Disney Vacation Club's promise to grandfather owner perks to buyers whose purchases were in-process during policy change is not reflected in documents they received.
On April 4, 2016, Disney Vacation Club implemented a new restriction on deeds that are not bought directly from Disney. "Membership Extras" perks and benefits will not be available to resale owners unless they have other deeds that were purchased either direct from Disney or from the resale marketplace prior to April 4, 2016.
After some initial confusion, Disney Vacation Club stated that buyers whose resale contracts were in-process on April 4 would be grandfathered; as long as the agreement was submitted to DVC for its Right of First Refusal (ROFR) consideration by April 3, the resale buyer would be eligible for Membership Extras.
Multiple buyers whose purchase agreements were being reviewed by Disney at the time of the change have since confirmed their grandfathered status. These new owners are receiving DVC Membership cards, indicating they qualify for all Membership Extras.
However, documents filed by Disney with the Orange County Comptroller differ with DVC’s stated policy.
After waiving its ROFR on a resale contract, Disney files a "Notice of Waiver of Right of First Refusal." All Notices that were executed by Disney after April 4, 2016, contain the following language:
Further, as of April 4, 2016, you will not have access to other Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits (also known as Membership Extras) such as Member discounts on dining, shopping, Member-exclusive events, and certain special Member offers. Do not purchase your Ownership Interest in reliance on access to or the ability to transfer these Disney Vacation Club incidental benefits.
Resale buyers who should be grandfathered are seeing this restrictive language on Notices pertaining to their contracts. On the one hand, they are being told that they will have access to all perks. But on the other hand, the official documentation filed with Orange County seems to say they cannot qualify for these Membership Extras.
This conflict between DVC’s stated policy and the official Notice may be immaterial as long as DVC issues Membership cards to these buyers. Yet, problems could arise in the future if the deed is transferred to another individual. In the event of a sale, the new buyer would be bound by the restricitons and be ineligible for Membership Extras.
However, in the event of a gratuitious (free) transfer of ownership, full rights and benefits usually extend to the new owner. Gratuitous transfers often involve family members like a parent giving the ownership to a child. In these cases, it may appear the deed is encumbered with the perk limitation when, in reality, it was grandfathered in.
We will continue to monitor this issue and will update DVCNews if more information becomes available.
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl”.
