What happens if you stop paying on a timeshare?

Last updated 2026-07-26

What actually happens if you stop paying maintenance fees or a timeshare loan?

The short version: nothing good happens fast, but plenty happens eventually. Miss a maintenance fee payment and most resorts add a late fee within 30 to 60 days, often 10% to 25% of the balance owed, plus interest that can run 12% to 18% a year depending on your contract and state usury limits. If you financed the purchase itself, missing loan payments is worse. That's a secured debt (the timeshare interest is collateral), and it behaves like missing a car payment: the lender can repossess, which in timeshare terms means foreclosure. For deeded timeshares (real property interests, common in Florida, Hawaii, South Carolina, and elsewhere), the resort or lender can foreclose through a judicial or non-judicial process depending on the state. For right-to-use timeshares (a contract right, not real property), the developer typically just cancels your contract and turns the balance over to collections. Either way, you lose the timeshare and you may still owe money. Many owners assume the company will just "take it back" quietly if they stop paying. Sometimes that's roughly what happens, especially with older, low-value weeks the resort doesn't want to bother collecting on. But you cannot count on that. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has fielded thousands of timeshare-related complaints involving billing disputes, unexpected fees, and collection practices, and non-payment consequences vary widely by contract and state, not by what seems fair. ^[1]

Will stopping payments hurt your credit?

Yes, if the debt gets reported. Timeshare loans and, in some cases, unpaid maintenance fee balances that go to collections can appear on your credit report as a delinquent account, and later as a charge-off or collections entry. That can knock 50 to 100+ points off a credit score depending on your starting point and the rest of your credit file, per general scoring guidance from FICO's public education materials on payment history, which counts for about 35% of a FICO score. ^[2] A foreclosure on a deeded timeshare can also show up as a foreclosure, similar to losing a house, and it stays on your credit report for up to seven years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. ^[3] That's a long shadow for something a lot of owners think of as a minor vacation product. If the resort or a collection agency doesn't report to the credit bureaus at all (some smaller developers don't bother), your credit may not take a direct hit. But you won't know which situation you're in until it's already happened, and by then it's too late to plan around it.

Can a timeshare company foreclose on you?

Yes, for deeded timeshares. Timeshare foreclosure works like any other real estate foreclosure: judicial foreclosure (through court) in some states, non-judicial (trustee sale, no court needed) in others, depending on how your state treats deeds of trust versus mortgages. Florida, for example, allows both judicial foreclosure and a faster non-judicial trustee foreclosure process specifically for timeshares under its statutory framework for timeshare estates. ^[4] Foreclosure timelines vary a lot. Non-judicial foreclosures can complete in as little as 60 to 90 days in some states. Judicial foreclosures, which require a court to approve the sale, commonly take 6 months to over a year, especially if the owner doesn't respond or if there's a backlog in the local court. During foreclosure, you typically stop having any right to use the unit, but you're still on the hook for fees and interest that accrue until the process closes. Some contracts also let the resort pursue a deficiency judgment (suing you for the gap between what you owed and what the foreclosed property sold for at auction), though this is more common for high-balance loans than for maintenance-fee-only defaults. Whether deficiency judgments are allowed, and how they're calculated, depends entirely on your state's foreclosure statute, so this is a genuine "it depends" that a local real estate attorney can answer for your specific deed.

What happens to right-to-use (non-deeded) timeshares if you stop paying?

Right-to-use timeshares aren't real property, so there's no foreclosure in the traditional sense. Instead, the developer cancels the contract for default, usually after a grace period specified in your agreement (commonly 30 to 90 days past due), and the unpaid balance goes to an internal collections department or gets sold to a third-party collection agency. From there it behaves like unpaid credit card debt: collection calls, letters, and potentially a lawsuit if the balance is large enough to justify the legal cost. Most maintenance-fee-only balances (a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars) aren't worth suing over, so many owners who stop paying on right-to-use products simply get referred to collections and, eventually, the debt either gets sold to a debt buyer for pennies on the dollar or written off. That doesn't mean it's risk-free. It means the collection path is less dramatic than foreclosure but can still hit your credit report and generate years of calls.

Are there other consequences besides foreclosure and credit damage?

