InnSeason Resorts review: Special Assessment 28

the company is charging a special assessment to all owners of timeshares at the Pollard Brook, Lincoln NH site. Citing financial hardship they then list dozens of items that need to be fixed/changed/upgraded and they want us to pay a special 'one time charge' so that they can raise 1.2m to do this work. i believe that the work regular maintenance and upgrading that should have been planned for instead of charging us - the ordinary timeshare owner, this extra fee.

and there seems to be no two ways about it. the letter states that we either within 30 days pay in full or enter into an agreement for time payments. or our account will be sent to an outside collecton agency and any reservatoin which may have been made will be cancelled.

PLUS the letter arrived 7/10 and was dated 7/1, , that is when the 30 days is supposedly to start.
isn't there any recourse?

I have just received the same letter. It's a shame that they want to pass on this charge to us (even though we are going through the same economic struggles).
You might think that they would have waited to expand construction until they could afford to do so. They had over 1200 intervals unsold and continued to build. My maintenance fees have grown from $225 to $626 over the years.

Do the math, $626 per owner * 52 weeks = $32, 552 for just 1 unit in maintenance fees per year.
That should be more than enough to keep the place in order if they knew how to manage their expenses.

I tried to look up the AG in NH online today, and I see that she is resigning 6/17.
I am not sure that this fee is legal. I guess I need to read the fine print in my deed.

Signed,
Not Happy in RI

I agree that this fee is ridiculous. I have contacted 3 people today, including the Cooperate office [protected]. Even though I did not get anywhere with any of the people I spoke with, I encourage everyone to make a call and dispute them. The more people who do, the better.

This "Special Assessment Fee" is clearly not in the contract that my husband and I signed when we purchased this timeshare. I brought that to their attention today several times and was basically told "It's not my problem, it's yours and look at the bi-laws". For one, I never received any copy of the "bi-laws" nor did I sign anything stating that I would pay a "Special Assessment Fee." I am going to be making a report to the Better Business Bureau today because this is a Contract Dispute. There is no clause in my contract about a "Special Assessment Fee"; therefore, I am not going to pay it.

Please call and dispute this! We have power in numbers!

~Sarah

I looked at my copy of the by-laws. According to our condominium documents, we are not obligated to pay the special assessment as set forth in the letter dated July 1, 2009 (received July 9, 2009).

Title II, By-Laws of the Pollard Brook Unit Owners' Association, Part VI Accounting, Section 5 Special Assessments, states:

a. Each owner is liable for those expenses directly related to his period of occupancy of a condominium unit assigned to him, which shall be billed to him as special assessments.

b. Expenses billable as special assessments include, but are not limited to, the costs of repairing damage done to the condominium unit, equipment, and furnishings during the use period, other than ordinary wear and tear: telephone charges over and above the basic charges; and such other services rendered during the use period at the request of the owner or guest not included as an item in the budget.

Title III, Timeshare Management, Part III Management, Section 5 Special Assessments, states:

Each owner is liable for those expenses directly related to his period of occupancy of a condominium unit assigned to him. These expenses include, but are not limited to, the expense of repairing damage done to the condominium unit, equipment, and furnishings during the use period assigned to him, other than ordinary wear and tear: telephone charges over and above the basic charges; and such other services rendered during the use period at the request of the owner or a guest not included as an item in the budget.

I have attempted several times to reach the board by phone and by email but to no avail. I have contacted the AG's office both in MA (where I live) and in NH but they have advised that I will need to consult a private atty. While I think the BBB is a good idea and I will lodge a complaint, I am not sure where that will get us by the payment deadline. If they follow through with their threat to go to collections for non-payment, perhaps those effected should consider legal action.

I submitted my letter to the BBB tonight. Thank you "$victim$" for your reference to the "Bi-laws"...I did quote them in my complaint to the BBB. I urge everyone to make a complaint regarding this matter--power in numbers!

Hi All - I started a string of discussion regarding this assessment on the TUGBBS.com site. I just heard from someone yesterday who owns an odd week and an even week and he did not receive any such assessment. I did send a letter to the AG's office and have another owner doing the same. Regardless of Ms. Ayotte resigning, the office will respond and continue to function. Using the AG is our best recourse. I agree in all the documents, I do not see where they can charge this fee. It is my belief that they have used PB as a cash cow for the continued development of South Mountain and the RiverWalk projects are now we have to cover their losses. Not on my watch! I have done a ton of research just trying to figure out who Southern Peaks is versus, Inn Seasons Resort, versus Inn SeasonManagement never mind who they all started as Loon Mountain to Mountain Lodge etc. But one thing is for sure, its all been Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran...they very same two who sit on the Board along with their VP. 3 members with a COI and two owner reps? Where is there any objectivity in that? How would "owner" interests every be represented?

