Playa Del Sol Club
Demanding additonal special assessment fees on top of annual maintenance fees

My husband and I purchased a timeshare with Playa Del Sol Grand in Puerto Vallarta in Nov. Of 2003 before it was completed for occupation. Even though we never did return to that resort, we did offer the unit to friends and also traded it for other locations as is offered with the program. The annual maintenance fee at that time was $269.00
As expected the annual miantenance fee has continued to climb every year since original purchase. Fees for 2010 were $386.00 and are expected to go up another 10% for 2011.
In June we received, via email, a 2010 Extraordinary Fee/Special Assessment statement demanding an additonal $348.00 to cover the renovation costs in various Playa Del Sol Club resorts. It is stated in the cover letter that, even though they have never before excercised this provision, they are requiring members to pay a reasonable and critically important "Extraordinary Fee" to help them recover from a most difficult year for any organization in the travel industry.
I immediatley contacted them via email and inquired about the consequences if the additonal fees were not paid and where it is stated in our Membership Purchase Agreement and Club Regulation that an Extraordinary Fee could be assessed. I expressed my opinion that the explanation for the additonal fees were unreasonable, unacceptable and how dissatisfied I am with the handling of the request.
I did not get a response from them until early Aug, 2 months after my original inquiry. Their response to where in our purchase agreement it addresses the Extraordinary Fee option was "Within your contract there is no specific part that refers to Extraordinary Fee/Special Assessment, however there is a place in your contract which explains that the Internal Bylaws can be changed by Playa Del Sol without notice. Those Bylaws have been changed since you purchased. You can now view the updated rules and regulations on our website".
Once again I expressed my opinion that the explanation is unacceptable. I've been told that if the addional fees are not paid we will not be able to use the account in any way until they are paid and that it is unclear as of yet if they will be assessing late fees for the special assessment.
We have decided to cut our losses and not pay the outrageous additional fee to help them recover from a bad economy, which is what I feel is the real reason for the request. That was not the original deal. We truly regret ever getting involved in a timeshare program and would encourage any dissatisfied timeshare owner to share their nightmare.

Company: Playa Del Sol Club
Country: USA
Phone: 8668675292
Site: playadelsolpv.com

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