A few things people don't expect: Maintenance fee collections can follow you even after you think you're done. Some HOAs place a lien on the timeshare interest itself for unpaid fees, which has to be resolved before any future sale or transfer, even a $1 deed-back. Special assessments don't go away just because you stopped paying regular dues; they often get bundled into what's owed when the account is sent to collections or foreclosure. If you inherited a timeshare and simply ignore the mail, the estate (or you, if you accepted the inheritance) can still be pursued for the debt in some states, and unpaid balances can complicate closing out an estate in probate. Family members who are co-owners or co-signers share the consequences. If your spouse's name is on the deed or the loan, their credit takes the hit too, regardless of who actually stopped paying. And if the resort successfully forecloses, you may still owe income tax on any "debt forgiveness" if a lender cancels a large loan balance, reported to the IRS on Form 1099-C in some cases. This is genuinely uncommon for typical timeshare balances, but not impossible on high-value loans, so ask a tax preparer if you get one of these forms.

Is stopping payments ever the right move?

We're not going to tell you to stop paying money you owe, and you shouldn't take that step without understanding the specific consequences under your contract and your state's law. That said, we can tell you what timeshare attorneys and consumer advocates generally observe: a lot of owners who stop paying do so out of frustration or because they've exhausted every other option, not as a first strategy. Before you get anywhere near that point, there are several paths worth exhausting: rescission if you're still inside your state's cancellation window, a deed-back or "deedback" program directly through the resort if one exists, or a legitimate resale (even for $1, just to get the deed and fee obligation off your name). None of these guarantee an exit, and we're not promising one either. But they're far less damaging to your credit and your legal exposure than simply going dark on payments and hoping for the best. If you're early in ownership, check your rescission rights first. Every state that permits timeshare sales sets its own cancellation period, and it's short, often measured in days, not weeks. Confirm your state's actual rescission window before assuming you've missed it; some states count from the day you sign, others from when you receive final closing documents. The Federal Trade Commission's consumer guidance on timeshares is a good starting reference for the general landscape, though state law controls the exact deadline. ^[5]

How do you get out of a timeshare if you're past the rescission window?

Once rescission has closed, your realistic options narrow to four: a deed-back or surrender program through the resort, a legitimate resale, working with a licensed real estate attorney on a negotiated exit, or, as a last resort, letting the debt go to collections or foreclosure and accepting the consequences described above. Deed-back programs (sometimes called "exit programs" or "surrender programs") let you transfer the deed back to the resort, usually for a processing fee, in exchange for being released from future maintenance fees. Not every resort offers one, and some only accept fully paid-off, fee-current accounts, which is part of why owners who are already behind on fees find these programs harder to use. Resale means selling the timeshare to another buyer, often for a small amount or even $1, since the resale market for most timeshares is weak. Timeshares are generally not an appreciating asset; most resell, if they sell at all, for a small fraction of the original purchase price. The American Resort Development Association, the industry's own trade group, publishes annual State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry data on original purchase prices and fees, which is a useful benchmark against resale listing sites where similar weeks often list for $1 to a few hundred dollars. Working through a licensed attorney means paying for actual legal work (contract review, negotiation, sometimes litigation over misrepresentation) rather than paying a flat fee to a company promising to "cancel" your timeshare with no legal action at all. That distinction matters enormously, which the next section covers.

How do you sell a timeshare, and how much are timeshares actually worth on resale?

Average price paid for a new timeshare interval (developer sale)	roughly $17,000-$24,000
Typical annual maintenance fee	roughly $1,000-$1,400 and rising
Typical resale price for the same or similar week	often $0-$3,000, sometimes listed for $1
Special assessment frequency	irregular, but common after storms, renovations, or HOA shortfalls	The brutal truth: because maintenance fees continue for the buyer, many timeshares have essentially negative resale value. Sellers often pay closing costs and transfer fees just to get someone, anyone, to take the deed. That's exactly why deed-back programs exist. It's also why "we'll get you cash for your timeshare" pitches from unknown companies deserve real skepticism; legitimate resale rarely nets a seller meaningful cash, and offers that sound too good usually are.

