If you find yourself no longer needing or wanting your timeshare, it is important to know your options for legally breaking and entirely ridding yourself of the timeshare contract.

Timeshare Rescission Period

If you recently purchased your timeshare, you may be able to use your state’s rescission period laws to most efficiently end your timeshare contract. By law, information should have been provided to you in documents when you signed your timeshare contract regarding cancelling your timeshare for a total refund within a short period of time after its purchase. However, if you have owned your timeshare for longer than the rescission period, you will need to use another method for timeshare contract termination.

Timeshare Resort Deedback Programs

Many timeshare developers offer programs of their own for assisting timeshare owners get out of their unwanted contracts. When looking to legally get out of your timeshare, first contact your timeshare developer to see if they are willing to buy back your timeshare or work with you on another option. As of 2/13/19, Wyndham, Hilton, WorldMark, Diamond, Westgate, and Manhattan Club are known to publicly offer such “deedback” programs, but others may offer them as well if directly contacted.

Timeshare Resale

If your timeshare resort does not offer a program of its own, you may want to consider selling your timeshare on a website like Ebay or Craigslist. However, it is important to be aware that this may be more difficult to do than you think. Most timeshares lose at least 50% of their value as soon as they are purchased, and it is not uncommon for timeshares to spend months listed on Ebay being given away for $1 with no bidders.

Timeshare broker companies that are commission-based do exist to assist those with the rare high-demand timeshare, like those by Disney Vacation Club or Marriott Aruba Surf Club, to resale their timeshare. However, no legitimate timeshare resale company charges a high upfront cost or wants to work with low-value timeshares. This is important to be aware of to avoid scams if you are considering this route.

Dave Ramsey & Timeshare Exit Companies

Financial guru, Dave Ramsey, does not support the ownership of timeshares and gives his support to some timeshare exit companies, whose purpose is to help timeshare owners legally break their timeshare contract through the employment of legal professionals. Working with a timeshare exit company may be the best option for you to terminate your timeshare contract if your timeshare resort does not offer a program of its own and your timeshare does not have value on the resale market.

However, it is important to never work with a timeshare exit company that charges direct, up-front fees for their services. Too often in the timeshare relief industry, timeshare exit companies disappear with their client’s money or go out of business without following up with their customers. For this reason, it is recommended to only work with a timeshare exit company that offers a low up-front fee escrow payment option, which allows the client to pay for the service initially to a third-party holding account that only releases the money to the timeshare exit company itself upon the successful cancellation of the timeshare. This is the only way to guarantee protection from fraud.

If you would like to receive more information on timeshare exit companies, low up-front fee escrow payment options, or advice on legally terminating your timeshare contract, please do not hesitate to fill out our contact form or engage in our live chat.