PAA votes to abolish holiday home scheme

PAA is to push ahead with plans to sell off its holiday homes, but is giving members of the scheme a reprieve to use them one last time over summer.

Thursday, May 7th 2015, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

The PAA announced last month that it planned to sell the seven homes, which members have been renting for decades.

Five are in New Zealand and two are in Australia. The association said the scheme had become untenable.

More than 750 members have holiday credits they can redeem for a night in the houses but only 201 are still contributing to the costs of the scheme.

Members with outstanding credits will be refunded what they paid for them or can donate them to a legacy trust, which will manage the remaining proceeds of the sale.

The properties are worth $2.7 million.

PAA secretary-treasurer Andrew Kerr said the decision to sell them was voted 51 to 38 in favour at a special general meeting.

“The discussion on the holiday home scheme was robust,” he said.

The association is now moving through the practical steps required to close the programme. “The focus is preserving the residual value in a legacy trust. That was approved in principle at the special general meeting.”

He said the decision had been made to extend the scheme until Waitangi weekend next year to minimise disruption to members who had already made booking at the property.

Rotorua will be closed on November 1 as it does not have any bookings through December and January.

Kerr said he expected it would be sold in November or December.

The decision had been a long time coming, he said. “The reason the decision was two or three years in the making – it had been discussed at two previous AGMs and subject of a number of reports – there was a wish by the board to try to find a way to make it work on a sustainable basis. But it’s just not there when to look at the facts."

He said there was a strong emotional attachment to the houses for a lot of members but the closure was a reflection of changes that applied across the industry.

Tags: PAA