Do join us…
June 22, 2010
This is the first post of this new blog to bring fixed week owners at the Matchroom Country Club together. Please read the ‘Welcome’ page on how we, as members of MCC can communicate and join together to help each other. For your interest there is a copy of the Constitution and an update on events at the AGM in 2009.
This is a place to air your views, get feedback from others, so we can be informed and as a group, and if necessary, contact our Committee Members, Rikky Evans, Nic Pratt, and Richard Elvin with items to bring before the AGM and Committee Meetings.
62 Comments
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Matchroom Owners Blog 
brilliant new site, it will be great to share news and ideas with fixed week owners at Matchroom, just what we need
excellent new site, this is just what fixed week owners need well done, look forward to all the posts and comments
Brilliant idea 🙂
Hi Everyone,
Please also note that if you are on Facebook on the request of Evelyn I’ve also created a Facebook Group Called
“Matchroom Country Club – Owners”
If you require a invite to this group please let myself of Evelyn know and we will send you an invite request.
Daniel,
Please can you send me an invite for Facebook; anything else you need?
Thanks – Mark
Fixed week 24 Appt 31
Mark,
If you can send me your email address I’ll send you an invite. Otherwise you can search for the group on facebook and either Evelyn or myself can accept your request to join the group
Daniel
Regards
Daniel
Please have a look at the Matchroom owners blog page
Daniel – many thanks.
We have done a second e-mail address fix of more fixed week members. I also took the chance to provide a link to this site. Hopefully we will see an increase in the number of hits.
We will also be pleased to receive any requests for invitation to Facebook Group “Matchroom Country Club – Owners” – think we have 5 to date.
Tony B
Hopefully we will now be much better informed about what is going on so that we can put an end to the cloak and dagger environment which has existed. An opportunity for the fixed week owners to have representation and a say in what happens, after all it is our money. Will we have sufficient numbers to hold the balance of power to counter those others with a vested interest in changing the constitution to the detriment of the fixed week owners.
Please have a look at the Matchroom owners page, see you next year
Dear Nigel, I don’t know how many floating weeks there have been added since the AGM figure in 2009. But we would need at least 1,500 votes (one per week owned) to now counteract the power of weeks Heritage has sold as floating. This is why I stood up for the fixed week owners, and wanted people to know what had happened. There is no reason why fixed week owners couldn’t take legal advice on the Constitution. If it could be proved that the election of Nic Pratt was illegal then further action could be taken. It would cost money, but assuming the verdict went in our favour, it wouldn’t be easy for the incoming Committee member because Heritage are also the Management Company and I’m not sure where the allegiance of the other two Commitee members lies!! Heritage as the Management Company in Sept.2008 put forward to raise their Management fees to 25% of Maintenance fees, it was finally agreed to raise it from 15% to 20% but of course I don’t know what happened at the meeting last September. The Club House by the way is owned by Heritage Resorts, not Matchroom, for which we pay around £15.00 per week in our maintenance fees.
I have just received the letter stating that at the next meeting a vote will take place to change all 1 bed fixed week apartments to floating weeks. This does not apply to us, as we have a 2 bed but I would like my proxy vote used in the best way possible for the fixed week owners. Who should I nominate on the proxy form?
Richard Elvers is the person who represents fixed week owners, and I am giving my vote to him as he is our representative
All,
we’ve received a request from “Siv Kristen Myge” to join our facebook group. Does anyone know this member so we can clarify all members of the group are members?
Thanks
Daniel
Hi everybody.We are really pleased that this website has been set up.We have been members since 1989 and up untill now has never had a problem.
Welcome Maurice & Deb to our new site, where we can exchange ideas & comments, any suggeastions are welcome. Please invite your Matchroom owner friends to join us
Well as I predicted, they are trying to sqeeze us out ! I now receive notification of Special General Meeting on 29th November 2010 to change the Resolution Clause 8 to FLOAT all 1 bed apts. and all studio’s ,so here it is , the change has started in earnest. It is only a matter of time that the same will happen with 2 bed & 3 bed apts. What can we do ? If there is anyone here who can help with this matter, it would be great. Maintenance from the year 2002 was £278.03 and now in 2010 £596.84 is this reasonable ,? No I don’t think so. Heritage has bought 1,760 units and the club only has 246 weeks that are fixed it’s a done deal. they can do what they like it appears. and who represents the FIXED WEEK OWNERS ? I endeavour to find out and try to put my point across ,which is our fixed weeks we want to stay fixed week and we want more representation from fixed week owners.