I need to gather all of my stuff and send it to the AGs office as well. I don't know if the BBB will assist with this matter or not. When I spoke to the 3 different idiotic agents that I contacted, they did not care that I was contacting the BBB.

Dear Finley NH,

I have been reading the blog that you started on TUGBBS.com. I contacted the AGs office in NH and MA where I live but was told I should seek private counsel. I also contacted Alicia at the number referenced in the letter from Innseasons and was told that this assessment comes under Part VI Accounting, Article 4.

Maintenance Fees. A) Each member, including the partnership with respect to any unit owned by it, whether or not it is completed and ready for use or occupancy, shall be assessed prior to the beginning of each fiscal year the appropriate share of the current year's budegt as adopted by the Association. If the maintenance assessment proves insufficient, the board may at any time levy a further maintenance assessment upon the members in the same proportions. b) Each member shall be personally liable for the payment of all maintenance fees assessed against him. No member may exempt himself from liability for maintenace fees by waiving or abandoning his use or enjoyment of the units, the common areas, or the facilities of the condominium. c) Failure of the board or association to determine maintenace fees for a coming year in the manner prescribed herein shall not be interpreted as a waiver or amendment of those provisions, nor a release of a member from his obligation to pay maintenace fees, but, instead, in such event, the maintenance fee for the previous year shall conitnue, and installments shall be due thereon, until new maintenance fees are fixed. d) The board shall cause each member to be billed quarterly for 1/4 of his share of maintenane fees, which amount shall be payable in equal installments on the first day of January, April, July and October of each year, together with interest which shall acccrue at the rate of one and one half percent per month from the due date of any quarterly installment not paid by the due date.

Though it appears that additonal maintenance fees may be levied, the Board does not appear to be following the procedure established above...For example, they are not assessing this fee to members in the same proportions and they are not billing quarterly in January, April, July and October. Furthermore, they billed the fee as a Special Assessment not a maintenance fee. According to our documents, special assessments can only be levied if they are directly related to an owner's period of occupancy. (By the way, do you know when the Association's fiscal year begins?)

I am outraged and propose that we pursue all avenues...the AGs office (though I am not certain how successful this will prove) the BBB, continue the blog to get the word out, etc.. I am not wealthy and cannot afford to bankroll the poor investment decisions of the owners and investors of Innseasons Resorts and Pollard Brook ie: Willaim Curran, Dennis Ducharme, Scott Macgregor. Please keep us abreast of your actions. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. I will comment again.

$victim$

Dear $victim$ - There were two amendments made to the initial declaration document which changes the billing to annually and due the 1st of July but, we still don't get them then. I think its around September when we do.

I have been in conversation with the GM, Joel Bourassa and he has been very responsive in answering my questions. Here's and example:

I was chatting on one of the Timeshare sites and another owner indicated he was not hit with the assessment. He owns an odd week and an even week...seems like he should be paying as well yet has not been hit at all on this.
Response: If an owner purchased from us in 2008 or 2009 they did not receive and assessment as they, in most likelihood, have not even stayed here yet or perhaps have only recently visited for the first time. We did not think it fair to assess brand new owners for that reason. Your contact may also have had a bad address or just hasn’t received the notice yet as well.

And it doesn't appear South Mountain folks have an assessment placed on them. Is this being rolled out at different times? Can you share with me the differences of who/why some are being hit and not others?
Response: South Mountain and the other 6 InnSeason Resorts are separate entities unto themselves. There ownership base is separate from ours and each other unless a few of our owners also purchased at the other resorts.
Can you also share with me what exactly what Southern Peaks is?
Response: Southern Peaks is the development entity who owns the rights to develop this property and who therefore owns the unsold inventory.

And also how many timeshare intervals are we talking about at PB? The site says there are 133 rooms at PB, is that all timeshares so 6916? When Dennis did the Announcement on your appointment, he indicated there were 10, 000 timeshare owners at PB. Yet the letter indicates 6000 owners.
Response: I guess the 10, 000 number represents some public relations exuberance as your number of 6900 is much closer to reality.

