Signing a timeshare contract or inheriting a timeshare is pretty easy. You just sign a document and the vacation club points and/or a fractional interest in one or more timeshare resorts are yours. Timeshare owners quickly find, however, that exiting a timeshare is much harder. So, why is getting out of a timeshare so difficult?
The answer lies with the timeshare developers who sell these products as well as the salespeople who have persuaded so many to sign timeshare agreements. Another reason is the nature of the contracts themselves, which can often be brutal, one-sided, and unforgiving. When you’re caught between these two forces, it can feel like there is nowhere to turn.
In this article, we’ll dive deeper into these difficulties. But don’t lose hope. We’ll also share some information about how to free yourself from your timeshare nightmare.
There are two main reasons it’s so hard to get out of a timeshare: the timeshare developers themselves and the contracts. Let’s look at each of these more closely.
The root of the problem with timeshares that makes them so difficult to escape is the companies selling them to the public. Companies like Wyndham Resorts and Marriott Vacation Club have built huge empires in the timeshare industry, and they didn’t accomplish that by making it easy to leave. From the very beginning of the process, they use pushy staff and aggressive tactics at timeshare sales presentations to close the deal as soon as possible.
But the timeshare companies aren’t content just to leave you alone once they have you in the system. You can expect to be subjected to more sales pitches for upgrades or more vacation club points through the years. The sales pitches don’t stop. Nor will the fact that you can never quite seem to get exactly what they promised you or that you’re always paying money for annual maintenance fees, exchange fees, and special assessments.
If timeshare companies are really that bad, you ask, why stay around? The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) estimated in 2022 that the average timeshare interval cost a whopping $23,940. Why would anybody keep paying extra fees on top of that money if they were getting poor service, weren’t happy with the timeshare properties, or even weren’t able to book the vacations they were promised?
The answer, unfortunately, is the timeshare purchase agreement. The contracts are intentionally written to lock people into their timeshares for life. Even the exit options written into the contract or available through the timeshare companies are designed to be challenging, with hoops to jump through.
For example, new contracts almost always have rescission periods (also known as “cooling-off periods”) that are governed by state law. If you cancel within this period, you can make a clean break from the contract and have all your money refunded. But to successfully acquire a rescission you have to write and send a timeshare cancellation letter to a specific address. If you make one mistake, you will be stuck.
And though some of the larger companies offer exit programs (also sometimes called “deed-back programs”), they don’t have to let you into these programs. In fact, timeshare developers have an incentive not to let too many owners into these programs. If they did, they wouldn’t have enough customers to pay their exorbitant fees and keep their timeshare empires afloat. Plus, to even be eligible, your timeshare will often need to be paid off and current on all fees.
Just abandoning the financial hardship regardless of what the contract says might sound tempting, but it’s a terrible idea. Signing a purchase contract forces you into legal obligations to pay for maintenance fees and the other costs. You may also have obtained a timeshare mortgage, which almost certainly came from the timeshare developer itself.
If you stop paying any of these fees or mortgage payments, the timeshare contract (as well as the mortgage) will give the timeshare developer the right to come after you. You might suffer through a foreclosure, and you could even get sued by the timeshare company. In either case, your credit score will take a major hit, and that could affect your personal finances — as well as your ability to get loans for other things — for years to come.
Some owners mistakenly think that their timeshares are valuable real estate and can simply be put on the secondary market for resale. Sadly, this is just not true, and in the majority of cases, timeshare resale is just not possible, let alone profitable. The idea that a timeshare could constitute an investment to be sold for profit on the resale market is one of the more insidious scams perpetrated by the industry.
The good news is that you’re not alone in this fight. Centerstone Group is the premier timeshare exit company, owned and operated by professionals with decades of experience in the timeshare industry. We know how these companies work, and we know the ins and outs of timeshare ownership contracts.
We use that knowledge to fight for timeshare owners. Because we are familiar with the tricks and strategies that timeshare companies use, we have successfully negotiated exits on behalf of thousands of timeshare owners—through transfers and our proprietary pressure campaigns.
That’s not all we can do, either. Sometimes, when a timeshare company has crossed a legal line (for example, by making a fraudulent misrepresentation to you while selling the timeshare), our clients need a timeshare attorney to represent them in a legal action. We have relationships with law firms all over the United States, and we can help negotiate lower rates for attorney fees on behalf of our clients.
We also have a variety of other services, including credit monitoring and repair or guiding you through the rescission process as well as our proprietary Mexico exit process.
We have spent years fighting to rescue thousands from the unfair practices of timeshare developers, a fact that is reflected by our A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) as well as our 4.78-out-of-5 stars.
So, why is getting out a timeshare so difficult? Simply put, it’s because the businesses that run them have made it that way. They likely could not stay in business otherwise.
This unique feature of the timeshare industry makes Centerstone Group an important and unique resource for timeshare owners to fight back and escape their contracts. Contact Centerstone Group today for a free consultation and case evaluation so that we can get you started on the road to recovery and freedom from your oppressive and unwanted timeshare contract.
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