HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005 Jun 15 - Cape Cod Times ArticleKEVIN MINGORA/Cape Cod Times
Yarmouth Condominiums on Route 28 is shuttered for the summer,
reportedly because the money is lacking for repairs and operating
expenses.
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Vacationers blindsided
by loss of summer refteat
■ Frustrated time-share owners
search for answers behind
sudden condominium closure.
By MARC PARRY
STAFF WRITER
SOUTH YARMOUTH — Hundreds of
people who may have looked forward to
their annual Cape vacation are out of luck
because the failing time-share resort in
which they own a stake isn't opening this
year.
And the people who call the shots atYar-
mouth Condominiums, a 24-unit converted
motel on Route 28, have apparently van-
ished.
After repeated, unsuccessful attempts
to contact management by phone and e-
mail, two time-share owners have lodged
complaints with the Consumer Assistance
Council, a Hyannis agency affiliated with
the state attorney general's office that tries
to mediate consumer complaints.
"It was just a relaxing end to the summer,
that's why I'm so upset," said owner Brian
Glynn, a federal employee from Delaware
who filed one complaint."We owned there.
We've used it for so long. And now they
Please see TIMESHARE IA-16
"This was a situation that had just gotten
completely out of hand."
CLIFF HAGBERG, Presi�egt of IVS Realty
I
Al ■ Cape Cod Times
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2005
Time shares, Owners out of luck this summer
continued from A-1
just dropped out of sight."
The brown -shingled South
Yarmouth resort, located diago-
nally across from Pirate's Cove
miniature golf course, converted
to time shares in 1986, accord-
ing to town records.
It's one of at least a doz-
en motels in town that have
switched to time shares or
condominiums, said Yarmouth
Board of Appeals secretary
Rhonda LaFrance.
Some 960 people own weeks
at the resort, according to a real
estate broker familiar with the
property. The elected board of
trustees is its governing body.
Glynn, 41, said he paid about
$2,500 for his week, a purchase
recorded at the Barnstable
County Registry of Deeds. His
yearly maintenance bill is about
$350. "It's real property," Paul
Schrader, executive director
of the Consumer Assistance
Council, said about time shares.
"You own it."
Schrader said he is not allowed
to say whether the council is
investigating the case. Though
just two people have filed com-
plaints about the resort, confu-
sion surrounding the property
appears to be broader.
A message on the resort's
Web site probably doesn't help:
"It's time to start planning V A-
C-A-T-I-O-N! Although winter
is here on Cape Cod, it's not
too soon to plan your vacation
in 2005 at the Yarmouth Condo-
miniums."
Yarmouth Area Chamber
of Commerce employees have
fielded calls from about 10 peo-
ple over the past month who
couldn't reach the time share's
management. Yarmouth Condo-
miniums is a chamber member.
Chamber staffers have tried
to get a handle on the situation
- by telephone, by fax, and by
going down to the condomini-
ums. Every attempt has failed.
"Every time I go by there, I
look and I don't see any sign of
life," said one chamber employ-
ee who didn't want his name
published.
So what's going on?
The resort didn't openbecause
it lacked enough money to meet
its operating budget and fix the
roof, according to a February
letter to time-share owners from
George Anderson, identified as
the chairman of the board of
trustees.
The board will consider
"closure and sale, liquidation
of assets and the dispersal of
whatever funds remain after
this process is finished among
the owners in good standing,"
said the letter, obtained by the
Cape Cod Times.
The letter said that the
manager resigned effective Feb.
27. After that letter came in the
mail, owner Debbie Tbllo, 46,
said she left about three phone
messages at the resort. 71illo, a
waitress from North Providence,
R.I., never got a response.
The recorded message says
only that the resort will be
closed in 2005. It gives an e-
mail address for any questions.
Glynn, who never got a letter
from Anderson, sent repeat-
ed a -mails to that address. He
received no reply.
He kept trying. He called
town hall inYarmouth, where he
was told that Anderson, of Hyde
Park, was the resort's contact
person. He called information
and got Anderson's number.
It was disconnected.
"You can't get in touch with
them," said 11illo, who filed the
other complaint."I want to know
why they're closing. What's
going on?"
The 'limes has also failed to
reach management. On Mon-
day, the office was locked and
the pool was empty.
A phone message left at the
office was not returned. Nei-
ther was an e-mail. Neither
was a message left for former
manager Brian Benevides, who,
town health department records
show, applied in January for the
resort's 2005 motel and pool
licenses. The number listed for
Anderson, as Glynn found, has
been disconnected.
So what are the odds the own-
ers will recoup what they paid
for their shares?
"I think they'll receive some-
thing," said Cliff Hagberg, pres-
ident of IVS Realty in Hyannis,
the oldest and largest time-
share resale company in New
England. "They're not going to
receive anywhere near what
they paid for it."
The board of trustees
approached IVS Realty to help
revive the resort, Hagberg said.
Its problem, he was told, were
too many owners failing to pay
their maintenance bills.
The resort took back owner-
ship of delinquents' weeks, he
said. But to attract new buyers
- and keep the resort viable as
a time share - he estimated it
would need to invest as much as
$250,000 for renovations.
Selling the property as a
motel could be difficult, he
said. It lacks a rental history,
so there aren't any figures to
show a prospective buyer how
much income it would likely
generate.
It wouldn't be unprecedented,
though. The Captain Gladcliff,
another Route 28 property, had
a near -identical history to Yar-
mouth Condominiums. It was
first a motel, then converted to
time shares in the mid-1980s. It
was resold as a motel.
That was the only other time-
share closure Hagberg remem-
bered seeing in 20 years. "This
is a very unusual situation,"
Hagberg said of the Yarmouth
Condominiums. "Usually before
it gets to this point, the board
of trustees contacts somebody
like me to help them.... This was
a situation that had just gotten
completely out of hand."
Marc Parry can be reached at
mparry@capecodonline.com