How to get out of a timeshare contract (real options)

Last updated 2026-07-24

How do you get out of a timeshare?

There's no single button that gets everyone out. What you actually have are four real paths, in order of how fast and cheap they are: rescission (if you're still in the window), a developer deed-back or surrender program, resale (usually for very little or nothing), and, if none of those work, an attorney who reviews your contract for a legitimate legal exit. Everything else marketed as an "exit solution" is either one of these four things relabeled, or a scam. The order matters because each option gets more expensive and slower as you go down the list. Rescission costs you a stamp and maybe a notary fee. A deed-back might cost a transfer fee or require your maintenance fees to be current. Resale usually means giving the timeshare away or paying someone to take it (closing costs run a few hundred dollars). An attorney costs real money, often $2,000 to $5,000 or more depending on the case, but it's a service you actually receive, unlike many "exit company" contracts. Start by pulling your contract and figuring out which situation you're in: still inside the rescission period, past it but current on payments, past it and behind on payments, or an inherited timeshare you never wanted. Each of those calls for a different first move, which is what the rest of this article walks through.

How to get out of a timeshare during the rescission period

If you just signed, this is almost certainly your best option. Every state that regulates timeshares gives buyers a short window to cancel for any reason, no explanation needed, and get their money back. The catch is that the window is short, often measured in days, and it starts running the moment you sign or receive the last required disclosure document, not when you get home and think it over. The Federal Trade Commission puts it plainly: "Some states have laws that allow you to cancel a timeshare contract within a certain number of days. This is sometimes called a 'cooling-off' period." ^[1] The exact number of days is set by your state, not federal law, so you have to confirm your state's rescission window rather than assume a national standard. Florida, for example, sets its window in the timeshare provisions of its statutes ^[2], and other states have their own separate deadlines and notice requirements, some requiring the cancellation notice to be sent by certified mail to count. To rescind correctly: reread your contract for the section titled "cancellation" or "right to cancel," follow the delivery method it specifies (certified mail with return receipt is the safest, even if email is allowed), keep a copy of everything, and send it before midnight of the last eligible day, not the next morning. Don't call the resort and verbally cancel and assume that counts. Get it in writing, sent the way the contract requires, and keep proof it was sent and received. If you're not sure whether you're still inside the window, that's the first thing to check before doing anything else. For a state-by-state breakdown of these rules, see how to get out of a timeshare and timeshare cancellation.

How to get out of a timeshare after the rescission window closes

Once rescission has passed, you're a contract holder like any other, and the resort has no legal obligation to let you out early. That doesn't mean you're stuck forever, but it does mean you're negotiating from a weaker position. The first move is calling the resort or management company directly and asking about a deed-back, surrender, or "exit" program. A growing number of major timeshare companies now run these voluntarily, sometimes for free, sometimes for a transfer fee, usually requiring your account to be current with no back maintenance fees owed. These programs exist because resorts would rather take a unit back cleanly than deal with a foreclosure or a owner who stops paying. It costs them less to process a deed-back than to chase a delinquent account through collections. If the resort has no deed-back program or denies your request, resale is next. Be honest with yourself about value here: the resale market for timeshares is brutal. Many owners list units for $1 on sites like RedWeek or Timeshare Users Group and still can't find a taker, because the buyer would be assuming years of rising maintenance fees for a product with no real resale demand. If you do sell, use a licensed, verifiable timeshare resale broker (many states require real estate license disclosure for anyone charging you to sell your unit), never one who asks for a large fee before finding a buyer. If neither a deed-back nor resale works and you're facing genuine hardship, a consumer attorney who specializes in timeshare contracts can review it for actual legal defects, misrepresentation at the point of sale, or violations of state timeshare disclosure law. This is different from an "exit company": an attorney is licensed, accountable to a state bar, and can be sued for malpractice. Ask for a fee agreement in writing before paying anything.

