TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Atrium

Received my maintenance bill ($642.36)for studio unit at the Atrium. Does anyone know the yearly maintenance fee for the other size units?

I believe if you look at the backside of that invoice, the prices for the other units are listed there.

Speaking of MF's I just got ours from the Flamingo. NO INCREASE. Yay. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/circle.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

No info on back of my invoice unless it was on the part I remitted with payment. Could you please share the other fees? Thanks

I don't have my bill handy, but can tell you that my maintenance fee went up 7.78/week for a single bedroom

Would like to know what penthouse maintenance fee is.

1 bedroom= 785.82

I thought I'd read that Maint. fee increases could not exceed 6% per year per government.

If his AMF is over $130 then the 6% is not exceeded... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

As in timeshare legislation on the island? Any chance you can provide a link to where you read this?

SBR AMF increased by 10% in 2012

And that is why I am asking. To my knowledge, this is no such legislation and we are not in the business of spreading rumors.

Ruralcarrier,

I believe you are right and while there has been a lot of idle promises regarding timeshare legislation, to date I haven't heard of any being enacted.

Many of us do have clauses in our original sales contracts regarding the maximum annual amount of permitted increases but in too many cases those clauses have been ignored for years. I think ours reads two or three percent is the maximum annual increase permitted, which was scaled to island inflation when we bought so many years ago. Unfortunately.....those clauses have long been ignored and timeshare companies have pretty much done what they wanted. If you love YOUR timeshare, both rooms and weeks, it's a little easier to swallow and even if laws were passed today, I'm sure they wouldn't be retroactive so I'm thinking the damage is already done.

Typical of politicians, lots of rhetoric and little actual action.

I posted this approximately 7 years ago elsewhere, and apparently it's still valid:

We owned this timeshare since 1997 and it's time to move on. This is room 503, a one bedroom (sleeps four), week 49 at The Atrium Resort in Simpson Bay. It is an oceanfront room on the fifth floor.

Unfortunately, a company called Festiva Resorts bought The Atrium in October, 2005 and the resort has (coincidentally?) been bleeding red ink since. Their management team (headed by two schmucks named Don Clayton & Butch Patrick) is trying to sway the courts of St. Maarten to void our boilerplate contract to allow for a special assessment in the amount of approximately $1200.00....and at the same time opening the door to future assessments of the same type. Also, they continually try to cajole us into paying maintenance fees in excess of what's allowed by the contract. They also want the contractually-mandated cap on the maintenance fees removed. (Update to this scenario is below).

Festiva will provide you with an occasional financial statement regarding the resort with more conflicting figures than you can imagine. The report is so hard to figure out that I have trouble figuring out which way to hold it to read it.

Up until 2005 this had been a wonderful place, very clean (it still is), centrally located and with an attentive, friendly staff including the manager, a nice woman, who was put in place by Festiva for her pro-company stance replacing the previous manager who was let go for showing sympathy toward the (possible) impending plight of the timeshare owners.

Being a business owner for over 33 years I am qualified to say that this Festiva outfit is one of the shadiest companies I've ever done business with. They were found guilty (by the attorney general) in Branson, MO. for deceitful business practices and fined $339,393.00 in 2005. You can find literally hundreds of unhappy Festiva owners with a simple Google search who have been scammed, cheated and lied to and at many of their resorts.

If you'd like to vacation on an island that allows an inept/crooked island judge to tear up your valid timeshare contract to favor the resort owners AND you'd like to ride this financial bucking bronco at one of the nicest resorts on the island, this is the one for you.

Update: Festiva somehow convinced the judge to void my legal contract to allow a special assessment (in my case) of 1200.00, which smacks of corruption on the part of the judge, Festiva or both. Not only that, I received a bill for approximately 2300.00 total, charging me the aforementioned 1200.00 plus interest and penalties resulting from a past due maintenance fee shortage, which was also not owed under my legal contract. I won't be paying that, even though I've been threatened by them to do so.

