How to Get Out of a Timeshare: All Eight Routes, Ranked

The free routes exist, and the resort controls them

You sat through a presentation built to get a signature before you left the room. The contract you signed was written to keep you paying every year after. There are eight ways out. Two of them are free, and the resort decides whether you get the second one.

Start with the industry’s own numbers. ARDA, the developers’ trade group, commissioned its 2026 study from Ernst & Young. It found that 61% of 2025 timeshare sales volume went to people who already owned one. The average maintenance fee reached $1,550, up from $1,120 in 2021. And 47% of the resorts in the study were not in active sales, with about 84% of those opened in 1985 or earlier. That is the industry’s best case for itself, and it describes a business that sells mostly to people who are already owners.

Work the list in this order. It is ranked by how much each route costs you if it fails.

1. Rescission

Cost: nothing. You get every dollar back.

Most states give timeshare buyers a cooling-off window to cancel outright. Nolo puts the usual range at 3 to 15 days from signing, varying by state, and notes that the right is typically nonwaivable, so the seller cannot ask you to give it up. Colorado gives five calendar days. Nevada runs to midnight of the fifth calendar day after the contract is executed.

Who it works for: anyone who signed recently and can get a written notice delivered inside the window, by the method the contract names.

What disqualifies you: the calendar. The clock usually starts the day you sign, often while you are still on vacation. Once the window closes, this route is gone.

If you signed in the last 15 days, check your state’s window and handle it now. Our rescission guide covers what the letter needs to say and how to prove you sent it.

2. Ask the developer to take it back

Cost: nothing to ask. Sometimes a fee if they agree.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it.

Some developers run surrender or deed-back programs. The FTC tells owners exploring an exit to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and notes that some companies “have exit programs that let you exit for a modest fee.” Make the call yourself, or through your own attorney if you already have one, and check what comparable weeks actually sell for. Vacation Ownership Consultants’ own process starts the same way: “Contact your resort and check the resale market.” Don’t sign with or pay any firm until the developer answers in writing.

Who it works for: owners who are current on fees, have paid off the purchase loan, and own a product the developer still wants back.

What disqualifies you: an open loan balance, fees past due, or a resort the developer no longer sells. Developers generally have no legal duty to take a timeshare back, so the developer sets the terms and the price.

Be ready for a sales pitch. Vacation Ownership Consultants says owners often describe resort “owner update” meetings as high-pressure sales sessions, and some report pressure to convert older weeks into points. Remember where 61% of the industry’s sales come from. An upgrade is a bigger contract with a bigger fee, and it leaves you owning more. Don’t sign anything on that call or at an owner update meeting, and if the answer you get is an upgrade pitch, treat it as a no. If the developer quotes a surrender price, get it in writing and compare it. Vacation Ownership Consultants reports that one owner who contacted the firm said her resort verbally quoted her $7,500 to surrender her points-based ownership.

Get the developer’s answer in writing whether it is yes or no, and keep it for anyone you later ask for help.

Finish the developer’s process before you contact an outside firm, especially at these three. Wyndham asks owners to make it their “first and only call” and says that if you work with anyone other than its Certified Exit Specialists, “your options may be limited or nonexistent.” Holiday Inn Club Vacations says owners lose eligibility for its Horizons exit program if an exit company is involved, so apply and wait for its written answer before contacting any exit firm, including for a free consultation. At Westgate, according to Rebecca Tushnet’s law blog, an exit company alleged, in a lawsuit decided in 2024, that Westgate has conditioned repossessions on an affidavit that the owner has not worked with “any timeshare exit company, lawyer or law firm.” Westgate disputes that the language covers all lawyers, and the court called it “sweeping.” Ask its Legacy Program whether any such condition applies before you contact an exit firm.

3. An attorney-backed exit firm

Cost: a flat fee, quoted in writing after the firm reviews your contract.

This is a route to consider when there is no resale value and the developer refuses to help or quotes a price you can’t accept. It fits people still paying the purchase loan, owners at older resorts that stopped selling years ago, and owners who fell behind on fees after the bill kept climbing.

Start with a free consultation. Vacation Ownership Consultants’ process, after you have contacted your resort, is to have you submit your documents through its eligibility form, confirm which options your ownership may qualify for, and give you a free file review; only then do you decide whether to enroll for its one-time flat fee. It says it doesn’t discuss billing until it has confirmed you qualify. A legitimate firm reviews your contract and payment history before it quotes anything, then tells you which exit method fits your ownership. Where the method calls for it, the firm retains an attorney to represent you. Ask whether that attorney will represent you directly, and get it in writing: VOC’s own terms say clients represent themselves unless a participating attorney represents them. The attorney deals with the developer on your behalf and looks for specific problems with how the timeshare was sold to you, such as a salesperson who pitched it as an investment that would grow in value. In our view, a lawyer’s letter is harder for a developer to ignore than an owner waiting in a phone queue, and that is what you are paying for.

How to tell a real firm from a scam. This industry has a public enforcement record. According to Washington State’s attorney general, more than 2,800 Washingtonians paid Reed Hein, which did business as Timeshare Exit Team, upfront fees from just under $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars per exit. In April 2026, after an FTC investigation, a federal court ordered Christopher Carroll, a top operator of a timeshare exit scheme run through a company called Consumer Law Protection, to pay $140 million. A firm worth hiring looks different from both:

• It reviews your documents before it quotes, and quotes one flat fee in writing.
• It names the attorney who will represent you, and you can look that attorney up with the state bar.
• It tells you in writing what happens to your fee if the developer refuses.
• It never tells you to stop paying your fees or your loan. The FTC lists that instruction as a scam sign.
• It never guarantees a result and never claims a connection to your developer.
• It tells you plainly when a free route is still open to you.

