Showing posts with label bluegreen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bluegreen. Show all posts

Hundreds of Shenandoah Crossing Owners Given Foreclosure Notices

4/13/2016 Unknown
Hundreds of owners at Bluegreen Vacations' Shenandoah Crossing Resort were given foreclosure notices in March. The foreclosures are related to tenant-in-common ownership stakes in properties recorded in Louisa County, Virginia. The defaults date to January 1, 2012 according to the legal ad for the notices.

Attorney Comments

"There are clearly a lot of people who have not paid their timeshare assessments and probably an owners' association that would like to resell the timeshares to new owners that will pay future assessments," said John D. McPhaul, an attorney for Troutman Sanders, a Richmond law firm, specializing in commercial lending and foreclosures.  

McPhaul went on to say, "Legal advertising for the sale of timeshares tends to be done in bulk because it is more cost-efficient, as the sale of individual timeshares does not typically generate the same amount of proceeds that the sale of a single-family home or condominium unit would."  He added that he didn't know if the Shenandoah notices represent more than the usual number of owners in default for this particular timeshare project, and that the number of timeshares in any project can vary widely.

Timeshare Resort Offers 1000 Acres of Wilderness

Shenandoah Crossing is located near Gordonsville, Virginia and northeast of Charlottesville. It's owned by Florida company Bluegreen Corporation, which manages and markets the Bluegreen Vacation Club that includes Shenandoah Crossing. The resort opened in 1989. According to the website of the sales center, the resort offers 1000 acres of wilderness area, including a 60 acre lake for fishing, pastures, hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Accommodations include yurts, round canvas tents with central air and heat, recreational vehicle pads, cabins and town homes.

Notice to owners in Richmond Times-Dispatch

According to an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, a notice to Shenandoah Crossing owners which ran Monday through Friday at the end of March stated, "You are in default on your assessment due to the association. Unless you take action to protect your property, it may be sold at a public sale. If you need an explanation of the nature of the proceedings against you, you should contact a lawyer."

The property owners were listed individually as having a 1/6,000th undivided interest as a tenant-in-common. The default amounts listed for each owner range from about $2,700 to more than $20,000. The estimated foreclosure cost for each property owner is $650. 

Investment Banker says "Not a Good Deal"

An investment banker at John B. Levy & Company in Richmond, commenting on the notice said "it looked like Bluegreen sells each home site for a separate week out of each year, which would allow them to sell 52 shares." He added that, "he couldn’t say anything else because the notice was hard to decipher, but that it looked like a deal to stay away from as a potential real estate investor."

Foreclosure Sale Draws Small Crowd

According to NBC.com, the foreclosure sale for the timeshares went ahead on March 30th and drew a small crowd. Prices ranged from $830 to $23,000. Staff at Shenandoah Crossing told NBC.com that 144 properties will foreclose and released a statement, "We are positive that this foreclosure process will allow for the sale of the delinquent inventory to new owners who will enjoy visiting the resort." The management company claims it tried to work with timeshare owners for many years on the issue, but wasn’t able to get the problems resolved.


No Word from Bluegreen Corp.


So far Bluegreen Corporation isn't talking. Calls to the company, from the Richmond Times-Dispatch were not returned.  Bluegreen Vacations is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bluegreen Corporation which manages and markets the Bluegreen Vacation Club. Its website says the vacation ownership program connects 195,000 owners with 60 Bluegreen resorts in more than 40 destinations across the U.S. and Canada.
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Finality for Owners in Class Action Suit Against Bluegreen Corporation

2/10/2016 Unknown
Owners who participated in a class action suit against Bluegreen Corporation achieved a settlement in November of 2015. The allegations against Bluegreen, Experian Information Solutions, Inc. and Equifax Information services, LLC. stated that owners' delinquent accounts were reported by Bluegreen as foreclosures. The suit claimed that the reporting was in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Florida debt collection laws. 