How to sell a timeshare

Selling is legal and sometimes possible, but go in with realistic expectations: most timeshares resell for a small fraction of what the original buyer paid, and a meaningful share sell for nothing at all once you count closing costs. The practical steps: get a copy of your deed and current maintenance fee statement, get an honest read on resale value (check completed listings on RedWeek, Timeshare Users Group, or eBay for comparable units at your resort, not asking prices, which are often fantasy), list at a price that reflects real demand (frequently $0 to a few hundred dollars for older weeks-based deeded timeshares), and use a licensed closing or transfer company to handle the deed transfer so it's recorded properly and you're not still liable for future fees. Watch for the classic resale scam: someone calls claiming they have a "buyer already lined up" for your unit and just needs an upfront fee to process the sale. The FTC has specifically warned that scammers often promise a quick sale of your timeshare and then ask for upfront fees before doing any work ^[3]. If a caller you didn't contact says they have a guaranteed buyer, that's a red flag, not good luck. If your timeshare is a points-based club membership rather than a deeded week, selling is often harder because many clubs restrict transfers or charge steep transfer fees, sometimes with rules requiring the buyer to qualify for club membership independently. Check your specific club's transfer rules before you promise a buyer anything.

How to get rid of a timeshare you inherited or no longer want

Inherited timeshares are their own headache, because you may owe fees on a property you never chose to buy and never visited. The good news: you're generally not personally obligated to accept an inheritance that includes debt-like obligations. An executor or heir can formally disclaim an inheritance, including a timeshare, through the probate process, which effectively refuses the gift and passes it to the next heir in line or back to the estate. If you've already accepted the deed (for example, by paying a maintenance fee bill after the death), disclaiming becomes harder or impossible, so speak with the estate's probate attorney before paying anything on an inherited timeshare you don't want. If disclaiming isn't available to you, contact the resort about a deed-back specifically citing the inheritance situation; many resorts have a simplified process for heirs who don't want the property, since they'd rather take it back than chase an estate for fees. Some states also allow the personal representative of an estate to petition a probate court to abandon an asset that costs more to maintain than it's worth, though the exact mechanism varies by state, so this is a question for a local probate attorney rather than a general rule. Do more than stop paying maintenance fees and ignore letters, hoping it goes away. Unpaid timeshare fees can go to collections and, in some states, result in a lien or foreclosure action against the timeshare (rarely against your other assets, but this varies by state and by whether you personally guaranteed anything).

Are timeshares scams?

The timeshare industry itself is legal and regulated at the state level, so calling all timeshares "scams" isn't accurate. But the sales process has a long, well-documented history of high-pressure tactics, and the secondary market around getting out of timeshares is thick with actual scams. The FTC has brought or supported enforcement actions against timeshare exit companies that charged large upfront fees, sometimes $2,000 to $10,000 or more, and never delivered the promised outcome, leaving owners out both the exit fee and still on the hook for the original contract ^[4]. Multiple state attorneys general have issued consumer warnings and taken action against timeshare exit and resale scam operations; Missouri's AG has cautioned consumers about companies using high-pressure sales tactics and making false promises about timeshare exits ^[5], and Washington State's AG secured a court order shutting down a company that collected nearly $14 million in upfront fees while failing to deliver exits ^[6]. The pattern to watch for: a company cold-calls you (often claiming to be a "licensed timeshare specialist" or affiliated with a class action), asks for a large payment upfront before any service is performed, pressures you to stop making payments to your resort as "part of the strategy," and gives vague or shifting answers about how the outcome actually happens legally. Stopping payments you contractually owe, on the advice of an exit company, is one of the most damaging things an owner can do. It can trigger default, collections, credit damage, and in some states a foreclosure process against the timeshare interest, on top of whatever fee you already paid the exit company. If a company tells you to stop paying your resort, that's not legal advice, and it's not coming from your resort's benefit either. Talk to a licensed attorney or your state attorney general's consumer protection division before making that call. For a longer breakdown of specific tactics, see timeshare exit companies.

