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How to Get Out of a Timeshare: The Legitimate Exits and the Scams to Avoid

A resort swimming pool surrounded by palm trees, with a sticky note reading “Resale: $1”.
Photo by Cory Bjork on Unsplash

About 10 million U.S. households own a timeshare, and plenty still pay a yearly maintenance bill for a week nobody uses anymore. Resale sites? Crowded with identical weeks listed for a dollar and no takers. Exit companies moved into that gap; in one FTC case, a single group took more than $90 million from owners. Legitimate ways out exist, and the first costs nothing, but the order you try them in matters.

See the four exits, in order

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By Margaret Linwood · Updated Sep 29, 2026 · Reviewed against FTC, Florida Statutes, ARDA and the Coalition for Responsible Exit

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Selling isn't the easy answer it sounds like. Say an owner paid $22,000 for a deeded week back in 2009. On the resale market, that week may be worth close to nothing. What counts now is the maintenance fee of about $1,400, due every year she owns it. Ten more years of that comes to $14,000, before a single increase.

Exit companies know that math, and the worry they push hardest is about the kids. Will they get stuck paying those fees someday? The honest answer comes in two parts, and you won't find a stranger's several-thousand-dollar fee in either one.

See the five-minute check before any contract

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Five questions before you pay anyone to get you out

Somebody offering to handle the exit for a fee? Give these five minutes before you sign anything or send money.

  1. Who's actually doing the work? "Our legal team" isn't an answer. Get the attorney's name, bar number and the state where they're licensed, because a company that won't name a lawyer isn't offering legal work.
  2. What's the first move? Contacting the developer is the only legitimate one, so if the plan sounds more mysterious than that, ask why you couldn't make that call yourself.
  3. When is the fee due? For resale, the FTC's standard is after the exit. If they want money upfront, get the refund terms on paper.
  4. What do they say about your fees? Nothing in this business is a clearer warning than being told to stop paying. The contract doesn't end when the payments do; what starts instead is collections, late fees and, for deeded weeks, foreclosure.
  5. Where did you sign? Was it a hotel seminar, or your own living room? Then the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule gives you three business days to cancel many of those sales.

Those questions protect your wallet. The article goes further: the four exits in the order that costs least, and what heirs actually owe once the owner is gone.

See what heirs really owe on fees

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