What exactly comprises PB - how many buildings, units, etc.
Response: We have 6 buildings total. The Sabbaday Brook Lodge someday would be the7th but that project was delayed indefinitely far before the recession even hit as we need to sell down the remaining intervals here prior to any major expansion.

I noted another article about the design of a new building Sabbaday Brook Lodge. Did that project start? And how does the RiverWalk project factor in? Just trying to do the math and keep up with all these very interesting and ever changing "companies", titles and facts.
Response: Riverwalk is a project that our developer is looking at here in Lincoln with private investors and unrelated to this property. You also should know that when the developer builds a new building here on our premises, he does so exclusively with his own funding and no HOA funds are used.

I've been doing a ton of research on this entire thing and it really appears Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran bit off more than they can chew with the last two endeavors and PB was/is being used as a "cash cow" for them. I appreciate you can't comment on this last statement but please do share with me the facts as requested above.
Response: All I can say. Lisa, is that expansion plans typically start 2-3 years before construction due to architectural plans, local and state approvals, financing, environmental assessments and the like. Then the build-out can take a year or more with extensive site work and utilities etc. The last building built here was our Jackman Building in 2005 when the economic indicators were very strong and existing sales were booming.

Despite Mr. Bourassa's remarks, I feel there is a significant amount of company maneuvering for the sake of Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran. The are the owners and presidents of every entity involved. What started in my paperwork as The Village at Loon Mountain, then Mountain Lodge Development has become Inn Seasons Resort, Inn Seasons Management, Inc. (IMI), Southern Peaks at PB, LLC and Southern Peaks Resort Development. And there are others such as R & D Development (Richard and Dennis I am quite sure) that was involved at one point and let's not forget Curran Management. The issue is the state and town officials have allowed the formation of all these various LLC's (Limited Liability Company) and building permits. I suspect the town of Lincoln has gained plenty in the process as well.

To add insult to injury, how many of us read all those legal documents they gave us when we purchased. Nicely stated in their is that they remain control of the Board, a board with three of their members - Dennis and Billy of course and Scott their VP and two owner reps. How could we ever get represented with a board stacked like that?

My issue with the AG's office was the various companies involved and the chain of command so to speak. I have not received a response from the yet but I fear the only recourse is a class action lawsuit and I do not know how to go about facilitating such.

Hello Finley, I have responded a couple of times to the other messages on the timeshare board you mentioned. How do we go about a possible class action lawsuit? After my discussions with a few of the people at Pollard Brook, including Alisha in accounting, they do not seem to be phased about the BBB being contacted.

Sarahlee14 - We are trying to get the word out and the TugBB site doesn't seem to be it. Another owner has asked PB for a mailing list (I doubt that will happen) and he has also submitted a request to Timesharing Today to either post something with them with contact info or obtain their mailing list for PB members. I continue my dialogue with the GM, Joel Bourassa, who has been responding at least. I've never found the administration folks to be sensitive to ANY concerns expressed to them. Once they make the sale, their attitude is they are doing you a favor by even speaking to you. Most of us agree, we will need to pay this bill regardless of the financial hardship it places on us and then continue to fight and demand our concerns be heard. But in a mass of 6000 having only a dozen or so is not going to matter much to anyone. We need to find the owners and let folks know, we are being taken advantage to ensure, in my opinion, the financial security of Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran - the owners, presidents, treasurers and developers of all of it!

I cant believe this either, how could they assess the older units more than building 6 . I asked Alicia and her response to me was that they were newer and didnt need as much work. Ok so I have been paying for the upkeep of my unit since 1989 shouldnt my unit be the most updated since it has recieved more maintenace fees, she could not answer that question .
I have sent and email of questions and I think everyone should get your answers in writing.
I am submitting a complaint with the AG office also.
Did anyone read the press release on the website, in Feb 2009 that Dennis got approval to build another resort Riverwalk is that what really need funding?
I think everyone should get together and do a class action suit .

ML from NH - I received my response from the AG's office and basically, they will not do anything about "my individual complaint". They will keep it on file however. I suspect if many, many more of the 6000 owners would in fact complain to them, they would do something. I've got quite a few folks looking at this andwe are trying to figure out a way to get an owners list to get folks to voice their concerns outside PB. The management there could not care less if you are unhappy...pay the bill or they just continue to charge and don't let you use your timeshare, exchange etc. Any suggestions by anyone in how to get to mass numbers of folks on this would be appreciated.