In the suit (Best and Snapp, et al. v. Bluegreen Corp., et al., case no. 9:14-cv-80929, filed July 14, 2014 in the U.S., District Court, Southern District of Florida), the plaintiffs alleged that when owners were delinquent, Bluegreen sent a series of letters advising them of termination from the Bluegreen Vacation Club, and that the status of their accounts may be reported as foreclosures to the credit agencies.  Upon receiving the notice, many owners walked away from their timeshare only to encounter more problems according to Michael D. Finn, of the Finn Law Group, the firm responsible for the class action suit.

Credit Scores Drastically Reduced

Reporting the delinquent accounts as foreclosures drastically reduced owners' credit scores and credit worthiness. In a recent podcast of Timesharing Today Radio, Finn said that some owners who received the foreclosure report on their credit rating, were unable to refinance a mortgage on their primary home, or to buy another home. Now, as a result of the settlement, foreclosure entries will be deleted from over 11,000 owner credit accounts

Class Action Suits Complex and Difficult

The Finn Law Group is well-known for representing disputes in the timeshare industry. Mr. Finn mentioned that it's harder to file a class action suit because of the complexity of such a suit. It's often difficult to establish action for a fraud based case and courts don’t usually promote class action suits. In addition, clients in the suit are lumped together and each one has had a different experience making it difficult to come to a general consensus. 

Prior to filing the class action suit, Mr. Finn first went to Bluegreen Corporation and asked them to make a correction and they would not. He then went to Equifax and Experian who were also unwilling to make a correction because the creditor, Bluegreen, affirmed that the information on the foreclosures was accurate. Finn then proceeded with the filing of the suit. 

Finn said the action by Bluegreen was improper because it didn't meet the definition of foreclosure. Bluegreen timeshares are sold as a points program where the title is held in trust for the individual buyers by the timeshare developer. Since the recorded deed was never titled in the individual's name, the timeshare developer doesn’t have the right to report delinquencies or foreclosures to credit reporting agencies. 

No Admission of Liability

Though not admitting liability, Bluegreen, Experian and Equifax agreed to settle the lawsuit. The settlement provides in part: "For class members who did not opt out of the settlement and no longer have an active account, Bluegreen will request that Equifax and Experian delete the entire account that displayed a foreclosure; For class members who did not opt out of the settlement, but still have an active account, Bluegreen will provide information to Equifax and Experian showing that the accounts were paid for the months preceding their delinquency; and Equifax and Experian have agreed to implement Bluegreen’s request."


For more information, contact michaeldfinn@finnlawgroup.com

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Hospitality Industry Weathers China Currency Devaluation

8/26/2015 Unknown
Recent stock reports show minor down trending in the hospitality industry in the weeks following China's currency devaluation when compared to industries such as commodities, oil companies, and those industries involved with foreign currency and marketing products to China.


A Look at a Few Major Hospitality Groups

We looked at a few of the major publically traded timeshare companies to get an idea of how their stocks are trending, comparing today's rate to one month ago. Today (August 24) the S&P 500 was down 3.94 percent compared to the Friday before.

August 24 July 24

Starwood         70.53            81.89

Wyndham  74.75 83.06

Hilton 23.88 27.90

Bluegreen/BBX Capital   15.77 15.86


Though the industry is experiencing some of the effects of the overall economic conditions, it's typical of other mainstream businesses and much less than those companies more directly involved with China.  

The China Effect

To give you a little idea about how China's devaluation of their currency affects us all we consulted Investopedia.com, "A country's economy and is currency is impacted by the flow of funds between countries. The more money leaving a country, the weaker the country's economy and currency. Countries like China who predominantly export physical goods or services continually bring money into their countries. This money can be reinvested to stimulate the financial markets within the country." China has historically kept tight control of its currency with favorable exchange rates boosting exports and manufacturing over time, and forcing the U.S. government put up with China's artificially lowered rates.

Industry in a Good Position

The hospitality industry is in a good position to weather this current affront from China. Our industry has grown exponentially over the past few years as the economy improved. But also largely due to nature of the industry. We offer joy, fun, comfort, relaxation and entertainment. We offer the ability to experience other countries and other people, and the ability to adventure away from our everyday lives. What other industry can claim to do all that? 


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