which is pointed out in the court summaries, we accept we put blind faith in our lawyer to make decisions in our best interests. The judgment was not in our favor but how the group came to an offer of a“ Negotiated Settlement” is very difficult to conceive and to accept. We were told by our lawyer that he would negotiate the terms for a settlement
but he would not sign off on an agreement until he brought it back to the group for input. Upon getting this assurance from our lawyer, we selected Option 1 giving him what we thought was just direction to proceed with negotiating. Our lawyer disregarded his promise and signed off on an agreement which we are told is legally binding.
It is nothing but punitive and vindictive actions we see with the super inflation of the interest on the Invoices and the now Negotiated Settlement that we had no input into. 26.8% compounded interest!! How is this reasonable??
We are old we must settle at a cost of over $20,000.. the RPF, 4 years of outstanding maintenance at 26.8% interest and 20% exit fee on top of that for the total above. We discontinued paying the maintenance fees on the advice of our lawyer because we were not allowed to use the resort while we remained “delinquent” members.
What cost us $7800.00 to purchase, we are now paying over $20,000.00 to walk away. Many of the Timeshare owners are seniors. You cannot imagine the emotional, mental, physical and now financial stress this has had on us and thousands of people who were only fighting something that did not seem right. We have endured many sleepless nights on what seems such an injustice, how to come up with the money to pay this. We have experienced anxieties resulting in chest pains, fatigue, lethargy. It is indescribable how this has consumed our lives since we were told both parties were meeting to negotiate a settlement. The hardships this will result for so many families is heartbreaking. You read about it on the media sites and for me it always comes down to, why is this happening again in Canada. Where is the consumer protection, why is no one reacting to this injustice!! How did we come to this crossroads??. Our inexperience in litigation played a part in it, in hindsight we admit to placing blind faith in our legal representation to provide effective counsel, to keep us well informed through updates and help us with critical decisions. We faced a very experienced and crafty opponent who played the game well. Our lawyer was not a match for theirs.
We are making arrangements to pay this settlement as other legal opinion is we pay this and get released as we cannot consider the threat of 162% of our 2017 invoice which would mean they could extort $34,000 from us if we do not accept the settlement offer. We are indeed defeated in what appears to be a well orchestrated scam to extort millions from the timeshare owners. With the accruing interest rates we can no longer afford to fight the fight. I can no longer afford to fight because of my principles. Our legal representation indicate this the best settlement we will get. BEST?? It is hard to accept. We consider ourselves fortunate that we do not have to get a loan or get a second mortgage, but we will need to use our retirement savings. As seniors who depend on this to see us through our remaining years, it is very hard to take, but we need to end this to save our mental health and our marriage. You see my husband wanted to pay to get out back in 2013 and I didn’t. I told him it was the principle of the matter, that it wasn’t right and now I am paying big time in many ways for my principles. Not only did we loose our paid in full timeshare but we also lost our dreams of future pre-paid holidays with our kids and grandchildren, the wonderful holidays
we had at Fairmont and now $24,000 of our hard earned money. We were always members in good standing with the Resort until 2013.
We now must remain anonymous in sending the story of our experience for fear/threat of a gag order that we are trying to understand if it applies now or when the Settlement Agreement is signed.
The
information contained in this blog/video is accurate to the best of my
knowledge at the time of posting. I reserve the right to make changes as
new information becomes available.
Any and all information I
share is for informational purposes only, not legal advice, as I am not a
lawyer, just a lay person sharing information.
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