I'm totally with you. Lucky for them I got the letter late at night. I haven't called them. I wanted to read through the book they gave us, and you're right! They should not be able to charge us. I have the pay the ever-increasing maintenance fee on even years. We bought the timeshare 10 years ago and the fees more than doubled. My salary sure hasn't! I'll be dead before I get my money back from this stupid thing! I think I may have to send a registered letter! Gee, why did they mail the letter 9-10 days after it was dated? They only give you 20 days. Well, they can wait for hell to freeze over! I'm sorry, we should not have to pay for mismanagement. They should fix what needs to be fixed and do updates when the economy gets better.

I spoke with AG and he directed me to NH Legal assistance just got off the phone with them and she could not help me but told me to call
LAW LINE AUGUST 12, 6-8 PM This is a free hotline where you ask and attorney questions

Also I think if you go to the Grafton County of NH registry of deed ( on line ) click search records, you may be able to find many owners as they are all listed here, but under different names, some are Mountain Lodge Dev, Pollard brook, and more...
Hope this helps

She also told me something like this happened a few years ago at a condo and the owners won, I am still looking to find this information

We have also been "owners" at Pollard Brook since 1989. This isn't the first time we have been hit with a "special assessment". We paid one in the early 1990's, when Ducharme, et al. were expanding Pollard Brook. We have had many difficulties with them over the years, inlcuding trying to rent (we called every night and confirmed the unit was rented, and got the persons's name at the front desk, but when the week was over, they claimed the unit never rented and we didn't get a dime). When they came up with their new flex plan system, we were told that if we didn't "re-buy" our week under this new plan, any future requests for our week would be placed at the bottom of the pile (we have float time). We're still waiting to try and get our week booked for next year, that we requested back at the beginning of the year, and they keep making excuses like "next year's float weeks aren't in the system yet". Now they want us to pay another $500 for a week we can't even get.

We don't intend to pay this special assessment, since they aren't letting us have a week anyway. We have always paid our assessments on time, but we have had enough. They have overbuilt and mismanaged the property. $32, 522 is more than enough to maintain a unit for a year. They are just using us to fund their other developments. Further, they have to assess their "special assessments" equally, not selectively. We have an appointment with an attorney in a week to investigate our options, as we are leaving on vacation. We feel they are not in compliance with the contract, as we were current on our fees and they still wouldn't honor our written requests for a week, and we will sue them if necessary. We would also join any other class action lawsuit on this assessment.

Anyone of our owners a lawyer?

We are also owners at Pollard Brook and this is ridiculous. We have paid our assessment but will be glad to join in any class action lawsuit on the assessment. Why were only some of us assessed not all? Julie Kessler

I posted this on TUGGBB.com but for the benefit of those on this site only, here's a string of Q & A from the GM of PB, Joel Bourassa. It may help answer some of your questions, or create more.

Q. I have compared all the legal documents I was given when we purchased this unit and the "structure" of the company (ies) has clearly change considerably. How do we as owners stay on top of this and isn't there a legal requirement to advise us of these changes? My documents start out with the Village at Loon Mountain then it becomes Mountain Lodge Development. Nothing was ever sent indicating that these documents should now reflect or indicate InnSeasons Resort is actually Mountain Lodge as appears to be the case. Yet, I find Mountain Lodge still listed as a company in business with revenues etc. The letter was the first reference to Southern Peaks at Pollard Brook, LLC. and I am still not sure the difference in it versus Southern Peaks Resort Development. And of course, we have Inn Seasons Management, Inc. It's a very concerning chain to be honest considering the following.
A. I agree with you that the documents certainly are in need of an update. The confusion in the documents partly stems from the fact that the resort was originally “whole ownership” prior to it becoming a timeshare resort under subsequent ownership(s). As for notification to the owners, quite frankly I am unsure if there are any legal requirements. Unless significant changes are made that directly affect ownership interests, it is my understanding that there was no need for a re-write. There have been six amendments along the way centered on the addition of new development (buildings).

By way of a quick history, the Village of Loon was the original owner and developer from 1989-91. They ran into financial trouble and the resort was pretty dormant from 1991-93 until Mountain Lodge Development purchased it at a bank auction in September 1993. Sales resumed in 1994. Mountain Lodge (Dennis Ducharme and Keith Carlson) operated, developed and sold intervals up until 2004. At that time Southern Peaks resorts (Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran) purchased the developing rights from Mountain Lodge. InnSeason Resorts is the brand umbrella of the 7 NE resorts which are managed by InnSeason Management (a separate entity).