How much do timeshares cost (purchase price and ongoing fees)?

Purchase price (developer-direct)	$10,000 to $40,000+	Varies heavily by brand and unit size
Purchase price (resale market)	$0 to a few thousand	Often given away due to weak resale demand
Annual maintenance fee	~$1,000 to $1,200 average	Rises most years
Special assessment	Hundreds to several thousand	Not guaranteed annually, but common after storms/renovations
Exit company upfront fee (scam pattern)	$2,000 to $10,000+	Frequently no result delivered [4]	If rising fees are your main reason for wanting out, it's worth reading how the fee structure actually works before you decide between fighting the assessment, selling, or exiting; see alternatives for a broader look at what owners do instead of a straight ending.

The upfront price varies enormously by brand, location, and unit size, but industry reports place the average purchase price for a timeshare interval in the low-to-mid $20,000s, with average annual maintenance fees running roughly $1,000 to $1,200. Those are averages across a wide industry; luxury brand weeks can run well into six figures, and older, smaller weeks-based units can be bought (or given away) for far less. Maintenance fees are the number that catches most owners off guard, because they rise most years, sometimes tracking inflation, sometimes driven by a special assessment for a renovation or storm damage that isn't included in the regular fee at all. A special assessment can add hundreds or thousands of dollars in a single year, on top of the regular annual fee, and owners generally have no vote strong enough to block it. | Cost item | Typical range | Notes |

How much are timeshares really worth on resale?

Almost always far less than the purchase price, and often nothing. This is the single hardest thing for owners to accept, because a $20,000 to $30,000 purchase feels like it should carry some resale value the way a car or a house does. It mostly doesn't, because timeshare supply vastly outstrips resale demand, and buyers can often buy an equivalent week directly from another owner (or even from the resort's own resale program) for a small fraction of the developer price. RedWeek and Timeshare Users Group, two of the largest peer-to-peer timeshare resale marketplaces, routinely show listings priced at $1 for older deeded weeks, with sellers simply hoping to transfer the deed and stop owing maintenance fees, rather than recoup any money. Points-based club memberships sometimes hold value slightly better if the brand and destination are in high demand (certain Marriott Vacation Club or Disney Vacation Club resale points, for instance, do sell for real money on secondary markets), but this is the exception, not the rule. If a salesperson, at the original purchase or from an exit company, tells you your timeshare has "strong resale value" or is "an investment," treat that as a warning sign rather than reassurance. Timeshares are not classified or regulated as securities or investment products in the US precisely because they aren't investments in the financial sense; they're a prepaid vacation product, and pricing them like one is part of how both original sales pressure and resale scams get people to act fast.

What should you do first if you're inside your rescission window right now?

Stop reading and act, because this window is the cheapest and fastest exit you will ever get, and it closes on a specific calendar date. Pull the contract, find the cancellation clause, and confirm your state's exact rescission window; don't guess based on something you read about a different state. Send written notice exactly the way the contract specifies, by the deadline it specifies, and keep proof of delivery (certified mail with return receipt, or whatever the contract requires). Don't rely on a phone call, an email if the contract requires mail, or a verbal promise from the salesperson that "you can always cancel later." That promise, if made verbally at the sales table, is not enforceable against the written contract. If you've missed a specific deadline by a day or two, don't assume it's automatically hopeless; contact the resort in writing anyway and ask, some will work with a buyer in good faith on a technical near-miss, though they're not obligated to. But don't count on that. Treat the actual deadline as absolute.

What if you're behind on maintenance fees and want out?

