Not much is left of Lake Okanagan Resort but thousands of timeshare and strata owners are left not knowing if they will get any compensation.

Image Credit: Facebook/Lake Okanagan Resort Timeshare Termination Letter 2018

Months after last summer’s devastating McDougall Creek wildfire destroyed Lake Okanagan Resort as many as 2,000 timeshare owners still don’t know their fate.

A Vancouver lawyer who deals with timeshares has told iNFOnews.ca that there are various legal actions open to the owners. The lawyer did not wish to be identified because they're not allowed to solicit clients through the media.

“If they opt to stay and say: ‘Lake Okanagan Resort cannot simply kick us out, we have a lease for so many years,’ that’s when they can start an action,” the lawyer said.

The fire destroyed the resort on Aug. 17 but it wasn’t until mid-November that the resort started contacting timeshare owners through mail and email, saying they had until Nov. 30 to vote on whether they wanted to give up their timeshares for free, or stay and face unspecified costs to rebuild.

The letter said two-thirds of active timeshare owners had to vote in favour of ending their timeshares in order for that to happen.

READ MORE: Lake Okanagan Resort timeshare owners at risk of getting the boot with no compensation or notice

But some owners, just days before the deadline, contacted iNFOnews.ca saying they had yet to receive any letter or email.

The resort has not said, either to owners or iNFOnews.ca, what the vote was or what actions it's taking.

The lawyer said individual owners can contact the company and ask for basic information like how much insurance coverage there is, the name of the insurance company, how much money is in the resort timeshare management account and the cost of rebuilding.

That has proven difficult since the company’s email mailbox and voice mailbox are usually too full to take new messages and it seems no one has received responses from the company even when they were able to leave messages.

If Lake Okanagan Resort does not provide the requested information, their next recourse would be to hire a lawyer to act on their behalf.

The lawyer said that could be a group effort or a class action lawsuit and there would need to be three or four people to speak on behalf of the rest of the timeshare owners. That could be difficult given that most of them don’t know each other.

There's a private Facebook group called Lake Okanagan Resort Timeshare Termination Letter 2018 that has 390 members but Lake Okanagan Resort told iNFOnews.ca that there are an estimated 2,000 timeshare owners.

There are potentially two groups of owners who may want to pursue different actions.

On the one hand, there are those who may want to keep their timeshares and need the information about insurance coverage etc.

A separate group may want out of their timeshares and want to join forces to hire a lawyer to negotiate settlements with the resort.

Some members of the Facebook group posted that they just wanted out and would vote that way. Others said they submitted counter-offers while many were undecided.

There are also five strata councils involved with the resort and it’s unclear what is happening with them.

READ MORE: Lake Okanagan Resort condo owners also face uncertain future

But unlike the timeshare owners, they may be able to file individual complaints with the BC Financial Services Authority. They could also hire a lawyer to act on their behalf.

At least one timeshare owner contacted the BC Attorney General’s office and posted that they were advised to file fraud charges.

“The point is that the idea of voting others out of their contractual rights is illegal,” they posted. “You can only rescind your own obligation or rights under your own contract. So the whole idea Lake Okanagan Resort is presenting is one aimed to defraud us of what we have purchased and are owed.”

According to a Government of Canada website on fraud reporting, the first step is to contact local law enforcement agencies.

People can also contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or the Canadian Competition Bureau.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2023