Timeshare Special Assessments: The Bill on Top of the Bill

What is a timeshare special assessment?

A special assessment is a one-time bill your resort’s owners’ association sends on top of the annual maintenance fee. It pays for something the budget and reserves don’t cover: storm damage, a failing building, a renovation, an insurance gap, or the fees other owners stopped paying. You owe your share whether or not you use your week, and it sits outside the industry’s fee averages: ARDA, the developers’ trade group, commissioned a 2026 study from Ernst & Young that puts the average billed maintenance fee at $1,550 per interval in 2025, excluding taxes and special assessments.

Florida’s condominium law, which also governs timeshare plans in condominiums, defines a special assessment as “any assessment levied against a unit owner other than the assessment required by a budget adopted annually.” Nevada makes developers warn buyers in writing that “most expenses increase with the age of facilities and with increases in the cost of living.”

How does a resort authorize a special assessment?

The governing documents come first. Your declaration and bylaws say who can levy an assessment, whether the board needs an owner vote, and whether any cap applies.

State law sets the process. Florida, home to 24% of the resorts in ARDA’s study, is the model. A timeshare plan in a Florida condominium must meet both Chapter 721, the timeshare act, and Chapter 718, the condominium act, and Chapter 721 prevails where they conflict. Between them:

• Notice of any board meeting where assessments will be considered must say so and give “the estimated cost and description of the purposes for such assessments.” (Fla. Stat. 718.112(2)(c)3)
• Each owner must get a written notice of the assessment’s specific purpose, and the money “shall be used only for the specific purpose or purposes set forth in such notice.” Leftover funds may be returned to owners or credited against future assessments. (718.116(10))
• Where the managing entity is an owners’ association, a majority of voting interests present, in person or by proxy, can waive or reduce reserves. (721.13(3)(c)3) Reserves pay for a new roof without a special bill, so watch that vote.
• The 115 percent rule, which makes a board offer a substitute budget when annual assessments rise more than 15 percent, covers the annual budget, and Florida defines a special assessment as one outside it. (718.112(2)(e)2; 718.103)

None of these Florida sections caps a special assessment. Any cap comes from the resort’s own documents. Arizona is blunter with buyers: when the first year’s maximum assessment is unknown, the seller’s pre-purchase disclosure must include, unless the purchase agreement sets a limit, “an affirmative statement that there is no limit on the assessments that the purchaser may be charged in the first year of ownership.”

What have real special assessments cost?

Kauai Beach Villas: $4.1 million, then a $67.2 million estimate

Kauai Beach Villas, in Lihue, Hawaii, has about 6,893 interval owners, and 105 of its 150 apartments are used as timeshare. According to a declaration by the association’s board president, filed in bankruptcy court in December 2025:

• A March 2020 flood exposed construction deficiencies from the original build.
• By board resolution dated December 6, 2023, the association issued a $4.1 million special assessment to all owners to make two closed buildings habitable. It collected $3,488,098, an approximately 16% default rate, and started foreclosure proceedings against some owners who did not pay.
• A cost estimator said the property needs at least $70 million in repairs. The next assessment, “currently estimated at $67,200,000,” would have ranged from at least $311,000 for a one-bedroom apartment to at least $548,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment. The board never levied it.
• The board feared a deficit of at least $14 million if defaults rose, and found “no lender on the islands willing to loan the Association” the money.

On September 19, 2025, 81.829% of owners present at a meeting voted to authorize Chapter 11, and the association filed on December 5, 2025 (Case No. 25-01103, District of Hawaii) to sell the whole property. Owners’ distributions may be reduced by what they owe in unpaid fees and special assessments.

Hurricane damage in Florida

Royal Beach Club, Fort Myers Beach. After Hurricane Ian, 2023 rebuild estimates came in at just under $16 million for a resort with about 460 timeshare owners. Members who had voted in 2023 to rebuild reversed course in early December 2024, and the board planned to hire a broker to sell the property, according to Beach Talk Radio News.

Grand Shores West, North Redington Beach. Deemed substantially damaged after the 2024 hurricanes, the resort was still awaiting repairs in October 2025, when WFLA reported that one couple was still paying $800 a year in dues for their week. The manager, Vacatia, said costs were “expected to exceed insurance funds” and that owners would vote whether “to rebuild at a potentially significant cost to all owners or terminate the timeshare.” Neither news report gives an assessment amount.

In ARDA’s study, 25 resorts reported temporary closures in 2025, and about 92% of those giving a reason named a natural disaster.

Disclosure: Candid Yak works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it. We cite its published case data on this page where marked.

What Vacation Ownership Consultants sees in its client files

Vacation Ownership Consultants (VOC) published three 2025 cases from billing statements its clients received. These are examples from an interested party, and VOC does not name the resorts.

Location (per VOC)	2025 maintenance fee	2025 special assessment	Total due	Reason given to owners
Sedona, Arizona resort	$1,120	$1,500	$2,620	More than 179 foreclosed intervals returned to the association, 80 more in foreclosure, rising costs, renovations
Vacation club tied to resorts in Incline Village and Lake Tahoe, Nevada	$2,441	$969.66	$3,410.66	A $3.5 million renovation at the Lake Tahoe resort and an “excess amount” of foreclosed intervals
Honolulu, Hawaii timeshare	$2,944	$2,400 (two intervals at $1,200)	$5,344	”HOTEL INCOME SUPPLEMENTAL ASSESSMENT,” nothing more

VOC reports that the Sedona assessment came two years after an earlier $975 one, and that the association said yearly fees “are just not enough to cover the expenses.” VOC also reports a retired couple at a Gulf Coast-area resort billed a special assessment of more than $2,000 the year after hurricane damage.

Two of the three notices blamed owners who stopped paying. Industry-wide, ARDA reports about 93% of maintenance fee accounts were current in 2025, but at the Sedona resort VOC says association-owned intervals passed 300, and the association said the lost fee income was hitting its budget. VOC’s view is that frequent assessments can push more owners out, producing more foreclosures and the next shortfall.

Why do older resorts see more special assessments?

In ARDA’s 2026 study, 393 resorts reported the typical lifecycle of key items:

Item	Average lifecycle
Paint	6.1 years
Electronics	6.6 years
Soft goods (carpet, sofas, window coverings)	6.9 years
Case goods	11.1 years
Appliances	11.5 years
HVAC	13.4 years
Tile, cabinetry, plumbing fixtures	20.1 years

The same study found that 43% of responding resorts opened in 1985 or before. By those averages, a resort that opened in 1985 would have needed to replace its HVAC about three times and its tile, cabinets, and plumbing fixtures about twice. Any replacement the reserves didn’t fund is a candidate for a special assessment. The Sedona notice, as VOC describes it, listed that kind of work: cabinet fronts, vanity tops, retiled bathrooms, shower doors, front doors.

One large developer has acknowledged it. Travel + Leisure Co., the company behind Club Wyndham and WorldMark, said in its 2025 annual report that a portfolio review aimed in part at “mitigating the need for costly special assessments in the future” identified 17 resorts “requiring significant owner reinvestment” or in markets that no longer align with owner demand.

VOC’s view is that older resorts that no longer sell are slower to fund that reinvestment. Nearly half the resorts in ARDA’s study are not in active sales; see our legacy resorts guide.

Can you refuse to pay a special assessment?

You can question it. Refusing to pay is another matter. In Florida:

• You are “personally liable for all assessments for common expenses which come due while the purchaser is the owner of such interest.” (Fla. Stat. 721.15(7)(a))
• The managing entity has a lien on your interest for any assessment “from the date such assessment becomes due.” (721.16(1))
• Delinquent assessments can carry interest at the highest rate the law permits, a late fee of up to $25 per assessment, and collection costs including reasonable attorney’s fees, all charged to you. (721.15(3))
• Sixty days after the billing or due date, whichever is later, the managing entity can deny you use of the resort and cancel reservations. (721.13(6)(a))
• The lien can be foreclosed, as Kauai’s board began doing. See our foreclosure guide.

Your reading of the contract may not protect you either. In a 2015 Condé Nast Traveler case, a couple at the Renaissance Aruba objected to a $1,115 assessment, billed on top of a $664 maintenance fee, saying their contract did not provide for it. The operator called such assessments “a standard industry practice,” and the columnist later learned it had cancelled the couple’s membership.

Never treat nonpayment as a strategy. The FTC lists “instructions to stop paying your mortgage or fees” as a sign of a timeshare exit scam. What you can do instead:

1. Ask for the paperwork in writing: the board resolution or minutes, the written notice of purpose, the current budget, and the latest reserve study.
2. Check the authority. Look for a cap or a required owner vote in the declaration and bylaws, and check the meeting notice against the rules above.
3. Ask for time. VOC advises owners facing an assessment they can’t afford to contact the resort right away for the documents, payment options, hardship procedures, and any surrender program.
4. Get legal advice if the rules were broken. Florida’s timeshare act lets a purchaser sue the managing entity for damages or injunctive or declaratory relief over a violation of Chapter 721, and the prevailing party may be entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees.