This is the situation exit-scam companies target hardest, because desperate owners are the easiest sales pitch. Being behind on fees doesn't disqualify you from a legitimate deed-back necessarily, but many resort deed-back programs do require the account to be brought current first, which is a real cost you need to budget for honestly. Contact the resort's owner services department directly and ask what it would take to do a deed-back or surrender, including whether they'll accept the deed with fees outstanding or require payment first. Get any agreement in writing before sending money or signing anything. If the resort won't work with you and you're facing real financial hardship, a nonprofit credit counselor (through the National Foundation for Credit Counseling) or a consumer law attorney can help you understand what actually happens if you default, which varies a lot by state and by whether the developer pursues deficiency judgments. Whatever you do, don't hire a company that tells you to stop paying as its opening strategy. That's the single clearest scam signal in this entire industry, according to FTC enforcement patterns ^[4], and it converts a fee dispute into a collections and credit problem that's much harder to undo.

When does it make sense to build your own exit plan instead of paying a company thousands upfront?

If your situation is straightforward, meaning you're current on fees, you have a deeded week or a standard points contract, and you just want out because the fees keep climbing or your life circumstances changed, you often don't need to pay a $3,000 to $8,000 exit company retainer to do what amounts to writing letters, requesting a deed-back, and listing the unit for resale. That's the gap a lower-cost, DIY-style resource is meant to fill. ExitHonest's $149 Timeshare Exit Kit is built around the same four-path framework covered in this article: rescission letter templates and state deadline lookups, deed-back request scripts for the resort, resale listing guidance, and a scam-check list before you pay anyone else a dollar. It's a one-time cost, not a percentage or a multi-thousand-dollar retainer, and it doesn't promise any specific outcome, because nobody legitimate can promise that result. You can start at /exit-kit-builder if you want a structured starting point rather than piecing this together contract clause by contract clause. If your case is more complicated, meaning there's a fraud claim from the original sale, a deed with an unclear title, or a resort refusing all contact, that's when paying for a licensed attorney's time makes more sense than a self-directed kit. The dividing line is roughly: simple and current on payments, try the free and low-cost paths first; complicated, contested, or already in collections, get a licensed professional involved before spending more money on anything self-directed. See how do you get out of a timeshare for a walkthrough of that decision.

How do you spot a timeshare exit scam before you pay anyone?

Five checks catch most of them. First, does the company ask for a large payment before doing any work? Legitimate attorneys typically bill hourly or on a clear flat fee tied to defined services, not a vague "exit package" fee collected upfront in full. Second, do they guarantee a specific result? No legitimate company or attorney can guarantee a specific legal outcome; anyone who promises "100% success" is making a claim they can't back up. Third, do they tell you to stop paying your resort or your credit card processor as part of the plan? That's the single clearest scam marker documented in FTC and state AG enforcement actions ^[4][5][6]. Fourth, can you verify they're a licensed attorney or a company in good standing with your state's bar association or secretary of state business registry? A quick search should confirm a real license number, more than a company name and a phone number. Fifth, are they cold-calling you, especially claiming to represent a class action lawsuit or a "timeshare relief program" you never applied for? Reputable exit help doesn't cold-call. Before paying anyone, check your state attorney general's consumer complaint database and the Better Business Bureau for the company's name plus the word "complaint." The FTC's consumer alert page on timeshare resale and exit scams is a good baseline to reread before signing anything ^[3]. For a running list of company names owners have flagged, see timeshare call list.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get out of a timeshare contract legally?

Four legitimate paths exist: rescind during your state's short cancellation window right after signing, request a deed-back or surrender from the resort, sell or give away the deed through a legitimate resale channel, or hire a licensed attorney to review the contract for a legal exit. There's no other legal mechanism; anything promising a specific outcome outside these paths should be treated as a red flag.

How long do I have to cancel a timeshare after signing?

It depends entirely on your state; there's no single federal deadline. The FTC confirms states set their own cooling-off periods for timeshare cancellation, and the window is typically short, often measured in single-digit days. Reread your contract's cancellation clause and confirm your specific state's rescission window before assuming any number.

Can I just stop paying my timeshare maintenance fees?

