Manhattan Club Lawsuit

I also spoke with Sal Reale and he echoed all the same points you mention. What can we do to stop the escalating mainetance fees while the AG is working this case? I am refusing to pay the fees but they have threaten to charge 16% and will compound until it ultimately goes into Collections and damages my credit history. So I am asking this community what you are all doing? Do you advise I keep paying the annual maintenance fee?

Jim

Jim, we decided not to pay. I wrote to the finance dept advising them, am on the list of those wanting to deed back my unit, and I've corresponded with the AG on my situation. So I am not paying this years maintenance fees. That's an individual decision for you to make. Elaine

I am totally fed up with the Manhattan Club and their maintenance fee extortion tactics. When I first purchased my share in 2001, my maintenace was $573. Now it has mushroomed to 2,226.18 with NO END IN SIGHT. The value proposition they presented in their sales presentation on the benefits of ownership was not only deceptive but outright lies. The truth we don't own the Manhattan Club, The Manhattan Club owns us! And there is no way we can not get out of this bad investment. I have tried speaking to them but it falls on deaf ears. And due to the current investigation by the Attorney General, they can not buy back any shares EVEN if they want to-which they never do.

I will no longer be paying my maintenance which I'm sure is used to pay their legal defense bills. I ask all owners to take the same defense. If they do not collect their maintenance fee from us then they can't retain staff and pay their attorneys. And I encourage all of you to continue to write to the AG file your own complaint. If we do not take action as a united community, we will see our maintenance fee skyrocket to $10K a year within a very short time with no protential remedy in sight.

Jim Tam 214-669-5401

Me too. I want to fill out the survey.

Thank you, Elaine. I have spoken to a couple of other owners and seems like we're all taking a similar position. At this point, I refuse to be a victim of extortion.

Chris, thank you for sharing your information.

I did not pay the maint. fee for 2015( $2,713.04), nor do I plan to every pay it again. I did pay the real estate portion, however, who knows if they applied it to the NYC tax office. Next year I will send the real estate tax directly to the NYC tax division with a cc to TMC. Like everyone else " what a ripoff ".

jimt355, unforutnately, there appears to be too few of us who will withhold paying maintenance fees to affect eichner from paying his manhattan club staff and maintaining his defense attorneys; keep in mind eichner and his entourage of fraudsters have heavy reserve monetary backing to continue "normal" operations (at least for a while) at the club. eichner is a shrewd business man baked by a cadre of brilliant ny attorneys. however, i would assume that as much of owners withholding of maintenance fees as possible may reflect negative territory for eichner to consider. regarding owners' current collective positions, this is what i did: i paid my nyc/nys municipal taxes with separate checks so marked and designated (one for each unit [2]). i called the financial office, maintenance/tax dept to confirm their receipt of checks, and their purpose (taxes only.) i did not pay my maintenance fees at this time. my plan is to await the results of the NYSAG VS THE MANHATTAN CLUB LAWSUIT. i will decide on my next course of action from there. bear in mind, this is a summary of what....I...did, not a recommendation to any other owners to do so, but available for their consideration.

easier said than done, but we owners must exhaust every legal measure to STOP these DEVELOPERS.........EICHER, ET AL, from continuing to do "business as usual" and thumbing their noses at us. we simply can't sit by and wait for others to do it and expect to come out winners. PROACTIVITY IS THE OPERATIVE WORD.

keep in touch,

chris

I am contacting you to get more info, as you requested. My email is losey1@aol.com

Lois

Even if we don't pay our maintence fees( which I didn't and won't) they are still making money rent out as hotel units at high rates. It was just extra money in their pockets from our fees. As far as class action suit, the only one who makes money in those suits are the attorneys,

The only one who makes money( if win) is the attorney in class action. Just see what attorney general does

chrisv126,

Chris, Thanks for the advice on just paying the tax portion of it. Is there a way I can find out my tax without calling their Financial office? I just don't trust the will give me the right figure.

Thanks, Jim

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have stopped paying all fees to TMC. I recently sent an email to the Department of Finance of NYC inquiring about paying my taxes directly to them. As expected this is their reply:

"Looking at your and other time share deeds for this lot, it appears you have a 1/52 interest in the property. However, each lot is a single property tax account, and we cannot create subaccounts for each time share holder. While anyone can pay a property's tax, you may not want the responsibility of paying what is currently about $2,700 every three months.

Your deed also refers to a time share plan. That plan might include a requirement for tax to be paid with maintenance, but that is something you would need to find out.

Thank you for your correspondence.

David Feinberg Finance Correspondence Unit"

I also found out that TMC's most recently posted tax payment to the city for the MC property was on 5/10 or 11/2015 and covered the payment due in October, 2014; i.e., they are six months behind in their tax payments. If anyone else choosing not to pay TMC has any other information, I would appreciate hearing. Thanks, Ron Buchter

we, at this time, simply can't win; we have got to come out on top.

where do we go from here. we can't even spend our money (paying mc real estate taxes) as we see fit. even the state bureocracy is not in our favor. (i know there's a misspelling there.......no time to investigate now!)

I am not going to even worry about the taxes as they are in TMC's names not ours as individual owners. TMC just divides the taxes among us owners. Let them get monies from hotel guest. I don't consider myself an owner (just invested) in this fraudulent deal as I can never get time when I want to use. Had to join RCI not to lose last years time, and year before just lost it. I own 4 other timeshare 3 Hawaii 1 New Orleans and know tax bills go to Timeshare then they divide amongs owners fees. But the taxes are not in my name. I have never had problems getting my time in any of them.

Did any of you receive an online survey from the AG of New York? I did today.

Yes. I got the survey as well. What is the consensus? Should we complete it or are they trying to spin this is some way to be negative?

Yes today and I wasn't sure what good it would do to fill it out. The fact they are inquiring led me to go forward and complete the survey. I'll be curious to see if I get anything back. It's such a same this has all gone this way as I don't remember these kinds of problems back in the early 2000's. Disappointed, Chuck

i feel left out. i didn't get a survey from the nysag. i'd like seeing a sample question........from there i can make my own assumptions concerning the survey's take for us owners: negative/neutral/positive. most likely, if i get a survey, i'd opt to complete and return it........unless i see no benefit for us owners for doing so.

wishful thinking for the final outcome of this lawsuit: substantial reduction of our maintenance fees (by at least 30+%); more ease of making desirable reservation time......hope the answer isn't "ha, in your dreams!"

keep in touch.

chris cfox863@gmail.com

We have been consulting with an attorney. There is a possibility of legal action. The statute of limitations on TMC purchases has a 6 year limit. We are trying to find a way around the statute. But, in the meantime, that means that any owner who purchased a TMC timeshare is eligible to take legal action against TMC. Any and all TMC owners who bought within the last 6 years should contact me. There will no up front cost to TMC owners. The lawyer will not get paid unless he wins. I cannot promise anything definite but there is a chance some owners can get some of their money back. Remember, you had to have bought a TMC timeshare within the last six years.

Also, TMC management is posting glowing reviews on travel websites to counter the bad ones. We need to bury those reviews with more accurate reviews. Let's put the real truth about TMC out there.

Irene Smalls