Q. The constant names in all of these various "companies" are Dennis Ducharme and Billy Curran. How can we as owners be assured that development and management are being facilitated in the best interest of us as PB owners as opposed to them and their various companies? Further, how can we be assured the financial lines are as clear and separate as you would like for us to believe.
A. During the development and first 80% of the subsequent sales, a Board really doesn’t come into play. But, it is still in the developer’s interest to run an efficient operation as Sales and the Developer are dependent on one another. Only once about 80% of the inventory is sold does the representative HOA Board comes into play. Right now, as you know, there is an interim Board of Advisors which will be followed this fall by a full-fledged Board of Directors made up of owners elected by owners. Having said that, the developer can also be part of the Board as, in our case, he has some 1, 100 intervals of interest of his own.

Q. The letter references the developer, the developer you indicated is Southern Peaks and yet Dennis Ducharme is the owner and president of both, Southern Peaks and PB. And he is also listed on the cc as the "Treasurer". So is he not speaking of himself and essentially to himself in this statement “Southern Peaks has told the Board”... :) A. Yes, in essence that is what he is doing but a developer can do this up until the 80% sell out rate is reached as I explained above. Once the Board of Directors comes into play, the resort truly falls under the HOA who are essentially controlling their own destiny as the interval sales are nearing maturation.

Q. You indicated "The last building built here was our Jackman Building in 2005 when the economic indicators were very strong and existing sales were booming. " So the 1200 unsold are units are predominately from that expansion project? And for 4 years, nothing has been said of the undue financial burden this might create?
A. No, there are unsold intervals in all phases of the property. There are some great peak weeks for sale and also many less-desirable weeks that are more difficult to sell as peak inventory dwindles.

Q. Based on our maintenance fees, I am concerned that very little has been set aside for these types major renovations. I have all the balance sheets from 1994 to present. Last year $70.00 was put into the maintenance fund. At that rate, you are not even raising a half a million if all 6000 owners paid it. I know others pay more and probably some pay less but regardless, you aren't getting to the 1.2. The projects listed are projects that "suddenly" need done in 12-24 months, there would be/should have been some planning. So how did this exactly happen in these last few months? The pool needing refaced is a perfect example and something that very well should have been accounted for. I own one thus I know the maintenance/costs involved. This is simply then, fiscal mismanagement. I for one, would have accepted that reasoning far better than the poorly written letter blaming all sorts of confounding issues as it does. No one is taking responsibility here, yet we have to come up with the bail out. Who's to say it doesn't happen again and again.
A. Years of maintenance deferrals from Mountain Lodge Development have left the present management company catching up since 2004-05. I believe there was around $800, 000 in deferred maintenance from the previous regime. One thing we are going to do, going forward, is to pay for a complete reserve study to determine just how much we should put away annually for future capital expenditures (a capital reserve fund). This will also spell out to the owners what is coming in future years by way of improvements and the cost commitment for the improvements. No surprises this way aside from unforeseen acts of nature or catastrophic equipment failure (blown engine in the plow truck etc).

Here is a look at the reserves allocated since InnSeason Management took over:

Year/ Reserves/ Change

2005
$ 62, 437
0%

2006
$ 150, 930
41%

2007
$ 206, 744
73%

2008
$ 536, 744
39%

Change from 2005 to 2008

88%

Q. The Board is comprised with three members of "InnSeasons" and two owner representatives. And this is really a concern. We as owners do not have fair representation and no line of communication as I stated earlier. I've yet to receive the minutes I requested. By the way, our Bylaws state, we are to receive copies each year from the annual meeting sent with the maintenance fee billing.
A. There were no minutes as there weren’t any annual meetings as we were in the aforementioned development/sales stages.

Q. And who is capecodder who posts comments on the website? A. (Joyce Vechione, our blog manager at the Corporate Offices). Q. They have only indicated one comment was made, I made a comment/question and posted it to the site, accepted the Wordpress e-mail, and yet never received a reply nor was the question posted.

Q. Below are questions others have and I stated I would share them with you:

Comment: The directors are not showing any fiduciary responsibility to the timeshare owners. Period.

