What Happens If You Stop Paying Timeshare Maintenance Fees

Stopping payment does not end the timeshare

If you stop paying your maintenance fees, the timeshare stays yours and the bill keeps growing. The resort’s next steps are written into your contract and your state’s law: late fees and interest, a block on reservations, collections, a credit mark that can last seven years, a lien, and for a deeded timeshare, possibly foreclosure or a lawsuit for the money. A forgiven balance can also come back as a tax form. This page describes those consequences; it is not a recommendation. Check the routes further down first, and talk to an attorney licensed where the resort sits while your account is still current.

Who ends up here?

Owners reach this point in a few common ways.

The bill outgrew the budget. The average maintenance fee per weekly interval rose from $1,120 in 2021 to $1,550 in 2025, according to the industry’s own study, commissioned by ARDA, the developers’ trade group, from Ernst & Young. Marriott Vacations Worldwide said that when it raised loan reserves in 2024, it believed inflation and the 2023 and 2024 fee increases were “driving continued elevated delinquencies and default rates.” The same ARDA study found about 93% of maintenance fee accounts were current in 2025, which leaves roughly one in fourteen that was not.

The developer said no, or never answered. Developers generally have no legal duty to take a timeshare back, and their exit programs set their own conditions. An owner who has been refused, facing a fee that rises every year, can feel there is nothing left but to stop.

Someone told them to. Washington’s attorney general said Reed Hein at times told its customers to stop making payments to the resort. In a Florida case against an exit lawyer, the court described a couple who had tried Westgate and the resale market since 2010, staying current throughout, until an exit company they hired told them to stop paying.

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.

They read it online. Vacation Ownership Consultants, an exit firm we work with, says it has spoken with many owners who “delayed seeking professional guidance because someone online told them” to just stop paying. In its account, several later heard from a third-party collection agency whose notice rolled years of unpaid fees, collection fees, late fees and interest into one larger balance, and their credit monitoring service flagged a lower score and a new collection account.

What happens, step by step?

The details depend on your contract and your state. Florida spells out the process in detail in its timeshare law, so it is the example here.

1. Interest and late fees. Florida lets delinquent assessments bear interest up to the highest rate the law permits, plus an administrative late fee of up to $25 for each delinquent assessment. Collection costs, including reasonable collection agency and attorney’s fees, are charged to the owner and secured by a lien on the timeshare.

2. Lost reservations. The managing entity may deny a delinquent owner the use of the accommodations, refuse reservations and cancel confirmed ones. In Florida, an owner counts as delinquent once 60 days have passed after the assessment was billed or came due, whichever is later.

3. Collections. Before turning the account over to a collection agency, a Florida managing entity must warn the owner at least 60 days ahead that the owner may be liable for the agency’s fees and that a lien may result.

4. Your credit report. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, an account placed for collection can be reported for seven years, with the clock starting 180 days after the delinquency began. VOC points out that the damage can matter to anyone planning a mortgage, a refinance, or a job with credit requirements. Washington’s attorney general said some Reed Hein customers who were told their exit had succeeded later found they still owed the resort, and “may have been sent to collections or otherwise had their credit damaged.” Separately, a reverend who traveled often for work stopped paying on the company’s advice, missed the resort’s collection action while abroad, and later said, “We have not even been able to look into buying a house.”

5. A lien and foreclosure. For a deeded timeshare, Florida gives the managing entity a lien for any assessment from the date it becomes due. The association can foreclose in court or use a streamlined trustee procedure outside court. The Florida statute itself recognizes “that nearly all timeshare interest foreclosures are uncontested.”

6. A lawsuit for the money. Florida also lets the managing entity sue for a money judgment for the unpaid assessments without giving up its lien. In the federal case Westgate Resorts v. Sussman, the record included a letter from Westgate’s lawyer warning that owners who defaulted would be sued: “My clients will seek money judgments, not foreclosures.”

7. A possible tax form. The IRS says canceled, forgiven or discharged debt is generally taxable. Lenders and certain other creditors must file Form 1099-C for canceled debts of $600 or more. If a creditor takes property to satisfy a debt, the IRS treats you as having sold it, and the result depends on whether the debt was recourse or nonrecourse. Exclusions exist, including insolvency; the principal residence exclusion does not fit a timeshare and applies only to discharges before January 1, 2026. If a creditor keeps collecting after sending a 1099-C, the IRS says the debt may not have been canceled. Take any 1099-C to a tax professional.

Is there a deficiency after foreclosure?

It depends on the route. Florida’s trustee notice tells the owner that if you do not object to the trustee procedure, “you will not be subject to a deficiency judgment even if the proceeds from the sale of your timeshare interest are insufficient to offset the amounts secured by the lien.” The statute adds that a trustee sale “releases the obligor’s liability for all amounts secured by the lien.” If the owner objects, the case goes to court, and in court the association can also seek a money judgment. Other states differ; the foreclosure page covers the mechanics.

