February 21. 2010 06:43

Hi

Excellent idear Vijay.

Have you checked with Osceola County tax collector, to ensure the tourist development tax has been paid on your properties ?

Thank You for seting up this resource.

Darryl

Darryl

February 21. 2010 07:45

We have signed up with Florida-Scandi after visiting with Marion and trying to make the change as seamless as possible.  As is the case with many owners, we are just too far away from our Florida home to do a very intensive search for a management company other than to look at the ones on line.  So, we crossed our fingers and sent the paper work to Marion. She has followed up with a couple e mails and has responded to the phone calls I made last week.  

We have been with Premier since we bought our home in 2002 and have always been happy with them and we are hoping they are suggesting Florida-Scandi in our best interest. We did follow the advice of Premier and call the utility companies.  Most quoted needing payment for two months, January being late and February to bring everything current. I was able to do this both over the web and over the phone.

As of now, I am hopeful that the bills are paid, and that someone is watching our property.  I also am hopeful that future bookings will still be coming our way.

I will post again in a week or so if anything changes .

Denny Jones
Sioux Falls, SD

Dennis Jones

February 21. 2010 08:00

We live in the uk and have already had a call from osceola tax office advising us that we owe $3000 in un paid taxes!!! we have 30 days to respond.
so no premier have not paid our taxes for the last 12 months.

john

February 21. 2010 08:57

Premier have NOT paid our taxes on 3 homes from Jan 2009 through Nov 2009 and we owe a fortune. Furthermore, our homes are in a poor state of repair.

We have stuck with Premier through thick and thin since February 2001 and am appalled they have treated us this way.

I was told tonight they have more bills for us, I cannot see that we will be paying them anything further until this tax position is resolved.

I have photos of two a/c filters come in from my new MC that started yesterday, they are in a disgusting state and they are appalled at the state of our homes, we only inspected them in September.

We'll have to see how this pans out but I feel there is some fraudulent activity if they have taken our money, not paid our taxes and now we have Osceola chasing us. This is just one of the two taxes and next it could be the second lot of tax which could cause us serious damage.

Does anybody know if Ray & Lillian have anything to do with Scandi? It seems to be a Compnay made up of ex Premier employees.

Dave

dave

February 21. 2010 20:45

I was with P.V. for 5 years and eventually sacked them for the following reasons

1. Failing to address damage and theft on the basis that they wanted to encourage repeat business with them so did not want to upset their clients

2. Their staff stealing my vaccuum cleaner which was brand new and replacing it with one that waa clearly second hand and would you believe that exactly one year later to the day, they alleged it was broken and charged me for a brand new one

3. failing to pay me $800 for a rental on the basis that the agent who booked with them had gone bust, so effectively, I paid someone to stay in my villa

4. Failing to pay my utilities on time which meant I was paying "past dues" without realising it. Some of you might want to check your bills, as this only came to light when I asked Polk Water for my deposit back

5. Failing to pay Tourist taxes on time, resulting in threatening letters from Polk County

6. Altering the times on my irrigation system, resulting in a fine from Polk County

I am sorry for their employees  who have lost their jobs but as far as  the Company..."what goes around comes around"

Steve Hayhurst

February 21. 2010 23:55

Hello Everybody

I saw the email immediately it arrived and wanted to have an input, however i have waited a number of days before responding just to see how the situation would develop. Also thanks Vjay for creating this blog

Clearly the situation is not good  but I wanted to find out how Premier will recover the money its due by owners who are delinquent.

You appeared to have significantly contributed to the demise of Premier, also bad management practise by Premier allowing you to do so.

Its time  for you to step up  to the plate and pay your dues, also Premier its your responsibility to honour the commitments and pay the funds due to owner. Yes its your business but our assets.

The Premier lawyer should start proceedings to recover the debts from delinquent owners and then re distribute the funds to those loyal home owners who have played the system within the rules.

For some of you reading this you would think i have spent too much time in Disney land, but fundamentally all the owners incur all the costs , the premier overheads should be low as the winding down costs, should be low.

What is needed is a clear statement from Premier, i have had indirectly had some correspondence with a Premier representative (not sure if its an administrator) but the tone was less than friendly and some of the comments made  were untruthful.

Also watch out those in Polk County taxes have not been paid for three months and remember its your responsibility. However Premeier had infomred Polk that they would pay all outstanding taxws to end of Feb.
Frankly the more i hear the less i think this will ever happen.

I agree with my friend from Nottingham and donot panic, however for somebody who left their pool unmaintained for 2 weeks this is something you need to resolve quickly as the cost of no action is  not recommended.I may get my local odd job man to sort out before i consider my options.

Good luck all
Cliff Roberts

cliff roberts

February 22. 2010 09:50

Dear all,

It seems some of you had better luck with Premier than we did. After one too many liberties, we dumped them in June of last year. We had them as our mis-management company for 8 painful years and got tired of the abuse and lack of partnership.

On the recomendation of a fellow association member (Sunset Lakes) we secured the services of Rob a Christine Gruszeczka as caretakers. All I can say is these guys are a breath of fresh air.

They do not take bookings, that we do very well on our own through Vacation Rentals.com, but otherwise they, and their pool/yard guy, have been superb.

