The Manhattan Club Lawsuit - RedWeek's Report & Most Recent Info

Did anyone get an indication that those who withheld their maintenance fees will be able to use their time without making up the payments they withheld?

No one knows, but I think if people want to keep their time, they should be required to make all payments up to date first. Then we all hope, fees will be lowered or something!

williamm465 wrote:

Did anyone get an indication that those who withheld their maintenance fees will be able to use their time without making up the payments they withheld?

my question precisely. we need some answers soon. we waited long enough for the legal suit to come to closure. now, i hope, "to the victors belong the spoils" alluding directly to your well-put question, including other issues that deserve financial consideration stemming from the suit.

i hope our redweek.com media correspondent, jeff weir, is on the case, doing enough snooping to supply us owners with pertinent information in response to our questions.

another important issue is who will be taking over TMC operation/ownership since eichner has been ruled out of that position. the owners' interests must be taken into consideration when this situation is resolved, hopefully involving the court's overseeing the equity for us financially burdened shareowners of TMC.

keep in touch.

chris

Me too! I scrape from my savings every year to come up with the $2800+ in maintenance fees.. When we bought they were $800. We were told they would rise about 1-2%..

What makes us think that the fees will go down very much? My understanding is that the owners subsidized the maintenance to entice us to buy and then withdrew the subsidy. The new management will not be restoring the subsidy since they have no way to recover it. I was told by MC that less than 10% of owners didn't pay annually. Is that right? If so, when the start paying it would only reduce the annual fee by 10%, right? I am posing these statements as questions because I don't know the answers. Just seems like wishful thinking that our fees will go down by more than 15 to 20% which would still be very high.

In the first place, you can never believe anything what Manhattan Club ever told you, so don't put any faith into that. Yes, that was part of their con, on their high maintenance fees, telling owners that the subsidy is now gone. Just not charging the owners the $6,000,000. or whatever annual management fee to a shell company has got to help. No telling how many expenses his group was funneling from the MC for personal use. Hopefully, getting some honest people in there with proper accounting practices, we can get back to a fair market price and not the gouging we've been used to, for the last decade plus.

I agree: those that withheld their maintenance fees must repay however much they owe. Wouldn't be fair to the rest of us who paid every year. It would be great if TMC would lower our fees ... who wouldn't want that! I sure hope this investigation is truly over and that TMC agreed to honor their commitments promised when we were sold our weeks. That would be super!

It seems we may be in for another wait and see. There is a lot to sort out (as there are many types of contracts and people who have paid fees and some who have not). I wonder who constitutes an "eligible owner" as was stated in the settlement, in terms of getting something out of the settlement. And unless "they" have someone waiting in the wings to take over the management of TMC from Eichner...that will be another issue. Hopefully someone will step up to the job, someone with integrity. I trust I am wrong, but it sounds like all this could take time... I will remain optimistic for the best outcome in the shortest period of time.

I just want to get out of the whole thing. Anyone know how to do that?

guillermol8 wrote:

I just want to get out of the whole thing. Anyone know how to do that?

It has been the million dollar question for 3 years.

I am not receiving any info on the lawsuit from this site, just messages from other members. I was told to call Eric Yaverbaum who is the Manhattan Plaza rep for information but he refuses to return phone calls.

I have not received any info from this site regarding the outcome of the lawsuit, which has been settled. I was given the name of Eric Yaverbaum to call for information but he refuses to return phone calls.

Here's a totally different question. If anyone has insight? The court order includes removing all (soon to be X management related) timeshare board members. I did not receive any results about the very resent, last member voting. I stopped voting a few years ago, as my laptop never seemed to open the links, paper ballets never arrived and because I own multiple shares, (which should've had one vote per share), BUT not once were TMC reps able to figure out how to avail me of this. Does anyone have info. on who are the current the board members. Are any NOT under the management thumb. Any ideas on how we can have input on the reorganization of a NEW Board. Idealistic I know, BUT......IT'D BE VERY GOOD TO HAVE A BOARD MADE UP OF ONLY SHARE OWNERS.

I've been thinking about this enough for wild speculation.

While the best outcome would be a "timeshare owners only" Board control, that now seems very unlikely.

So, let's assume that the Eichners have agreed to sell. Who would buy, what would they buy, and what would they pay?

Let's answer the second question first. A lot depends on how the sale is structured, but I'm guessing it will be an "asset sale" where the new owners buy the revenue stream but not the legal liabilities. TMC will get cash, and I am sure that cash will be a key focus for the Eichners; they will argue that they should get a lot of it because the future liabilities (lawsuits) will be settled for pennies on the dollar.

The plaintiffs will argue that the money should stay with TMC and that any transaction that pays the Eichners is a fraud.

In any event, the money remaining will not be enough to pay those who want their money back.

But what about the revenue stream the new owners would be buying?

It seems crazy to think that the new owners would walk away from the timeshare revenues and operate the property as a hotel only. On the other hand, they would face a surly group of timeshare owners, many of whom have already abandoned their ownership and quit paying the maintenance.

I am guessing the strategy they would follow is to try to preserve as much of the revenue stream as possible, and try to convince many of the existing owners to stay.

This leads to the third item, the price. Here a lot depends on whether the Eichners have a deadline to sell, but I have to assume the AG is not brain-dead, and there is a requirement to sell soon.

If I were bidding on this deal, I would HEAVILY discount the future revenue stream from the timeshares.

In other words, I wouldn't pay much.

Finally, who would buy? I would have to believe it would be someone or entity that is very skilled at "bottom fishing", and who knows how to fix things with the customers (us) to save the revenue stream.

But, again, this is WILD speculation, especially since nobody has seen the actual settlement yet, and I am SURE I have some or a lot of this wrong.

How about ALL.

So williamm465, who do you think would buy TMC? I think it will be very difficult to find a buyer.

William, since you are so dismissive, you seem to have some insight.

I am anxious to hear how I got this all wrong.

I'm sorry, I should not have commented. I just don't understand how anyone can analyze such a complicated situation unless he/she is involved in the case or has inside information. We just have to wait and see how it plays out. As in most situations like this, I bet no one will be satisfied. Again, I'm sorry I commented.

william, frustration rears its ugly head. NO NEED TO BE SORRY FOR COMMENTING. it's your right to do so regardless of who agrees or disagrees with you. (agreement or disagreement are rights as well) here's where no one can disagree: your quote and my AGREEMENT: "We just have to wait and see how it plays out. " my opinion is that no one can disagree with that.

keep in touch.

chris

williamm465 wrote:

I'm sorry, I should not have commented. I just don't understand how anyone can analyze such a complicated situation unless he/she is involved in the case or has inside information. We just have to wait and see how it plays out. As in most situations like this, I bet no one will be satisfied. Again, I'm sorry I commented.

William,

Apology accepted, and I agree with your comments that we'll have to wait and see.

There was a little part of me that hoped you had heard from/talked to one of the principals.