Hi, Just wondered how fixed week owners were feeling about
the very high increase in the maintenance fees for next year
I am very annoyes about this increase, it is unfair and unjust, what they are trying to do is to bring us into line with floating weeks, which is not on. If everyone wrote aletter of complaint that might help, or it could be raised with the timeshare council
HI Kate I have just taken over as administrator of Matchroom, please have a look at the blog, I await your comments xx
would anyone like to comment on the latest Special Annual general meeting and comment on how you are going to vote, it does sound a bit suspicious to me. I am going to agree to it as in principle iot sounds fine, but is it a smokescreen in order to make it into a completely floating resort, comments welcome
I have very interesting news for fixed week owners, please check back within 24hrs. you will be glad you did
If you have recently received a letter from Matchroom on behalf of Richvale Ltd. offering you fractional exit programme, which states that you will not pay maintenance for 5 years, but can still go to Matchroom and at the end of 5 years you will have cash back, please be aware that this will cost you £5.900, also stated is that in 2016 your apt. will be sold to freehold and you will receive 52nd’s of the sale. My interpretation of this deal is that you will be spending your money to cover 5 year’s maintenance also the cost of floating your week of £3,950 ( which was quoted to me on the 20th June 2011), this is another way to get fixed week members out of their fixed week. if you want out of your timeshare, sell it through 1 of the reputable companies recommended by The TIMESHARE CONSUMERS COUNCIL 3 of which I have details on, please email me for more information to tbaginski@btinternet.com or you can rent it to cover the cost of your maintenance. We intend stating fixed for the forseeable future
Latest news from Matchroom is that some owners are not only receiving their maintenance renewal notice, but they are being asked to pay more in the form of a supplement on top of the £ £589.45 that’s due. Apparantly there are only 8 fixed weeks in apt. 22 which they say is not enough to cover fees for that apt. This is not what we signed up too, it is not in the constitution, and I do not know what can be done about it, apart from getting legal advice
matchroom
We have been owners since 1989 appt 22.We have had this letter regarding extra maintainence.I am going to speak to Richard Elvin but wondering if before I pay the 589.45 for next years fee not pay and walk away at least we come away with that much rather than nothing.we are so annoyed that it has come to this.What are your views?
This has happened to someone else and it is very worrying,I do not think this is legal as it is not in the constitution. The A.G.M. is being held on March 27th. and I think you should get Richard Elvin to raise your question as he is fixed week members representative and is happy to do this, any problems in reaching him, I can pass your question on to him
Hi
I own at Matchroom and have just found this site because we are looking to sell and other resorts have resale forums. Do anyone know if Matchroom have anything like that? There doesnt seem to have been much activity on here! Regards
Kay Callaghan
HI Kay
Welcome to the Matchroom blog, you are correct there isn’t much activity on this site apart from me who is the moderator,this may be because people do not seem to be that interested, although most people are very interested as to what goes on at Matchroom. I also have a facebook page for fixed week owners, where all my contacts will see your post. I would put your request on this page & Facebook page and you never know what the response will be. It would be grat if you would like to become more involved by putting posts on here, where others might do the same.
Thanks Evelyn Baginski tbaginski@btinternet.com
Hi Evelyn
Thanks for the reply. I have found the Facebook page and sent a friend request!
Thanks
Kay
Kay is selling week 1 penthouse, 2 bed 2 bath and is open to offers,apt. 15
ive been with matchroom for aprx 15ys a loyal holiday owner going there every year. i had a fixed week untill 2 years ago. it was a time for change for us so we decided to sell but was told we was unable to sell without buying into the i.c.e. org. for £5500 as we was desperate too sell we was convinced by management and associates that it would sell with in months but rarely longer than 12 months, plus they dangled a carrot of free maintenance for a year and we would get £16000 (we now know this to be untrue 2 years later) so i would advise people to be aware of the silver tounged sales talk. the maintenance has now got to much for us to pay as im now out of work due too an accident at work. we loved matchroom and most of the staff and they got to know us, heritage or matchroom are being unreasonable
Hi Paul
Sorry to hear about your accident! Hope things get better for you.
I too own a fixed week at Matchroom and have done since 1994 but unlike you I have never been there! We bought purely to exchange and have done so all over the world. We tried to sell our week through a reputable agent (my friend sold with them) but with no luck. We havent had our maintenance bill yet for 2013 but it must be on its way. We like to take other holidays now and not just timeshare hence the reason for selling. I feel like not paying and seeing what happens but I have read reports on the internet that say if you do that they will chase you for payment and that will affect your credit rating. I think that the resort should just take the week back but maybe that would be just too easy!
I’m not surprised that Matchroom management are looking to turn the 2 bed fixed week apartments to floating! Having read the changes I don’t think my own week in apartment 12 is being changed now but have no doubt it will change in the future. I this the whole affair is absolutely appalling and can’t believe it’s legal !!!
i believe all this is just the tip off the iceburg. maintenance will rocket in the next couple of years and you’ll find it increasingly hard to book when and where you want your holiday.instead of lowering the maintenance and incouraging more people to want to join they are detering people, dont make sense to me.