Don't do this as a strategy. Stopping payment on fees you contractually owe can trigger collections, credit damage, and in some states a lien or foreclosure against the timeshare. If you can't afford the fees, contact the resort about a deed-back or talk to a nonprofit credit counselor or attorney before you stop paying.

How much does it cost to get out of a timeshare?

Rescission costs almost nothing (postage, maybe notary fees). A deed-back may involve a transfer fee and require fees to be current. Resale often runs a few hundred dollars in closing costs, sometimes with a $0 or even negative sale price. A licensed attorney can run $2,000 to $5,000 or more. Legitimate low-cost self-help resources, like a $149 exit kit, sit well below the thousands that many exit companies charge.

Are timeshare exit companies scams?

Not all of them, but the FTC and multiple state attorneys general have pursued enforcement actions against exit companies that charged large upfront fees and never delivered a real result. Look for cold calls, upfront payment demands, promises of specific outcomes, and advice to stop paying your resort; all four are documented scam markers.

How much is a timeshare worth if I want to sell it?

Often very little. Older deeded weeks routinely list for $1 on resale marketplaces like RedWeek because sellers just want out of future maintenance fees. Some points-based club memberships in high-demand brands hold modest resale value. Treat any claim that your timeshare is a valuable investment as a sales tactic, not financial fact.

How much did the average timeshare cost to buy?

Industry reports place the average developer purchase price in the low-to-mid $20,000s, with average annual maintenance fees around $1,000 to $1,200. Prices vary widely by brand, location, and unit size; luxury weeks can cost far more, and resale units can cost far less.

Can I get rid of a timeshare I inherited?

Often yes, if you act before accepting it. An heir can formally disclaim an inheritance, including a timeshare, through probate, which passes it to the next heir or back to the estate. Once you've paid a fee bill on it, disclaiming usually becomes harder, so talk to the estate's probate attorney before paying anything.

What happens if a timeshare company sues me for unpaid fees?

You could face a collections action, a lien on the timeshare interest, or in some states a foreclosure-style process against your ownership. Whether the developer can pursue you personally beyond the timeshare itself depends on your state and contract. Talk to a consumer law attorney before ignoring any lawsuit paperwork.

Is there a rescission period for timeshare resale purchases too?

Many states apply their timeshare cooling-off rules to resale purchases as well as developer sales, but the exact scope varies by state statute. Check your specific contract and your state's timeshare law, since some rescission statutes are written to cover any timeshare interest transfer, not only new developer sales.

Can a timeshare company refuse a deed-back request?

Yes. Deed-back and surrender programs are voluntary on the resort's part in most cases; there's generally no legal right forcing them to accept a deed back. Some require your account to be current on fees first. If they refuse, resale or, in complicated cases, a consumer attorney are your next options.

Do I need a lawyer to get out of a timeshare?

Not always. If you're inside the rescission window or your resort offers a deed-back and you're current on fees, you can often handle it yourself with the right letters and deadlines. A lawyer becomes worth the cost when there's a fraud claim from the original sale, unclear title, active collections, or a resort that won't respond at all.

Sources

1. Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Advice: Timeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams: States have cooling-off laws allowing cancellation of a timeshare contract within a certain number of days
2. Florida Legislature, Florida Statutes Chapter 721 (Vacation and Timeshare Plans): Florida sets timeshare purchaser cancellation rights in its statutory timeshare chapter
3. Federal Trade Commission, Timeshare Resales: FTC warning about timeshare resale scams and upfront fee demands
4. Federal Trade Commission, FTC Announces Crackdown on Timeshare Resale Scams: FTC and state actions against timeshare exit companies that charged large upfront fees without delivering promised results
5. Missouri Attorney General, Consumer Alert: Timeshare Exit Scams: State attorney general consumer warnings about timeshare exit and resale scam patterns
6. Washington State Attorney General, AG Ferguson stops timeshare exit scam that took $13.8M from consumers: Washington AG secured court order against timeshare exit company that collected nearly $14 million in upfront fees