After a long drawn out legal battle between timeshare giant Westgate Resorts and Julieta de Corredor and her family; it has been reported that issues have finally been resolved.
Julieta de Corredor, now a widow and 83, and her late husband bought their Orlando vacation home back in 1985 for $154,000 and paid all the property fees and taxes for three decades. The vacation community on Big Sand Lake, close to SeaWorld Orlando, Universal and the Orange County Convention Centre, had amenities such as tennis courts, trees and a pool for the family to enjoy.
Westgate Resorts had plans to build a $24 million complex but for this to go ahead they would need The Corredors’ land. Court records show that Westgate had sent the Corredor family offers for the unit as far back as 2004 but the widow always turned them down. Westgate had already acquired surrounding units when the properties had fallen into foreclosure and the Corredor family were standing in their way.
Westgate decided to go ahead with their plans anyway but only after submitting flawed development plans to Orange County. These plans showed that the company owned all of the property, including the Corredors’ condo and with Mrs Corredors’ refusal to sell this was not the case.
Westgate claim that this was an innocent mistake and that the county knew that the company didn’t own everything. The county decided they wouldn’t approve factually flawed plans and told Westgate to file accurate plans before seeking final approval.
Before re-submitting plans, contractors for Westgate had already started bulldozing the property and it was during this that the Corredors’ condo ‘accidentally’ got damaged, deeming it unsafe for habitation. The Corredor family suspect the damage was intentional.
With this error of judgement on Westgates’ part it would be easy to believe that the county commissioners would tell Westgate that they should settle everything with the family before any new plans would be approved but unfortunately this was not the case. The county commissioners took a vote and a result of 6-1 the commissioners sided with Westgate. Two of the ‘for’ votes were from Mayor Teresa Jacobs and former commissioner Scott Boyd who have both been seen posing for publicity photos with Westgate executives with relation to a ground breaking project two years earlier.
Westgate executives claim that they offered the widow $150,000 for her condo and after she said no they then offered her a newer unit in another building which resulted in another refusal. This lead to Westgate Chief Operating Officer Mark Waltrip describing the family as money-grabbing ‘Extortionists’ and other officials labelling them as ‘greedy’.
The condo was never the family’s permanent home, it was used for weekend getaways, theme-park vacations and family gatherings for 30 years. William Corredor, son of Julieta de Corredor, once said “However we use it shouldn’t matter. It’s ours.”
Ms. Corredor and her sons finally agreed to sell the property and bring an end to the legal battle during recent court-instructed mediation between the widow and Westgate. Terms are unavailable because of a non-disclosure clause.
For all previous stories on the Corredors fight against Westgate, please see here.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk