The Timeshare Rescission Period: The Free Exit the Seller Hopes You Miss

If you signed this week, send the notice today

The rescission period is the short window, usually 3 to 15 days depending on the state, when you can cancel a timeshare purchase for a full refund without giving a reason. Send a written cancellation notice, by the method your contract names, before the deadline in your contract. Keep proof that you sent it and proof that it arrived. Nobody needs to be paid to do this, and it is the only exit that returns every dollar.

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

Do not call the salesperson first. Vacation Ownership Consultants, an attorney-backed exit firm we work with, reports that one owner who contacted it called their sales representative the day after signing to ask about canceling and, according to the owner, was reassured and talked out of it. The owner mailed a notice after getting home from the trip. The resort said it was one day too late, and the owner was left with a $34,000 developer loan plus $14,000 on a credit card for the down payment.

How long is the window in your state?

Rescission comes from state law, and the seller does not get to decide whether you have it. Nolo puts the usual range at 3 to 15 days and notes that the right is typically nonwaivable, so the seller cannot ask or require you to give it up.

Three examples:

• Florida: until midnight of the 10th calendar day after the later of the day you signed or the day you received the last of the documents the developer must give you (Fla. Stat. 721.10).
• Nevada: until midnight of the fifth calendar day after the contract is executed (NRS 119A.410).
• Colorado: five calendar days after the sale, per Nolo.

Calendar days include weekends. In many states the clock starts on the later of signing or receiving the public offering statement, so a developer that was slow with the paperwork may have given you more time than you think. Our state rescission table lists every deadline we could verify against the statute.

Trust the paper over the salesperson’s version of the deadline. In a client story Vacation Ownership Consultants published, a couple who bought in Las Vegas said they were told, “You’ll have 10 days to change your mind.” Nevada’s statutory window is five calendar days. They found the real deadline only after reading the contract files they had been handed.

The clock usually starts when you sign

In most states the window runs from the day you sign, or from the day you receive the required documents if that is later. The day you fly home does not matter. Nolo’s Colorado example, five calendar days after the sale, comes with a warning that a purchase made early in a trip can leave the window closed before you are back.

A common sequence is a four-day trip, a presentation on day two, a signature that evening, and a five-day window with three days left in it by the time you unpack. Read the cancellation clause before you leave the resort. It usually names the deadline, the address, and the delivery method in one place.

The FTC’s advice for the sales table applies here too: ask the salesperson why today is the only day the deal is available, and treat the rush as a warning sign.

What a valid cancellation letter contains

You are writing a dated, unambiguous statement that you are canceling. It does not need to sound like a lawyer wrote it. Include:

• The current date
• Your name exactly as it appears on the contract, with your address, phone number, and email
• The seller’s name and the contract or account number
• A description of the timeshare and the purchase date, taken from the paperwork
• A clear statement that you are canceling the contract

Nolo says you usually do not have to give a reason, but you must state explicitly that the letter’s purpose is to rescind the contract. Its example sentence works: “I am contacting you within the rescission period to cancel this timeshare contract.” Vacation Ownership Consultants gives similar advice: keep it simple and do not explain your reasoning.

Sign it. If two people are on the contract, both sign. State law may require specific information in the notice, so read the cancellation clause in your own contract before you draft.

How to deliver it, and when it counts

Get delivery right, because it is the part of a rescission a seller can most easily dispute. Follow the method in your contract exactly. Nolo notes that some timeshare companies allow hand delivery, while others accept only registered or certified mail, and that the letter should be delivered within the rescission period or the cancellation might not count.

The statutes differ on the details:

• Nevada lets you deliver the notice personally, send it by certified mail with return receipt requested, or send it by express, priority, or overnight delivery service with proof of service, to the developer’s business address.
• South Carolina’s required contract notice tells buyers to cancel in writing by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by another verifiable means.
• Florida treats a mailed notice as given on the date it is postmarked, as long as the developer actually receives it.
• California’s required notice says your cancellation is effective on the date sent, to the address or fax number in your purchase contract.

Unless your contract and your state’s statute clearly say the postmark counts, plan for the letter to arrive before the deadline. The FTC’s general guidance for canceling a sale is to use certified mail with a return receipt, which proves when you mailed it and when the seller received it. Keep a copy of everything you sent. An email or text to your salesperson does not replace the method the contract names.

If you call the resort to cancel and get routed to someone offering a discount, an upgrade, or a promise to “take care of it,” the window keeps running while you talk. Send the letter first, and have any conversation afterward.

