I don't have a strong opinion about the legality of this fee. I can see the argument that it's been done by others for decades and the statute forbids the association to impose a fee and this is a different company.
However, let's reason by absurd. If a $500 fee is legal, why not $1,000? And why not $10,000? A 10k fee would effectively kill the resale market once and for all. It would be an immense win for all timeshare companies. If they can impose any fee they like, then why not 10k? Is it just optics?
Is there a law that allows to impose a fee to recoup the expenses of setting up the membership for a resale buyer? Where is it? Does the process need to be audited to guarantee fairness like the budgets?
And the most important question: why doesn't the
DVC management company handles new memberships? Like it has been said, resale buyers are not DVD clients, why is the process of setting them up is handled by DVD instead the DVCMC? I think this could easily be handled by MS CM, within the normal budget.