The full checklist is on the red flags page.

Who it works for: owners the developer refused or will not consider, owners still paying the purchase loan, and owners at legacy resorts.

What disqualifies you: an open rescission window or a written yes from the developer. In either case you don’t need to hire anyone.

4. Your own attorney, if you have a claim

Cost: an hourly rate or a contingency fee.

If you have documents showing the seller lied or left out something the law requires, a lawyer licensed in your state can press the claim directly. Nolo notes that Arkansas, for example, lets a purchaser sue within four years to rescind where there is a question about the accuracy of the public offering statement or the validity of the contract. Write down what the salesperson promised you now, while you still remember it.

Who it works for: owners with a specific, documented misrepresentation or a missing disclosure.

What disqualifies you: regret alone. A contract that turned out to be a bad deal is not a lawsuit by itself. See hiring a timeshare attorney for what a real claim looks like.

5. Resale

Cost: a commission, a sale price that may be zero, and every fee that comes due while the listing sits.

You can list it, but the price the salesperson implied is probably not what a buyer will pay. The FTC says the timeshare market is overcrowded, that selling might be hard, if not impossible, and that anyone who guarantees a sale or big returns is a scammer. Nearly half the resorts in the industry’s own study were not in active sales, which suggests how crowded the resale market is.

Who it works for: owners with a paid-off, fee-current week at a resort people actually want to visit.

What disqualifies you: an outstanding loan or an unpopular week. Avoid upfront listing fees. The FTC’s guidance is to prefer a reseller that takes its fee after the sale, deal only with agents licensed where the timeshare sits, and get refund terms in writing if you are asked to pay anything first.

6. Renting the week to cover the fee

Cost: your time and the rental platform’s cut, and usually a loss.

Renting keeps the obligation in place and pays for one more year of it, so treat it as a way to buy time while you work on an exit. In three examples from Vacation Ownership Consultants’ client files, rental income covered between about a quarter and just under half of the annual fee, and each owner still lost between roughly $650 and $1,280 for the year.

Who it works for: owners with a genuinely desirable week who need time.

What disqualifies you: a week that rents for less than the fee.

7. Stop paying

Cost: your credit, and possibly more.

Washington’s attorney general reported that customers of Reed Hein who stopped paying were sent to collections or had their credit damaged, and the state’s settlement required the company to warn customers that some of its exit methods may lead to foreclosure. One owner who was told to stop paying missed the resort’s collection action while traveling for work, and later said he could not look into buying a house because of the damage to his credit.

Who ends up here: owners with no other route open who decide the credit damage is worth it.

What makes it a bad idea: a mortgage or car loan application in your near future, a co-owner whose credit is also on the line, or any route above that is still open to you.

The FTC lists instructions to stop paying as a sign of an exit scam, and Washington’s attorney general said Reed Hein at times told customers to stop paying their resorts. If anyone you hire tells you to stop paying, end the conversation.

8. Disclaiming an inheritance

Cost: a filing, plus what an estate attorney charges to do it right.

If the timeshare is coming to you from a parent, the resort would like you to assume the fees are now yours. You can refuse it. State law decides whether a refusal works and how to file it. Federal tax law sets the test for whether the refusal counts for tax purposes: it must be in writing, it must reach the right party within nine months of the death (or of your 21st birthday, if that is later), and you must not have accepted the interest or any of its benefits.

Who it works for: any heir who does not want it.

What disqualifies you: accepting it. If you use the week once or pay a fee from your own account, you may have accepted the interest and lost the right to refuse it. Full detail on the inherited timeshare page.

The decision path

Answer these in order and stop at the first yes.

Did you sign within the last 15 days? Check your state’s rescission window and send the notice today, by the method the contract names, with proof of delivery.

Did you inherit it and not accept it yet? Talk to an estate attorney about disclaiming it within nine months of the death.

Everyone else: contact your resort and check the resale market. Ask the developer in writing for its surrender or deed-back program by name, what it costs, and what it requires, and look at what comparable weeks actually sell for. Sign nothing on the call or at an owner update meeting. If the answer is yes and the terms work for you, you are done. Wyndham, Holiday Inn Club and Westgate owners should finish that process before contacting any outside firm, for the reasons above.

No resale value, and the developer said no or quoted a price you can’t accept? Get a free consultation and file review from an attorney-backed exit firm. Your other options are your own attorney if you have a documented claim, or resale through a licensed broker who charges no upfront fee. Fees come due every year while you wait, so run the ten-year math on your own bill first.

Do you have proof the seller misled you? Take it to an attorney, either the one your exit firm retains or your own.

Keep the loan separate at every step. The purchase loan is its own obligation, often at a high rate. Few lenders will refinance against the timeshare itself, because it has almost no resale value. If you qualify for a lower rate, a personal loan can replace the developer’s loan while the ownership question gets resolved.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. This page’s author, Kira Fairbank, is a manager at Vacation Ownership Consultants. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

This is general information, not legal advice. Every route above turns on contract language and state law we cannot see from here. Before you send a notice, sign a release, or stop a payment, put your contract in front of an attorney licensed in your state.