If you want to give them a try please contact them directly (see below). I have no affiliation other than being a satisfied customer.

We are, as many of you, from good old blighty but we have the advantage of US permanent residency.

The tax thing doesn't surprise me in the least. They certainly didn't spend any of the money properly caring for my property. I shook my head when the letter blamed the "home owners" for their downfall. Victims? Bollocks!

Mr. Robert Gruszeczka
Head Maintenance Inspector
Florida Vacation Home Watchers
www.floridavhw.com
rob@floridavhw.com
407-247-8966

Paul Grainger

February 22. 2010 10:15

Hi All:

My husband and I were recently informed that our Tourist Development Tax was not reported or paid (apparently required on a monthly basis) for the entire year of 2009. (Old news, I guess.)

Hoping that not all of us have this problem, but felt obligated to share in the event that others do.  If anyone would like to check it out, the individual to call is:  Mr. Roland Amos, Tax Compliance Officer for Osceola.  His phone number is (407) 742-6409.  (This is where our house is...sorry I don't have the info for other counties.)

We've had nothing from Premier except for the generic letters addressed to all.  We have only been promised our January and February statements (no mention of funds return or solving our tax issue, although Lillian promised to do this before the closure notice).  Also FYI - we had thousands in our account Oct, Nov, Dec 2009 and never got a check or a wire.  Chasing them by phone or e-mail only resulted in empty promises of payment.  Prior to this, when we owed them we got threatening e-mails of inability to pay utility bills - so we were always prompt with THEIR request for payment!

Thanks for all your messages with comments, assistance and advice.
Best of luck with these endeavors,
Shelly Joyce

Shelly

February 22. 2010 18:10

Hi all
I was generally pleased with premier up to the last 12 months , when things started going down hill rapidly , we were overcharged for a lot items and the the general standard of the property was not its normal self , but apparently they held my property in high regard as they held there christmas party in it (2009), i only found out when they emailed me in January thanking me.  
We visited last May and the next guests in to our property infested it with bed bugs , which apparently a very nasty and meant new carpets beds , linen etc . of which I suggested that the bill be sent to the guest who brought the nasty creatures with them. No joy from premier who wriggled as much as the bugs .

Surely if someone is still stating they are going to pay your taxes then surely that is fraud if they dont come up with the goods. not confident as our phone  has been cut off.

Paul (uk) brentwood

Paul Threadwell

February 22. 2010 19:44

Did everyone see the email last night from Denise Barlow to say that the Premier offices had been emptied and closed down?  What happens now if our new Mgt Co's need to obtain documents/keys etc.

Also I have no idea what is happening with my taxes.  I received a letter to say they were unpaid last month so I chased Lilian and the tax office in Polk and on 19th Jan the tax office told me it was all resolved.  I phoned the tax office to advise them of Premier's demise and they told me my taxes were still owing and may be for many months. I couldn't get an answer as to why I was told previously they had been paid.

Only $80 of utilities were due so that wasn't too bad.

I am joining a new MC as I didn't like the idea the Florida Scandi were working from the same office with the same staff, although this appears not to be the case now after Denise's email. I think I am just going to move on.  I am reluctant to settle my account with Premier until the tax issue is resolved though.

Good luck to everyone.

Sian Page

Sian Page

February 23. 2010 01:14

We are in the same boat. I was told taxes were taken care of after I received my letter from Osceola County tourist tax department.  To my knowledge, they are still outstanding and not sure what to do.  Looking for recommendations on different management companies not associated with Premier.  Kevin

kevin cline

February 24. 2010 21:08

Dear all,
we had an eye in the sky that reported the offices were close. This however is not the case as they were looking at the old offices that Premier occupied in better times, next to the ticket offices. They are now operating out of the reality offices and rentals, next to the nail bar of which I have none due to Premiers actions over the last week.
We are NOT moving to Florida Scandi, but have heard nothing detrimental about this company.I just feel they are a little to close in Premier with staff having worked in that company in the past.
Joe Rogers called from Florida Scandi to offer us advise, but stated if Premiers accounts were empty then we were looking at not getting repaid. They are transfering guests who have paid money to Premier on account with the new owners they are taking on and that is it, no mention of your Esrow account been transferred even if it was healthly in the black.
My statement for January has just arrived and they have taken off my sales and tourism tax for guests in January 2010 bit of a cheek as they have done this for all of 2009 and not paid any of it.
I live in hope that Lillian and Ray will honour our accounts and be true to their word of trying to do their best by the "good owners".I too have probably visited Disney land once too often and think all fairy tales have a happy ending.
Good luck to all out there suffering the same situation as myself.

Denise

Denise Barlow

March 5. 2010 12:25

  March 5

     I just received a Feb. statement. We sold our home in Dec. and closed on the house Ja. 27. TODAY I got a statement that Premier charged us for FEB. management $135, PLUS fees for trash, lawn, pool, pest control, in FEB.  I know the new owners DID NOT ALLOW Premier in their home for these services.
We were with Premier for 15 years. This is a sad ending.
   I have Emailed Lillian asking how they charged for a house we no longer own and how did they charge when they went banrupt inJan.  Did anyone else get such a statement.
       Nancy Parson

Nancy Parson