hired a timeshare exit company<\/a> because rising maintenance fees made them want out of their timeshare.<\/p>\nThe company promised to help them exit the contract for a fee of just under $7,000.<\/p>\n
“Did they do anything? Nothing. Nothing. Nobody did anything,” they said.<\/p>\n
Brian Rogers, who runs the timeshare advocacy organization, Timeshare Users Group, says people seeking to leave a timeshare are likely to encounter scams.<\/p>\n
“It’s almost certain that someone trying to get rid of a timeshare is going to encounter a scam in one way, shape or form,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Rogers said owners can pursue options on their own rather than paying an outside company.<\/p>\n
“You cannot hire anyone to do anything you can’t do yourself. That’s just the bottom line out there,” Rogers said. “Every company out there exploits one of these three options that are available to every single owner.”<\/p>\n
According to Rogers, the first step is to contact the resort and ask whether it will accept a surrender of the timeshare.<\/p>\n
Some companies allow owners to return their timeshares, though often for a fee that may be around $1,500.<\/p>\n
The second option is to transfer ownership to another person willing to take over the timeshare.<\/p>\n
“In many cases, that requires you to offer it for free or even prepay next year’s maintenance fees to make it more attractive,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n
If those options fail, Rogers said some owners could choose to stop paying annual dues or maintenance fees.<\/p>\n
“We hate to suggest this option, but this is the reality of selling a timeshare in this day and age. This is the solution offered by all exit and cancellation companies. This is their guaranteed exit,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Rogers said some timeshare companies may send letters and emails threatening collection actions when owners stop paying.<\/p>\n
However, he said many do not pursue further action because of the associated costs.<\/p>\n
He also said an owner’s credit is unlikely to be affected unless the timeshare was purchased with a loan and the owner defaults on that loan.<\/p>\n
“More than 50% of these situations don’t report your credit. There are some that are more punitive than others,” Rogers said.<\/p>\n
Industry experts also say timeshare obligations do not pass to heirs, a claim they describe as a misconception that timeshare resorts and exit companies often tell owners or prospective buyers.<\/p>\n
The American Resort Development Association maintains a list of timeshare companies that will take back ownership, according to experts interviewed for the report.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Getting out of a timeshare can be difficult, but industry advocates say owners often have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[110137,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-259565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-110137","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}