Has anyone seen the supposed Buena Vista Disclosure Guide with the changes assertedly made? I would like to see how Disney is attempting to get around many provisions in the official documents that would appear to prohibit what is being done.
I question whether DVC can legally add Riviera (and future resorts) as a "DVC Resort" to the Disney Vacation Club system that includes the Disney Reservation Component, while prohibiting future resale owners of the existing resorts from reserving Riviera and resale owners of Riviera from reserving other DVC resorts. As I see it, the only thing Disney can legally do is create a whole new DVC 2 system, starting with Riviera, and leave Riviera out of the current DVC Resort system entirely if it wants to restrict rights of future resale owners as it has done.
Until, now, Disney, to combat resales, has merely taken steps to deprive resale owners of incidental benefits, which are not necessarily covered by the official documents. The new rule takes aim directly at material rights of owners and what is being proposed appears prohibited by the Declarations and by BVTC’s DVC Resort Agreements for all the current resorts.
(I am using the BWV documents here and thus section numbers might be a little different for other resorts but the terms are the same.)
“Membership in the Disney Vacation Club is an appurtenance to each ownership intertest, which is conveyed by virtue of the execution and delivery of a deed, in accordance with and subject to the terms of this Declaration, the Membership Agreement, and the DVC Resort Agreement. Upon recording the deed, the Club Member is automatically entitled to enjoy the services and benefits associated with membership in the club. As an appurtenance, the Club membership, as it it is compromised from time to time, may not be partitioned, hypothecated, bought, sold, exchanged rented or otherwise transferred separately from each ownership interest.” Declarations § 6.4.
What that says is that membership in the Club is actually part of the real estate ownership interest that you own, that any member (not just those who buy from Disney) automatically becomes a member by the recording of a deed, and any member will thereafter enjoy all the befits and services associated with the Club. Also, if you sell your interest, DVD has a right of first refusal, but if it declines to exercise that right, your transfer results in the purchaser’s automatically becoming a member of the Club, and thus also entitled to all the same services and benefits associated with the Club as you had. Id., §13.1.
One of the main services and benefits of membership in the Club is to participate in the “DVC Reservation Component” which is defined as the “the exchange component of the Club central reservation system, through which Vacation Homes in any DVC Resort may be reserved using DVC Vacation Points pursuant to priorities, restrictions, and limitations provided by BVTC by virtue of and pursuant to the conditions of a DVC Resort Agreement.” Id., Art. I, Definitions. The Buena Vista Trading Company (BVTC) is the company officially responsible for reservations of resorts, other than your own resort, done at 7 months out. A “Disney Resort” is defined as ”each resort which is entitled to access and use the DVC Reservation Component and other Club services and benefits provided by BVTC by virtue and pursuant to the terms of a DVC Resort Agreement.” Id.
Then there is the following defining a Member’s rights in the DVC Reservation Component, id. §12.12(b) (which again does not limit itself to purchasers from DVD):
“The Condominium is a DVC Resort entitling Owners of Ownership Interests in Units committed to the Vacation Ownership Plan to voluntarily participate in the DVC Reservation Component in accordance with the provisions of the DVC Resort Agreement, an initial copy of which is attached as Exhibit ‘H.’ Under the terms of the DVC Resort Agreement, owners at any DVC Resort will be able to access the DVC Reservation Component and use DVC Vacation Points to reserve the use of Vacation Homes and accommodations at other DVC Resorts on a first come, first served basis ….” The section goes on to describe that the right can arise no earlier than one month after owners of a particular resort have had an opportunity to reserve their home resort.
In other words, any DVC owner (including resale owners) has an absolute right to reserve at any other DVC Resort added to the DVC system.
Now we turn to the DVC Resort Agreement, Exhibit H to the Declarations. It provides that any owner can use Home Resort Vacation Points as DVC Vacation Points and thus reserve vacation homes at any DVC Resort in accordance the DVC Reservation Component. Id. §5.2. BVTC has the power to add a new DVC Resort to the system only if “the DVC Resort Agreement executed to effect such association shall be substantially similar to this [BWV] Agreement in all material respects under the circumstances pertaining to each such additional DVC Resort.” Id., §6.1 BVTC does not have any power to amend that provision of the DVC Resort Agreement or the rights created in the Declarations concerning the DVC Reservation Component. Moreover, in accepting any new Resort to the Club, it must always act “in the best interests of the Club Members as a whole with respect to the Club Members’ opportunity to use and enjoy all of the Vacation Homes and related facilities made available through the DVC Reservation Component” id., §6.2b, not in DVD's interests to limit resales.
Since any owner (past, current or future, and including any resale purchasers) has a right under the Declarations to use the DVC Reservation Component and make reservations at any DVC Resort, I do not see how DVC intends to do what it is doing by simply modifying BVTC’s disclosure guide. BVTC should not be allowed to add any DVC Resort to the system unless all owners (original or resale) at existing resorts can reserve at that resort and all the owners of the new resort (including resale) can reserve at other DVC Resorts.
Existing members are not immediately impacted by the change since the main issue they would face is its impact, if any, on resale value. Moreover, you have the issue of what solution is considered preferable if the new system is successfully challenged – having Riviera in the DVC system with its limitations or excluding it entirely. DVC is trying to have its cake and eat it to, by creating an entirely new anti-resale DVC system, but meld it with the prior system only for direct purchasers from Disney and acting like it can do that under the existing official documents by only making a change to a BVTC disclosure guide.
Personally, I am considering sending a letter to DVC outlining my concerns and reserving a right to take action if this ever has an adverse impact on my interests. I have a concern that current Disney management actually does believe it can do anything it feels like to the members, as it has now demonstrated with the 2020
point charts and the new restrictions on resales, and future actions may only get worse.