What are your exit options when an assessment arrives?

VOC says it has spoken with owners who had no intention of exiting until an unexpected assessment arrived. Keep paying while you work through these routes in order.

1. Contact the resort and check the resale market. Write to the developer or management company, yourself or through your own attorney if you already have one. Ask for its surrender, deed-back, or exit program by name, what it costs, what it requires, and whether the assessment must be paid first, and get the answer in writing. Then check what comparable weeks at your resort actually sell for. The FTC tells owners exploring an exit to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and VOC’s own process starts the same way, with “contact your resort and check the resale market.”

Expect that call, or any owner update meeting, to turn into a sales pitch. Existing owners bought 61% of 2025 sales volume in ARDA’s study. In their 2025 annual reports, Marriott Vacations Worldwide said about 70% of its contract sales were to existing owners, Hilton Grand Vacations said 74%, and Travel + Leisure reported upgrade sales at 72% of its net VOI sales. Don’t sign anything at that call or meeting. An upgrade is a bigger contract with a bigger fee, and it leaves you owning more, so treat an upgrade pitch as a no.

Three developers set their own timing rules. Holiday Inn Club Vacations’ Horizons program says that if it detects third-party exit company involvement on your account, “you will forfeit the ability to participate,” so apply to Horizons and wait for its written answer before contacting any exit firm, including for a free consultation. 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 Westgate’s Legacy Program whether any such condition applies before you contact an exit firm. Wyndham asks owners to make it their “first and only call” and warns that working with anyone else may leave options “limited or nonexistent,” so finish the Certified Exit conversation and get Wyndham’s answer in writing before contacting any outside firm.

2. Watch for a sale or termination vote. Boards facing repairs owners won’t fund may move to sell or terminate, as at Kauai Beach Villas and Royal Beach Club; Grand Shores West’s owners have been promised a vote. That can end your ownership, sometimes with a share of the proceeds, minus what you owe. Staying current protects your vote: at Myrtle Beach’s Beach House Golf and Racquet Club, owners behind on fees could not vote on the resort’s future, according to WMBF News. The legacy resorts guide lists the vote thresholds in four states.

3. If there’s no resale value and the resort refuses to help, or quotes a price you can’t accept, get a free consultation and file review from an attorney-backed exit firm. At VOC, you send your billing statements, purchase agreement, and deed, if you have one, through its eligibility form. VOC determines which options your ownership may qualify for, gives you a free file review, and then you decide whether to enroll for a one-time flat fee. VOC says it doesn’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” VOC’s review is free; check the terms at any other firm. A review should tell you which exit fits your ownership and whether anything said at the sale may support a claim. Because Florida makes you liable for assessments that come due while you own, expect an assessment already billed to be part of any exit negotiation. In one example VOC published from its client files, a retired couple with a deeded Sedona week, worried by “the uncertainty of special assessments,” got a deed transfer back to the timeshare company, and VOC says the outstanding debt on the account was forgiven. That is one result the firm reports; yours depends on your contract and developer.

Exit scams are on the record: 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 reviews your documents before it quotes, quotes one flat fee in writing, names the attorney who will represent you, says in writing what happens to your fee if the developer refuses, never tells you to stop paying, never guarantees a result or claims a connection to your developer, and tells you when a free route is still open. The full checklist is on the red flags page.

4. Your own attorney, if you have a documented claim. If the assessment broke the rules described above, or the seller misrepresented the timeshare, a lawyer licensed in your state can press the claim directly. See hiring a timeshare attorney.

5. Resale, with the balance cleared. Use a licensed broker who charges no upfront fee. In Florida, whoever takes the interest from you is jointly and severally liable for assessments you left unpaid, so an open balance will surface in any sale, and the FTC warns that selling “might be hard, if not impossible.” See our selling guide.

6. Keep the loan separate. If you also owe on the developer’s purchase loan, that 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 you work out the ownership question.

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. Whether an assessment is valid turns on your resort’s governing documents and your state’s law. Before you dispute an assessment, sign a release, or miss a payment, put the notice and your documents in front of an attorney licensed in the state where the timeshare is located.