Timeshare contracts are famously easy to get into. Every year, innocent vacationers are swept into presentation rooms where overzealous salespeople pressure them into buying vacation club points or weeks at timeshare resorts. When the dust clears, these people find themselves saddled with a timeshare that is expensive and nearly impossible to use.
Whether it’s the piling up of annual maintenance fees and assessments or the feeling that the timeshare company has tricked them, many timeshare owners find themselves asking, “How hard is it to get out of a timeshare contract?”
The answer can often be more complicated than you would like. Sometimes, a timeshare agreement can be canceled by its terms, but those terms can be misleading and tricky. Other times, you may need a more serious intervention to rid you of your timeshare ownership.
Either way, a timeshare exit company like Centerstone Group can help guide you through the complicated world of timeshare cancellation and find the right exit strategy for you. In this article, we will take a look at some of the different ways of canceling timeshare contracts, and how they might be accomplished.
Yes, it is possible to legally get out of a timeshare contract. We’ll cover some of these options below. But before we dive into the various ways one might reasonably and legitimately try to get out of a timeshare contract, let’s stress the one thing you should never do.
You should never just stop paying your fees or mortgage, walk away, and hope for the best. That is a recipe for disaster, and anyone who tells you otherwise does not have your best interests at heart.
Some unscrupulous exit companies may give this stop-paying advice, and it can be one of their more destructive scams.
If you stop paying maintenance fees on a timeshare, you might end up facing a foreclosure, or your credit score could suffer. Failing to pay amounts that you have already agreed to in the contract puts you on the defensive and makes it easier for the timeshare company to make your life difficult. Though it may seem like you’re saving money and making things more difficult for the timeshare company, in the long run you are only hurting yourself.
You might have heard about the possibility of rescinding or canceling your timeshare contract. This possibility often comes from the language of the contract itself. The United States has many state laws that allow you to cancel a timeshare purchase within a specified time. This is called a rescission period or cooling-off period. Many times, you need to write a cancellation letter and mail it to a specific address.
The actual writing and mailing of a letter isn’t hard. The tricky part, though, is that timeshare developers will often put in little requirements to trip you up. Maybe the letter needs to be delivered using a specific company name or contact information, or you need to be able to prove it was sent via certified mail. Unless you very carefully read the contract and cover all your bases, you may not be able to successfully cancel your timeshare in time.
When the time for cancellation or rescission has passed, many owners reasonably try to bargain with their timeshare companies to take the timeshare back or even give it to someone else. Unfortunately, timeshare companies are rarely reasonable and will make either of those processes difficult.
One option that some companies offer is known as a “deed-back program,” whereby you give the timeshare or points back to the resort and it lets you out of the contract.
Even if you satisfy all the company’s requirements, it doesn’t have to let you into the program. In fact, it likely won’t. The company has a bottom line to protect, and if it lets too many owners out of their contracts, it will suffer a significant economic impact. Truly, you are at the mercy of the developer who is causing all your problems. A timeshare company won’t let owners into the program willingly; it will only relent for owners who force their hand.
A better way to get through the process is with a reputable timeshare exit company that can use its experience to negotiate with the timeshare company on your behalf. For example, Centerstone Group has a proprietary pressure campaign against timeshare companies, and that process has been shown to get results. In cases like this, hiring an exit company to negotiate for you can be a lot easier.
Some developers may offer you the ability to transfer your timeshare to a family member or charity. Though keep in mind that not even a charity may want the timeshare you are donating. Plus, do you really want to pass on the financial burden of a timeshare to a loved one?
As a last resort, some timeshare owners are tempted to take advantage of timeshare transfer provisions by trying to sell it on the secondary market — either through a real estate agent or via a site like eBay or Craigslist. But these owners soon learn that timeshare resale is neither an easy solution nor a profitable one.
It’s not hard to find listings online for free timeshares that don’t have any takers.
Even if you find someone willing to accept your timeshare transfer, expect to be made to jump through a lot of hoops – and pay the timeshare company a lot more fees – to get there. You also need to make sure that your timeshare mortgage payments and fees are fully paid to have a hope of getting approved to transfer your timeshare.
Hiring a timeshare lawyer and taking developers to court should not be the first thing you try. Civil litigation takes a long time, and it has a hefty price tag. One plaintiff’s law firm estimates that business lawsuits can take over two years to get to trial, and it’s possible that the wait can be even longer. (And of course, don’t forget that legal fees and costs can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.) That whole time, you could be paying annual maintenance fees, assessments, and the other timeshare costs that drain your wallet.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to get a lawyer involved. But in those cases, it’s good to have professionals on your side who can tell you when it’s time for that. Centerstone Group, for example, has connections with lawyers and law firms that can help you when you need it — and at discounted rates for legal fees.
We would never advise litigation as a first resort though. Anyone who tells you that is the easiest or quickest way to get out of a timeshare contract is simply wrong.
Chances are that you got into your timeshare property by getting rushed to a hasty decision by pushy timeshare sales staff. For your exit, thinking carefully about how best to go about it can simplify your life considerably.
Helping you make decisions like this is what we do here at Centerstone Group. We are an A+-rated, accredited business with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and we have decades of experience in the timeshare industry. Take some time to read reviews from our satisfied clients who’ve given us 4.77-out-of-5 stars, and contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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