I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones; I owned at The Atrium long enough, and used my unit enough times that when the smoked cleared my annual usage fee was still below the rack rate.

My recommendation is that any prospective timeshare buyer should avoid this company like the plague.

Addendum: I received threatening calls (repeatedly) from a collection agency saying that if I didn't pay it would be reported to the major credit bureaus. I'm not a lawyer, but I couldn't see how a foreign-based transaction could impact my credit rating, and I was right. My current score is 818.

At any rate, I've since been renting a house annually in the Oyster Pond area. I am very happy to not have anything to do with Festiva or the island's apparently crooked legal system.

I have been an owner at the Atrium since it was built and I have never had any problems since Festiva took over there. Yes, there was a special assessment to upgrade the resort as the original company did not raise the maintenance fees and the resort was in dire need of upgrading. I happily paid my fees as I wanted to see the resort kept up to a five star rating. It has been totally renovated and all the owners are happy with the result. I converted my week to points at no charge by the Atrium and the exchange value is amazing. No complaints here.

Is there a new/recent special assessment? I own and have only seen my main fee's bill this year. Also, after complaining about the pathetic wifi/internet last year- the mgr told me they are doing a MAJOR update with Cat5 wired in each unit. Anyone know about this upgrade?

I love the Atrium

I just looked at our contract and "not exceed 6%" is there. Whether or not it's adhered to by SXM is another thing. I was just quoting what my contract reads.

When I sign a legal contract I expect the terms to be upheld by both parties. I have morals and I'm not comfortable dealing with companies that don't. If you do, that's ok by me.

I own a small business and have for 38+ years. I can't imagine trying to explain to a customer why my item is $20.00 more than the identical item down the street. Of course I could tell him the truth....my building is falling down because I failed to maintain it. Then I can tell him he's going to pay to fix it. Most people would walk out the door, never to return. It's good to know the people who paid the special assessment and the illegal maintenance fees would still shop in my store.

It is not my fault that Festiva passed on the due diligence necessary prior to the purchase.

Part of owning a timeshare is that expenses are shared too. They have the maintenance fee as a way of collecting for the maintaining of the condition of your timeshare. Without that fee the timeshare would not be as nice and maintained as you'd expect it to be when you went to use it. Sure the fees were a lot less back in the day of nickle beer but materials and construction labor have increased since those years. Appliances that have to be replaced cost more than they did when it was first built along with insurance premiums that need to be in place for protection. Maybe instead of blaming Fiesta on not doing due diligence put some of the blame on your self for not going into buying a timeshare without your eyes wide open.

When was beer a nickle? I remember $1 or maybe 75 cents but never a nickle in my lifetime.

Just an expression but I do remember .25 scooners and 1.00 pitchers in college back in the 60's.

No, there has not been a special assessment for several years. The poster was complaining about something that happened about 7 years ago. The maintenance fees do increase a bit each year in relation to the cost of living as do most things.

.10 for a 7 oz. draft when I started.

Bob

Forget what I previously said because what I have is not timeshare but a form of it prior to TS becoming the norm on the island. We bought 40 weeks in our lifetime from the NY firm that purchased Little Bay Beach & Racket Club. That was then sold to Divi who honored the previous contracts.

We don't pay MF unless we go and each year MF increases 6 % . We started with a $50 MF now up to 700.

It's a nickel now...Happy Hour at the Margaritaville bar in the Flamingo Las Vegas <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

I got involved with Festiva Atrium during the court battle, I purchased my 2 weeks via resale at a great price. When we got hit with the special assessment back in 2011 I believe, I received one extra week for every week of special assessment, and even though I only purchased a one bedroom, they gave me a two bedroom for the special assessment paid. I have been treated very fairly since I have been an owner, with the only complaint being the wifi, of which they were working on in Nov by placing a router in the rooms.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />me too!

That router in every room is golden. SBR did it with the remodel and it is a MAJOR upgrade