Selling a timeshare yourself means listing it on a timeshare resale marketplace, through a licensed timeshare resale broker (many states require real estate licensing for anyone brokering a timeshare sale), or directly to another owner in your resort's owner group or Facebook community. Expect a resale price far below what you paid. Here's a rough sense of the gap between purchase price and resale reality: | Item | Typical range |

Are timeshares scams, and how do you avoid a scam while trying to exit?

Most timeshares aren't scams in the legal sense; they're legitimate, if often overpriced and hard-to-exit, real estate or vacation-usage products sold through high-pressure sales presentations. The real scam risk shows up later, when frustrated owners go looking for a way out and run into upfront-fee exit companies that take thousands of dollars and deliver nothing. The FTC has brought enforcement actions against timeshare exit and relief companies for exactly this pattern: charging large upfront fees, promising an outcome they can't actually deliver, and then failing to follow through, sometimes leaving owners both out the fee and still owning the timeshare. The FTC's own consumer guidance warns plainly that owners "should be skeptical of companies that guarantee they can get you out of your timeshare contract" and urges checking any company with your state attorney general and the Better Business Bureau before paying anything. ^[5] Warning signs worth memorizing: a company that demands full payment before doing any work, one that tells you to stop paying your maintenance fees or mortgage during the process (a request that damages your credit and can accelerate foreclosure), one that won't put its terms in writing, or one that pressures you to decide same-day. Check your state attorney general's consumer protection page before signing anything; most state AG offices, including Florida's and Texas's, publish specific timeshare exit scam warnings. If you want a structured way to organize your own exit research (what rescission rights you may still have, what your deed-back options look like, how to spot a bad resale or exit offer) without paying a company thousands of dollars upfront, that's the whole idea behind the $149 one-time Timeshare Exit Kit. It's a self-directed toolkit, not an outcome promise and not a law firm engagement; we don't contact the resort or developer for you. For most owners the first move is understanding how to get out of a timeshare the legitimate ways before any money changes hands with a third party.

How much does a timeshare cost in total, including what it costs to leave?

The purchase price is only the entry fee. A realistic total cost of ownership includes the original purchase (commonly $17,000 to $24,000 for a new deeded week per ARDA's industry survey data), annual maintenance fees that typically start around $1,000 to $1,400 and rise most years, periodic special assessments that can run into the thousands after a hurricane or major renovation, and, if you financed it, loan interest that can run higher than a typical mortgage rate. Then there's the cost of leaving. A deed-back program may charge a processing fee (commonly a few hundred dollars, sometimes more). A resale, even a successful one, often requires you to pay closing costs, an outstanding fee balance, and sometimes a transfer fee to the resort. An exit company charges anywhere from under a thousand to $10,000 or more, and the FTC has specifically warned that many of these companies fail to deliver results despite large upfront charges. ^[5] So when someone asks "how much is a timeshare," the honest answer is: the sticker price is the smallest piece. The real number is purchase price, plus a decade or more of rising fees, plus whatever it eventually costs, in money or credit damage, to get out.

What should you do instead of just stopping payments?

Start with your contract and your state's rules, not with a phone call to a stranger who cold-called you. Pull your purchase agreement and check the rescission clause first if your purchase is recent; confirm your state's rescission window through your state attorney general's office or a local real estate attorney, since it's short and strictly enforced. If rescission has passed, call the resort directly and ask, in writing, whether they offer a deed-back or surrender program, and what it requires (fees current, no liens, sometimes a small processing fee). Resorts don't advertise these programs loudly because they'd rather keep collecting your maintenance fees, but many exist, especially at large branded resorts trying to manage inventory. If a deed-back isn't available, consider a legitimate resale, even at a low price, before you consider walking away. Compare that against the real cost of default: credit damage, possible foreclosure, and, in some states, exposure to a deficiency judgment. Read up on timeshare cancellation options and keep a running timeshare call list of who you've contacted, what they said, and the date, because these conversations tend to get contradicted later and you'll want your own record. And whatever you do, be skeptical of any company, resale broker, or "relief specialist" who contacts you first, especially if they already seem to know details about your contract. Verify independently before paying anyone anything.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get out of a timeshare?

Start with rescission if you're still inside your state's cancellation window (check with your state attorney general or a local attorney for the exact deadline). After that, ask the resort about a deed-back or surrender program, try a legitimate resale, or consult a licensed real estate attorney. Avoid any company that demands a large upfront fee and promises a sure outcome; the FTC warns against exactly that pattern.

