Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Velas Vallarta
San Jose, California
United States

Much to my regret, I purchased a 1 BR "villa" at Velas Vallarta. Besides getting taken for a huge amount of money for the purchase, I am now saddled with a maintenance fee that is growing faster than the contract allows. The contract states in clause "Seventh": Maintenance fees "may not increase by more than the percentage increase in the consumer price indes from September to September of each year as published by the Banco de Mexico, minus the percentage of devaluation in the Mexico peso against the U.S. dollar for the same time period."

I checked the numbers. Since my contract began (2 years), the increase in the Mexican CPI (the "UDI") has been 7.67%, and the peso has devalued 1.45%, so my maintenance fees should have grown by 9.12% over two years. In fact, my maintenance fees have increased by 12% over that time period. The 4.34% unjustified mark-up (so far) amounts to $34 additional fees plus 17% tax or $39.78 each year times 24 years. That's almost $1000 more that I will be paying with no justification in the contract and no accountability on the part of the resort.