Concerned about recent email from Heritage Resorts relating to Special General Meeting on 28/11/12 re: ‘floating’ of fixed weeks at Matchroom Country Club. Having read above comments this has been a gradual process!
We are trying to ‘get out’ of our timeshare and interestingly there is some information on the Timeshare Consumers Association website regarding purchase of Spanish timeshare pre 1999. I was going to post the details but I contacted TATOC to see what they thought about it…they have said the info is intrue! I have gone back to TCA and will let you know what the outcome is!
Also there is a page on Facebook called Rescinding Timeshare Ownership not much on there but maybe not a lot of people know about it!
Good to see the rise in activity here, and it’s not surprising !! I now have a timeshare lawyer looking into this situation that we find ourselves in, John Hughes was recommended by Tatoc, so hopefully he can help. also I have left a message for Richard Elvin who represents Matchroom fixed week owners and is excellent, to find out if he will be attending the Special General Meeting on 28th Oct and if he would accept our proxy votes in order to vote on our behalf. It was very interesting talking with Sue Aldridge today, who pointed out that there has to be 28 days notice of such a meeting, this of course has not happened. I would like to thank everyone who is being so supportive and getting themselves involved your help makes all the difference. In the long run I don’t think we have a voice, but we can go down shouting !!
Not sure who you were talking to today but it wasn’t me. I did however drop you an email.
it was another Sue I was talking to, and I hope you have received my emails now
A couple of years ago we were asked to change from fixed to floating at a cost of a few thousand pounds, of course we refused, however last year we were told that it was now free to transfer and as we had a fixed week in the school half term and the children had now grown it would make sense to go over to floating and save on air fares. I asked if it was possible to just change our week and the answer was no. We did transfer to floating!!!
We have owned at matchroom for 15 years and have loved our holidays in our 2 bed penthouse. I feel we have been duped and the maintenance is causing us great concern during this financial down turn. I want out now but don’t know how. I am tempted to just walk away and see what happens but I am sure they will hound us and make life very difficult.
Regarding my earlier post about purchasing timeshare pre 1999, TCA have said that TATOC would deny the information being true as they are paid by the timeshare traders! I have put this to TATOC, lets see what they say. Dont know what to believe now.
All – this is important please read on –
I had a very successful telephone conversation with RICKY EVERS yesterday, he will be representing fixed week owners at the Special General Meeting on 28th Nov. Ricky is an owner of 3 fixed weeks and is a committee member. He too is of the same opinion as all of us and is happy for us all to send our proxy voting papers to him. He will make sure that they are counted at the meeting. Please send him your Proxy vote with your instruction written on the form.
HOW:-
1. Fill in the form and below, “Do Hereby Appoint”, enter
RICKY EVERS and cross through “The Chairman”.
2. Between “At Matchroom Country Club….” and your “signature and date” write
“I vote AGAINST the resolution”.
3. Make sure you Sign and date the form.
4. Check you have completed the form then send it as soon as possible to:-
Ricky Evers,
Hertog Straat 201
3001 Leuven
Belgium
I hope this is of some help and we can, at least, ensure our votes are recorded. Please get back to me a.s.a.p. if you have any questions or comments.
Evelyn Baginski
you can contact Ricky Evers by email rikky@libertad.be or phone 0032 1640 3757, this is his home in Belgium, but does not mind being contacted. You could scan your proxy vote to him by email as well as posting to him
I have posted our votes, against, to Ricky!
Good Kay, ours are posted too, to Ricky Again, let’s hope other people do this too !!
I also sent my proxy off to him yesterday, Hopefully as many members as possible will do the same!!
Excellent Sandra, strength in numbers, let’s wait and see !!
HI everyone, Today I called Ricky Evers in Belgium to find out the outcome of the Special General Meeting which took place on 28th Nov. 2012
1) The vote was accepted to float the 28 apts from fixed
2) An amendment was passed, that stated that previousfixed week members would have preferance on their request as long as they requested by the 31st Jan. of that same year
2) Nine votes were taken by Ricky Evers to the meeting who were voting against this motion
This is all was told on the phone by Ricky, but he said as he was only back from Spain and also runs 3 businesses, he would endeavour to find the time to reply to me in writing, this may take some time as he needs time to think about the translation from his Mother Language, which is Belgium
He said that the meeting was very surprised to receive so many votes against as there is never usually any objections and the motion usually goes straight through, that’s why they made the amendment.
He went on to say that members who own a good fixed week, i.e red time would be offered a similar apt. and at the same time as they own, and members who own a bad week i.e. white, blue, could request a red time week.
This is as much as I could find out on the phone, but hopefully he will put everything in writing so we can all read it.