When you should get your money back

The refund deadline is in the statute too. Florida requires the refund within 20 days of your demand, or within 5 days after your payment clears, whichever is later. Nevada requires the developer to return all payments within 20 days after it receives your notice. If the money does not arrive on time, write to the developer with a copy of your proof of delivery, then file a complaint with the attorney general in the state where the timeshare is located.

What to do if the window has already closed

First make sure it really closed. If you never received the public offering statement or other required documents, the window in many states may not have started. In Florida, a closing that happens before the cancellation period expires is voidable at the purchaser’s option for up to five years. Once the rescission period truly lapses, the no-questions cancellation is gone, and these are the routes that remain.

Explore your options: ask the resort and check the resale market. Ask the developer or management company in writing for its surrender, deed-back, or exit program by name, what it costs, and what it requires, and get the answer in writing, yes or no. Then check what comparable weeks actually sell for. The FTC tells owners exploring an exit to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and Vacation Ownership Consultants’ own process starts the same way: its first step tells owners to “contact your resort and check the resale market.” Developers generally have no legal duty to take a timeshare back, so the developer sets the terms. Wyndham’s Certified Exit page, for example, lists voluntary surrender only under the heading for owners whose loan is paid in full. It also asks owners to make Wyndham their “first and only call for guidance and solutions” and warns that working with anyone other than its Certified Exit Specialists may leave options “limited or nonexistent,” so finish that conversation and get Wyndham’s answer in writing before you contact any outside firm. Holiday Inn Club Vacations and Westgate owners should likewise wait for the developer’s written answer before contacting any exit firm, including for a free consultation. Our Holiday Inn Club and Westgate guides explain why.

Don’t sign anything on that call. The developer’s reply, or an owner update meeting it leads to, often turns into a sales pitch. In the 2026 study ARDA, the developers’ trade group, commissioned from Ernst & Young, 61% of 2025 sales volume went to existing owners. In their 2025 annual reports, Marriott Vacations Worldwide and Hilton Grand Vacations put sales to existing owners at about 70% and 74% of contract sales, and Travel + Leisure Co. (which sells Club Wyndham) put upgrade sales at 72% of its net VOI (vacation ownership interest) sales. An upgrade is a bigger contract, and it does not end your ownership. If the answer you get is an upgrade pitch, treat that as a no.

If there’s no resale value and the resort refuses to help, or quotes a price you can’t accept. A free consultation and file review from an attorney-backed exit firm is one route to consider. VOC’s process works this way: you submit your billing statements, purchase agreement, and deed (if you have one) through its eligibility form, VOC determines what you may qualify for, you receive a free file review, and then you decide whether to enroll for its one-time flat fee. VOC says it doesn’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” The review tells you which exit fits your ownership and whether anything said at the sale may support a claim. An exit firm that retains an attorney to represent you, or a lawyer you hire directly, can send the developer a documented legal demand. A legitimate firm reviews your documents before quoting, charges one flat fee in writing, names the attorney (who you can look up with the state bar), says in writing what happens to the fee if the developer refuses, never tells you to stop paying, never guarantees a result or claims a developer connection, and tells you when a free route is still open. Your own attorney is another route if you have a documented claim, and a resale listing through a licensed broker who charges no upfront fee is a third. Our full route list walks through each option.

If you were misled, write it down now. A salesperson who gave you the wrong deadline, called the timeshare an investment, or promised rental income or a buyback may have broken your state’s timeshare law. Florida, for one, bars any oral statement that makes “any misleading or deceptive representation” about the purchaser’s rights under the contract. Our page on what was said at the sales presentation covers which statements count and what documents an attorney will want.

If you signed an upgrade, check its own deadline. An upgrade signed at an owner update meeting is a new purchase on new paperwork. Look for its cancellation notice today, and see why upgrading does not get you out.

Expect the scam wave too. In April 2026 the FTC announced that 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. The FTC alleged the scheme took more than $90 million, mostly from older adults, and that the defendants falsely told consumers they couldn’t exit a timeshare without paying the defendants’ fees. A firm worth hiring looks nothing like that, and the red flags page shows how to tell the difference.

Keep paying while you work on it. The purchase loan is a separate 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.

Does the FTC’s three-day rule cover a timeshare?

The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives buyers three days to cancel certain sales made at home or at a seller’s temporary location, such as a hotel room or convention center. It does not cover sales involving real estate, and a deeded timeshare is real estate. Your state’s timeshare statute and your contract set your deadline.

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. Rescission turns on the exact wording of your contract and the statute in the state that governs it. If there is any doubt about your deadline or the delivery method, send the notice now and call an attorney licensed in that state today.