How do you get rid of a timeshare you no longer want?

The realistic paths are a resort deed-back or surrender program (if fees are current and there's no lien), a resale through a licensed broker or resale marketplace (often for a low price), or, for recent purchases, rescission within your state's window. Simply stopping payment isn't "getting rid of it"; it risks foreclosure or collections and credit damage instead.

How to sell a timeshare when the resale market is so weak?

List it through a licensed timeshare resale broker or a reputable resale marketplace, price it realistically (many comparable weeks list for $0 to a few thousand dollars, per resale market patterns tracked against ARDA's purchase-price data), and expect to possibly cover closing costs yourself. Never pay a large upfront fee to a company that just promises to "find a buyer."

Are timeshares scams?

Most timeshares are legal products sold through aggressive, sometimes misleading sales tactics, not outright scams. The bigger scam risk is on the exit side: the FTC has taken action against exit companies that charge large upfront fees and fail to deliver a promised outcome. Verify any exit company with your state attorney general before paying anything.

How much do timeshares cost, including ongoing fees?

A new deeded timeshare interval commonly costs $17,000 to $24,000 upfront, according to ARDA's State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry data, plus annual maintenance fees typically starting around $1,000 to $1,400 and rising most years. Special assessments and financing interest add more. Resale value is often a small fraction of the purchase price.

What happens if you just stop paying maintenance fees?

Late fees and interest start accruing within 30 to 60 days. The account can go to collections, potentially damaging your credit. For deeded timeshares, continued non-payment can lead to foreclosure; for right-to-use contracts, the developer typically cancels the contract and refers the balance to collections.

Can stopping payment lead to foreclosure on a timeshare?

Yes, if it's a deeded timeshare. States allow judicial or non-judicial foreclosure depending on local law; Florida, for example, permits both a court-based process and a faster non-judicial trustee foreclosure specifically for timeshare estates. Foreclosure can take anywhere from about 60 days to over a year and stays on your credit report for years.

Will not paying a timeshare hurt my credit score?

It can, if the debt is reported to credit bureaus. Payment history makes up about 35% of a FICO score, so a collections entry, charge-off, or foreclosure can meaningfully lower your score and stay on your credit report for up to seven years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Can a timeshare company sue me for unpaid fees?

Yes, though it's more common for larger loan balances than for small maintenance-fee-only debts. If they win, some states allow a deficiency judgment for the gap between what you owed and what the property sold for at foreclosure auction. Rules vary significantly by state, so check with a local real estate attorney about your specific exposure.

Is a timeshare exit company worth paying for?

Be very cautious. The FTC warns that some exit companies charge large upfront fees, promise an outcome they can't back up, and fail to deliver, leaving owners out the money and still owning the timeshare. Verify any company with your state attorney general and the Better Business Bureau, get any terms in writing, and never pay in full before any work is done.

What happens to an inherited timeshare if the heir doesn't want it?

An heir generally isn't forced to keep a timeshare, but ignoring it doesn't make the debt disappear; unpaid fees can complicate probate and, depending on state law, may be pursued against the estate. Heirs should check whether the resort has a deed-back program, consult the estate's attorney, and formally decline or transfer the interest rather than simply not responding to mail.

Does a timeshare foreclosure show up on your credit report the same as a house foreclosure?

Generally yes, for deeded timeshares. It's reported as a foreclosure and can remain on your credit report for up to seven years under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it can lower your score by a significant amount depending on your overall credit profile.

Sources

1. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database: Timeshare-related billing, fee, and collection complaints reported by consumers to the CFPB
2. myFICO, What's in my FICO Scores: Payment history accounts for about 35% of a FICO Score
3. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Fair Credit Reporting Act consumer information: Negative items including foreclosure can remain on a credit report for up to seven years under the FCRA framework
4. Florida Legislature, Florida Statutes Chapter 721 (Vacation and Timeshare Plans): Florida law establishes both judicial foreclosure and a non-judicial trustee foreclosure process for timeshare estates
5. Federal Trade Commission, Timeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams: FTC guidance warning consumers to be skeptical of exit companies that guarantee cancellation and to verify companies before paying