If you also owe on the purchase loan, the lender has its own process. Marriott Vacations Worldwide says it does not accept payments during foreclosure “unless the amount is sufficient to pay all past due principal, interest, fees and penalties owed and fully reinstate the note,” and that it writes the loan off once it gets the timeshare back through foreclosure or a deed in lieu.

If you own points or a right-to-use membership with no deed, remedies may differ, but unpaid fees remain a debt that can go to collections.

Does stopping payment force the resort to take it back?

A federal court has addressed this directly. In a 2019 order in Westgate Resorts v. Sussman, a federal judge in Florida found that an exit lawyer’s directions that owners stop paying, “made under the guise that doing so will rid them of their timeshares, are fraudulent and wrongful.” The court noted that his clients were not told Westgate did not grant them deeds in lieu of foreclosure.

Falling behind can also close the developer’s own exit program. Developer exit programs set their own conditions, and VOC lists current maintenance fees among the requirements it commonly sees. Ask about the program while your account is current, and get the answer in writing.

If an exit company tells you to stop paying

Stop working with any company that gives you that instruction. The FTC lists “instructions to stop paying your mortgage or fees” among the signs of a timeshare exit scam. Texas law makes it a deceptive trade practice for a company facilitating a timeshare transfer or termination to encourage an owner to stop paying the developer, the association or the managing entity before the work is done. Minnesota’s attorney general warned in 2025 that some exit businesses “might arrange for the consumer to stop paying the debt and force a foreclosure,” which can add costs and harm credit.

Some count the foreclosure as their success. Washington’s attorney general said Reed Hein’s guarantee gave no refund to customers facing or past foreclosure, because the company treated anything that ended the ownership as an exit, and the state’s settlement required Reed Hein to tell customers that some exit methods may lead to foreclosure.

What can you try instead of missing a payment?

Work through these in order while your account stays current.

• Rescission. If you signed recently, check the rescission deadline for your state. If you are inside the window, cancel in writing now.
• An inheritance. If the timeshare came from a parent and you have not accepted it, talk to an estate attorney about whether you can disclaim it before you use it or pay anything.
• Your resort and the resale market. Contact the developer or management company and ask in writing about its deed-back or surrender program by name, what it costs and what it requires, and check what comparable weeks actually sell for. The FTC tells owners exploring an exit to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and VOC’s own process starts there too. Wyndham’s exit page tells owners with a loan balance who say “I can’t afford my maintenance fees” to call, and offers them a hardship exception. Hilton Grand Vacations lists payment plans for missed payments, forbearance and loan modification. The call may become an upgrade pitch, since ARDA’s study found 61% of 2025 sales volume went to existing owners. Sign nothing there: an upgrade raises what you owe and ends nothing, so treat an upgrade-only answer as a no.
• Developer conditions on outside help. Holiday Inn Club Vacations’ Horizons program, aimed at owners without a mortgage facing hardship or health problems, excludes owners if exit company involvement is detected, so apply and wait for its written answer before contacting any exit firm, including for a free consultation. Wyndham asks to be owners’ “first and only call” and says working with anyone other than its Certified Exit Specialists may leave options “limited or nonexistent,” so finish that conversation in writing first. 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 the Legacy Program whether any such condition applies before you contact an exit firm.
• A special assessment or a closing resort. If a special assessment or a termination vote at a legacy resort is driving the decision, read those pages first.
• The loan. 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 on the ownership.
• If the resort refuses and there is no resale value. VOC’s own guide warns owners to be cautious with advice that says “Just stop paying.” If the resort refuses or quotes a price you cannot accept, and your week has no resale value, get a free consultation and file review from an attorney-backed exit firm while your account is still current. VOC’s version runs through an eligibility form for your billing statements, purchase agreement and deed, if you have one, an eligibility check, and a free file review; it says it doesn’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify,” and enrolling for its one-time flat fee is your decision. VOC’s review is free; don’t assume every firm’s is. Your own attorney, if you have a documented claim, and resale through a licensed broker with no upfront fee, if the week has buyers, are other routes. If you hire a firm, choose one that charges one flat fee in writing, names the attorney on your file, and never guarantees a result. See timeshare exit companies and the red flags page.

Run your own numbers in the exit cost calculator before you decide anything.

If you have already stopped

Acting early keeps more options open. Ask the association or developer, in writing, whether it will accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure or a negotiated release, and whether it will waive any of the arrears. Developers do take timeshares back this way: Marriott Vacations Worldwide describes recovering them “through the foreclosure or deed-in-lieu process.” Get any agreement in writing and confirm the deed transfer is recorded.

Read every notice. In Florida, the trustee’s notice of default comes with an objection form, and whether you object changes what happens next, so talk to an attorney licensed in the state where the resort sits before you send it or let the deadline pass. VOC lists significant delinquent fees and collection activity among the situations where it says an attorney-supported strategy may make sense. If a company you hired told you to stop paying, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to your state attorney general, and keep the record.

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, and the stakes here are higher than on most pages in this cluster. Whether an association can foreclose, whether it can sue you for the balance, and what any of it does to your taxes all turn on your contract, your state and your finances. Talk to an attorney licensed in the state where the resort sits, and to a tax professional, before you stop paying anything.