Money Questions Loom as Anchor Vacations Dissolves

The fate of tens of thousands of dollars in rental deposits and rent from the 2008 summer season is unknown after one of the largest Franklin County vacation rental firms abruptly closed its doors.

On Friday, Sept. 26, owners of houses represented by Anchor Vacations LLC received the following notice by email:

 Dear Sir/Madam, It has been our pleasure to manage your rental property. Unfortunately, as of Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, Anchor Vacations, LLC is being dissolved. We regret that we will not be able to continue to manage your home, but, to ensure that your home will receive the best possible management going forward, we have referred your home to St. George Island Vacation Properties.

The transition will be seamless, and there is no need for any action on your part. A representative of St. George Island Vacation properties will be in contact with you on Monday to introduce you to their impressive rental program. We are confident your home will thrive in the SGIVP program (www.sgivp.com) and wish you the best.

 While SGIVP is attempting to contact owners of properties previously managed by Anchor, an employee said SGIVP has no interest in managing properties not located on the island. Former Anchor partner Howard Wesson of Apalachicola said about 20 percent of the properties managed by Anchor are on the mainland.

So far, Jereme Neill, CEO for Anchor Vacation Properties LLC, has not answered calls requesting an interview.

Scott Colson, owner/manager of SGIVP said, "We did not purchase Anchor. We did not assume any assets or liabilities. We are simply attempting to ease the transition for the homeowners. We want to show them what it is like to deal with a quality management service, after the bad experience they have had over the last year. We are negotiating with each owner on a case-by-case basis."

Colson said his company cannot contact Anchor renters with upcoming reservations unless the homeowner has signed a contract making his company their legal agent. SGIVP has hired Holly Justice, a former Anchor employee familiar with the properties, to negotiate with the owners.

 So who is contacting those with reservations?

 Judy Swint, of Nashville, called the offices of the Apalachicola / Carrabelle Times on Oct. 2 seeking information on Anchor.

"I'm supposed to come down to the island for a week on Monday and I haven't been able to get anyone to answer the phone at Anchor for a week. They have $600 of my money," she said.

Swint then called SGIVP and, on Saturday, was told the house she wanted was unavailable. "They told me my money would be returned to me electronically within a week but I don't have much hope of that," she said.

Swint was able to locate another rental in Eastpoint and will still vacation here. She said nobody ever called to tell her there was a problem.

Renters arriving in the county will find the Anchor office at 101 E. Gulf Beach Drive closed, with two hand-lettered signs advising them the office has moved to 19 Island Drive in Eastpoint. The signs give 927-2625 as a contact number, but that number has been disconnected. On one of the two signs, someone has scratched through that number and written in 2849. On Saturday, that number was constantly busy, and on Monday, the phone was answered by a woman who declined to discuss the situation with Anchor Vacations.

The door at 19 Island Drive is also locked, with a crudely-lettered sign that says "The office will be closed today" and gives the 2849 contact number.

Employees of several area businesses reported that on Saturday, visitors asked them where they could find Anchor's offices.

 They stopped sending checks in May

 The Anchor Vacations website has now largely been disabled showing only a home page with no links available, but on Friday, Oct. 3 it was still possible to access future recorded reservations online through the "Make a Reservation" tool. There were more than 100 recorded reservations dating as far into the future as June 2009.

According to Part C of Anchor's "Rental Terms and Conditions" as published in their 2007 Vacation Rental Guide and online, "Reservations are confirmed when Anchor receives the executed agreement within 14 days of the date your reservation was made along with an advance payment equal to 50 percent of the total rent fee."

By calculating the rent based on stated seasonal fees for each reserved unit, conservatively, Anchor should have been in possession of $125,000 in deposits at the time of the dissolution.

This is in addition to money that may be owed to homeowners for past rentals or held in escrow for utility bills. As of Oct. 3, Anchor's website listed about 50 houses and a number of suites at the St. George Inn as available for rent.

Charles Kienzle, of Apalachicola, who owns one of the houses formerly managed by Anchor, was philosophical about his losses. He said he had few future reservations.

"A prudent businessman would have left last year, but I took a calculated risk and lost. I stayed because Charlotte Crosby, Anchor's head housekeeper, took such wonderful care of our house," He said. "I never met Jereme because he wouldn't return my calls. I think they started undercapitalized and just got in over their heads."

Dr. Joseph Parish, of Auburn, AL, a chemistry professor at Auburn University who owns two houses on St. George Island, was less understanding.

"I think it's just terrible! We didn't even receive the email until Tuesday. We were on the island last weekend. We drove down mad to check on our houses and both Anchor offices were closed," he said. "I think these people had premeditated the whole thing. They stopped sending checks in May. I called and they said the check had been lost. Then they were having computer problems, and then they were moving. It was ‘Don't call us, we'll call you."

"I have contacted a lawyer about a civil suit and I am coming down this weekend to talk to the police. I believe they grossed about $50,000 in rent from our properties this summer and we are owed around $30,000. I'm very worried about what they are going to report to the IRS. Will they report income we never received?" said Parish.

There are anecdotal reports of utilities remaining unpaid by Anchor for months at a time and owners arriving to find renters in supposedly unoccupied houses. Kienzle, who is local, and Parish, who pays his own utilities, both said they had not experienced these problems.

An elderly homeowner said she has received no checks since May, but had no rentals in June.  When she found out Anchor had dissolved, she called SGIVP and asked for information on her incoming rentals so she could contact them, which she did.

"I know the house was rented for the entire month of July.  I had three renters in there that I know paid in full, including one who is in there now.  The people in there now have been renting my house for 12 years.  I let them come in stay even though I won't get any money," she said. " I have signed with SunCoast and they agreed to cover the cleaning fee.  I spent Labor Day on the island and I went to Anchor's office and asked for my check.  The lady said it would be electronically deposited in five days.  It never was.  I have a small house, so at least I'm not out as much as some people, only about $4,000."

The homeowner said she filed a police report on Anchor, and that the officer said hers was the third such report filed. She said he told her Anchor's owner could be charged with grand theft unless he offered to make restitution.

The Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce reported receiving a call from an Anchor homeowner last week inquiring about the phone number for the district attorney.

 Rental company not part of Weichert / Anchor Realty

 Anchor Vacations LLC was formed two years ago when Wesson and Neill purchased the property management division of Anchor Realty at about the same time Anchor Realty became a Weichert Realty franchise.

Olivier Monod, owner of Weichert/Anchor Realty said, "This was an arms length transaction with a nondisclosure clause about the sale price and a noncompetition clause.  I am not and have never been an officer of Anchor Vacations LLC. I have no interest in the company. I only regret that I did not stipulate that the name be changed when I sold the management division of Anchor Realty."

Monod said he had been Anchor's landlord at their Island offices until the company moved to Eastpoint last month.

Wesson, who is now studying at Gulf Coast Community College to become an emergency medical technician, said he sold his interest in Anchor Vacations to Neill in June 2007. He said he was depending on payments from Neill to support him while he attends school.

"The only way I knew something was going on was when he stopped his payments to me. I tried to contact him. He's not answering any of his phones or his email," said Wesson.