Friday's court case between Rainbow Beach Club homeowners, the developer and the management company (see Saturday paper) is just the latest of a series of legal battles involving local resorts that are starting to give the island a bad name. They involve a host of issues such as maintenance fees, the upkeep of the common areas, violation of sales agreements, etc.

It's obvious that something needs to be done, sooner rather than later. Parliament in any case has started discussing better regulation of the local real estate market, and meanwhile, two sector associations have formed that can assist in this process.

There is an awful lot of ground to cover, however, including how to provide more safeguards regarding the purchase of not only property, but also timeshare. Bad experiences over the last few decades have left many loyal guests disillusioned and even disgusted, when all they wanted was a place to go on holiday.

Of course, one cannot expect to keep paying, for example, the same maintenance fees of say 20 years ago forever, but sudden increases of more than 100 per cent are not uncommon. The excuse is then often used that the property was badly managed in the past and the rates should have been adjusted before, but the individual owners hardly can be blamed for this.

It gets even worse, however, with condo buyers sometimes having to wait a year or more after their unit was supposed to become available and left with little recourse other than to swallow whatever the developer and management company decide or to go to court, an often lengthy and usually costly affair. As a result, doubt is quickly spreading about St. Maarten as a place where one can invest safely, with all possible consequences.

Certainly a country with a one-pillar tourism economy cannot allow this situation to continue much longer. Although it is clearly easier said than done, government must find a way to somehow re-establish order in the timeshare and vacation home industry, before things really become ugly.