I think the key questions that need answers are:
1) What is the total dollar amount expected to be raised by the special assessment?
A. 1.6 million, after bad debt, is anticipated, $1, 000, 000 to 1.2 million for capital and the rest for operational cash flow
2) How many interval owners are delinquent?
A. 11% typically in a normal economy but 19% default at this point -
What is the amount of delinquency for 2009, for 2008 and previous years? When will foreclosure action begin so that this money can be recovered?
A. Rental income, interest income, bad debt recovery are ultimately written off but still often collected going forward – we don’t stop. Delinquency is up and previous year’s collections are down a bit. Our two collection agencies average about a 60% collection rate which is pretty strong.
3) Are all interval owners, both weeks and points, being assessed the special assessment? Are any interval owners excepted from the assessment and what is that number of owners?
A. Persons who purchased in 2008 or this year to date are excluded as they probably have not even had a chance to use their purchases yet. We wanted to be fair to that small group. I am unsure how many people that represents but the number is pretty small.
4) How much is the Developer delinquent in 2009 maintenance fees on how many intervals? How much for 2008 and previous years?
A. I believe the total number is in the vicinity of $400, 000 representing around 1, 100 intevals.
5) Is the Developer being assessed the same amounts on each interval owned for this special assessment? He is being assessed the same as all owners based on the unit size. How many intervals? When is the Developer paying the special assessment?
A. At some point, the developer will, in all likelihood, sign a Promissory Note making any future sales payable back to the HOA for money due.
6) What section in what document permits the Board of Advisors to implement special assessments? What document permits the Board of Advisors to assess some owners and not others.

A. Title II, By-Laws of the Pollard Brook Unit Owners' Association, Part VI Accounting, Section 5 Special Assessments, states:

a. Each owner is liable for those expenses directly related to his period of occupancy of a condominium unit assigned to him, which shall be billed to him as special assessments.

b. Expenses billable as special assessments include, but are not limited to, the costs of repairing damage done to the condominium unit, equipment, and furnishings during the use period, other than ordinary wear and tear: telephone charges over and above the basic charges; and such other services rendered during the use period at the request of the owner or guest not included as an item in the budget.

Title III, Timeshare Management, Part III Management, Section 5 Special Assessments, states:

Each owner is liable for those expenses directly related to his period of occupancy of a condominium unit assigned to him. These expenses include, but are not limited to, the expense of repairing damage done to the condominium unit, equipment, and furnishings during the use period assigned to him, other than ordinary wear and tear: telephone charges over and above the basic charges; and such other services rendered during the use period at the request of the owner or a guest not included as an item in the budget.

7) With the Developer not paying annual maintenance fees, and possibly not paying the special assessment, what actions are being taken by the Board of Advisors to protect owners from default by the Developer on either or both the unpaid maintenance fee amount or the unpaid special assessment.
A. Good question and we trust that won’t happen. Perhaps some type of secured collateral not related to this property would be in order but it is premature to speculate at this point. The Board of Directors would have to address this if it seemed like it was a possibility going forward. Incidentally, if the Developer did go bankrupt, the bank would take his unsold Pollard intervals and find a company to try to sell them. In the meantime, that bank would be on hook for the maintenance fees etc.

8) Where and when is the next Board of Advisors meeting?
A. November 7 from 11-1 here in Lincoln, specific location to be determined.

Can someone tell me that I should pay assessment fee yet ? OR hold it until it's clear. Thanks.

Any action that can or will be done against PB will be a time consuming process and quite possibly will require legal assistance. I can only speak for myself in that I paid the assessment as even in the midst of a court battle, not having paid it, could have negative consequences to your credit. I am not willing to risk that so I paid it. I continue to work with Joel to get better answers and a better understanding of where this money is going and where the money has gone in the past. Regardless, we are "owners" of this property thus its bad debt, becomes ours unfortunately. This should be a lesson to all, to pay more attention, ask more questions, and be involved...as you are financially obligated, regardless. That much I do know. I would follow the TUGGBB.com site as there is alot more information being posted there.

We have established a HOA User group for Pollard Brook on http://www.timeshareforums.com/

I would encourage you to sign up on the site, it's free.
Then once you have received the return e-mail and accepted you can request to join the group.

http://www.timeshareforums.com
Click 2nd tab, "User CP" toward the upper left corner
Click Group Memberships under NETWORKING
Join Pollard Brook Homeowners Group

The moderator has to accept you into the group.
Once that is done, you would
Log on, click on User CP in upper left, then go to Forum Navigation drop down, then HOA Forums, Pollard Brook.

