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Developers trying to hang on to control of resorts instead of turning them over to homeowners is a big problem. It looks like Sunterra is scheming to hang onto Powhatan. I wouldn't even think of buying into such a mess.
On the OBX, there is a similar problem with the Barrier Island Station resorts.
Two of them are long sold out, but still firmly under the developers thumb.
At Ocean Pines, the declaration of covenents provides that the HOA be turned over when the resort was 80% sold out. The original developer stopped selling just short of 80%, the word being that there were things in the books that he wouldn't want an independent board to see. He them sold the resort to Barrier Island, which fininishing selling but has done nothing to turn over the HOA to the owners. It has been that way for years. At BIS-Duck, the declaration gives a specific time period when control is to be turned over, which has long since passed, with no change in control.
There is a fair amount of grumbling among BIS owners about this situation, but as yet no action.
One other OBX developer, First Flight Buiiders, also tried to hand on to control, but owners at their four resorts organized, hired lawyers, and drove them out. The first group in court, Dunes South, took the case all the way to the appellate courts and won. That paved the way for settlements ousting First Flight at the other resorts.
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