A B.C. court has ruled in favour of a property management company and now hundreds of Calgarians who own timeshares at the Sunchaser Villas in Fairmont B.C. will have to decide whether they will stay or pay to get out. The court ruled that the resort’s new property management company can legally charge timeshare owners thousands of dollars to either get out of their contracts or pay for mistakes made by the prior resort owner. Last spring, Tina Balsom and 14000 other timeshare owners were given the choice to either pay $4000, their share of a $40 million renovation, or $3000 to walk away. Several owners filed a class action to find out if the new management company, Northwynd, could legally do this. CTV Calgary Consumer Watch Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty checked it out and it turns out it does have the legal right to do this. Lea says that the lawyers for the timeshare owners say owners have two other options; appeal the court judgment or do nothing and let the new resort owner sue them for the money. At that point, timeshare owners could argue they don't owe anything since the resort breached the timeshare contract first by allowing the resort to fall into the kind of disrepair that requires a $40 million renovation. Timeshare owners Lea talked to say that if they stay they want some reassurance from the resort's new ownership that they'll get the first class resort they paid for this time around. Lea asked Northwynd's CEO about that. “The results of the renovations and the feedback we've been receiving for the renos to date from the owners have been really positive, they're excited about what they're seeing and we hope people will stay and we're really happy with the way things are going,” said Kirk Wankel, Northwynd Resorts CEO. Northwynd says 7000 of the 14000 timeshare owners haven't made a choice yet. The company adds that of the 7000 that have decided, about half have stayed and half have left. (With files from Lea Williams-Doherty)