All future discussion, action etc. will occur there. I hope you will join us as we have discovered quite a bit about the operation of Pollard Brook and the special assessment as well as the HOA (or lack thereof). We as owners need to be involved to protect our interests. Recent meeting minutes clearly state the "special assessment is to help pay down the developers debt". Other items of interest will be shared through that site as well...

I don't recall getting such a letter. I live in Mass and bought a couple years ago in Maine.

InnSeason Resorts Scam Ripoff

Avoid at all costs NERM, AKA New England Resort Management, Curran Management Services, Innseason Resorts AKA InnSeason Management, AKA First Priority Travel, AKA Crown Vacations, AKA Southern Peaks Companies, AKA R&B Development, LLC, William Curran AKA as Billy Curran AKA as Bill Curran, Dennis Ducharme, Leon Narbone AKA Leon Narbonne, Antony Constantine AKA Tino Constantine, operators of the Breakers, the Soundings and the Edgewater AKA Edgewater Beach in Dennis Port, MA and other resorts in Cape Cod and New England (Captain’s Quarters, HarborWalk, Surfside, Falmouth, MA, Pollard Brook, South Mountain, Lincoln, NH, The Falls at Ogunquit, Mountainview, Ogunquit, ME and Jackman, ME). These people are operating a timeshare ripoff. Multiple complaints filed with Massachusetts Attorney General, Barnstable Registry and local police. You will not get your free vouchers or travel filled. If you purchase, you will not get your licenses recorded. If you choose to rent your unit, you will not get your rental income. Time share deposits missing. Multiple complaints, e-mails regarding this timeshare scam have gone unanswered. InnSeason cannot be trusted! Many have lost tens of thousands of dollars! Visitors or hotel guests to the Breakers, Edgewater or the Soundings – beware of time share marketing! Do not take one dollar out of your pocket or you will be so, so sorry! This is a TRUE story! Anyone wanting further documentation may e-mail js150wire@yahoo.com

What's the current status?
Has anything been done?
I've purchased years ago, had similar problems, don't like arguments, but after doing some research, seems ridiculous.
Perhaps a different approach via BBB or AG's office would work.
I"m curious how many others this happened to...
Lastly...
Isn't there a position on the board for a member to be representative?
Why doesn't someone run, spend some cash in advertising to all the members (they should provide addresses for all the members), and go about it in that way...
(just thinking)
if you can't beat sense into em, get inside, and shut them down or make them change to a more ethical place instead of what they ended up like.

I would assume that the mgmt doesn't even care what's up, they just set off their "puppets" who are payrolled employees battle with owners like us, just looking for some justice and fairness and their salaries refunded, so that we can enjoy more benefits (what we paid for).

Upset Owner in Mass.

Keep digging folks, they need capital and have plundered their older resorts for years to keep their cash flow for new projects, but they are sloppy and a good investigator will figure it out. The older owners ie:Village of Loon owners got really screwed. As some of these misdeeds are multi state
in nature you might get help from MA, ME, RI AG's and the Feds. Good Luck !

Half the people mentioned do not work for InnSeason Resorts. Also most of the Resorts mentioned are not an InnSeason Resort. I know because I purchased one of their club memberships and it works exactly as they presented it.

I couldn't agree more with the letter written by John Stevens above. Avoid Edgewater, InnSeason Resorts. It's a scam, a rip-off with multiple ways to take money from you and keep on taking. You cannot sell back to them a contract you have signed. I bought a timeshare at Edgewater, paid the annual maintenance, then traded in the timeshare for a more flexible points program that would have allowed me to take three-day vacations, instead of week-long ones. I had to pay more money for this privilege and found myself ending up owning nothing: no week, no tangible property I could point to. In addition, I am charged an annual "maintenance fee" of at least $1, 000. I could take $1, 000 to a lot of places and get a good little vacation for that without being tied down to a heavy interest bearing loan and a guaranteed annual maintenance fee. I don't know about other home owners out there, but I pay my own maintenance costs on my property. If I pay up the money I owe Resort Funding, the outfit that carries the loans, I will then have to pay the maintenance fee in order to go on a vacation. Or, I could pay the loan, say Sayonara to Inn Season, own nothing, and have give InnSeason Resorts a lot of money--for NOTHING. Stay away from these thieves.