My thoughts are this was inevitable to happen and will go on happening ,but we do need to show our strength in numbers as to how we feel, so they cannot just walk roughshod over us, I look forward to your comments, Evelyn Baginski
Hi Evelyn,
Well done with all the effort you’ve put in. Thought outcome was pretty much inevitable but nothing ventured nothing gained. Maybe more people will act next time!
Thankyou Sandra for taking the time to comment, your words of encouragement mean a lot to me, at least I can say I tried! Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas ans a Happy New Year, happy holidays also xx
Just received notice from Matchroom of another EGM in February, 2013 with a proposal to remove 14 of the 28 apartments (which were changed to floating in November, 2012) from the Trust. Does anyone know why these particular apartments were chosen or how those owners whose apartments have been removed from the trust are treated, are they still members of Matchroom Country Club or Heritage Resorts? The mind boggles!!
Sandra, this is the first I have heard of this and yes the mind boggles, I wish I knew what is going on, and I am at a loss, I will try to make contact with a committee member who may be able to shed light on the matter, nervous times I think
Hi Evelyn, Thanks for your response. Looking forward to hearing what your committee member has to say! Best Regards, Sandra
Here is an update on the special meeting which was held at Matchroom on 28th November 2012 which stated that 28 apts were to be floated and as you all know this was voted for. Now on the 12th February 2013 there is another Special General Meeting whereby there is a proposal to remove 14 apts. from the trust and to be returned to the founder members.
I have been contacted by a few people who would like me to find out what this actually means to existing members. I did contact Ricky Evers in Belgium by phone and also Richard Elvin phoned me today. Apparantly the 14 apts. are being returned to Mr & Mrs Atkins who are the founder members, which will result in the paying the maintenance on those apts. and should relieve the burdon of responsibility from Matchroom owners ,which I am quite happy about as it was stated that maintenance will only rise in accordance with inflation.
I have asked Richard who will be attending the meeting on 12th Feb. to ask the question why not all members were informed of the Nov. meeting as those members have told me so, also to clarify that there will be no increase in maintenance of £100 which is the difference between fixed & floating.
If anyone would like a question raised, please inform me so that I can pass this on to Richard Elvin, Ricky Evers will not be attending as he is having an op on his foot. There is not much time for you to attend to this, but email is quick, so we do have time.
Hope this finds you all well and looking forward to your holidays at Matchroom in 2013
Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for the information which clears up a couple of questions I had. Keep up the good work and enjoy your summer at Matchroom. Best Regards, Sandra
I’ve noticed that nobody’s posted for a while about fixed weeks being changed to floating. Thought some of you might like to know that Heritage called me a few weeks ago to say that my fixed week for 2014 was being changed to a floating week. I have enjoyed over 14 years at Matchroom but am not interested in owning a floating week. I did not wish to pay ever increasing maintenance fees and not be guaranteed the week I originally bought, which I was perfectly happy owning. Sadly, I have had to surrender my week back to the club. What a shame that was once a terrific timeshare resort has been taken over by such an unscrupulous management company! Best regards, Sandra.
HI Sandra,Thankyou for posting it is good to hear from you. We too have returned our membership to Matchroom, which is such a shame as it was my 2nd home. Management and bullyboy tactics have forced members to give in and hand it back. I only found out that they were floating our week when I received notification by email that they were holding a meeting on 25th Nov. I don’t suppose everyone was notified. We have such great memories of Matchroom and so very sad that it has ended like this.Now we have to decide how to arrange our holiday for next year, we are looking at Croatia, but it was so easy doing this with timeshare, so I have a lot research to do. I do appreciate you taking an interest in this site as it keep me going as I felt at times alone in trying to do something, so I thankyou for that, please keep in touch ,our email is tbaginski@btinternet.com, tel 01324 714937 as I would love to hear from you, take care, good health and best regards. Evelyn Baginski
Hi Evelyn And Tony I am so sorry that you have had to surrender your week the same as us.What a rotten lot after all those good years like you said.So if they( and they will) sale all fixed week members weeks they will be laughing all the way to the bank having not paid us a penny.My friend Sue from Worcester still owns because she did go to floating a little while ago.She has 4 children so therefore in the past had to have school holidays.Now there older didnt need August.So it has become to her advantage as she travels all over the place.I will give you a ring over the weekend. Really sorry to anyone else out there who has had to surrender there weeks.It was great while it lasted which for us it was 1989-2012 / 23 years. Love from Deb & Maurice past owners of week 22 Appartment 23
So this is why we were forced to give our ownership over to Heritage!!! See link;-
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matchroom-Country-Club/509929325712771
What a shower, glad to be out of it , regards, Sandra
Yes Sandra, we all now know what Matchroom were up to, it is disguand not a place I would like to go back to, which is such a shame, but they are piranah fish !!! Not nice people and could not care less about it’s members x