Many people who sign up for a timeshare find themselves trapped in a contract which they seemingly can’t break free of.
However, if you know how, with a bit of guidance there are ways to get legally exit your timeshare.
Here are three strategies which could be helpful if you or someone you know is trapped in a timeshare contract which you’re looking to get out of.
Sell It
The most obvious thing to do would be to sell your timeshare, and this is the first route that most owners will try to take.
Unfortunately though, it’s also the most difficult option. While timeshare salespeople may promise you that it’s very easy to sell your property on once you’re done with it, this is rarely the case.
This is because there are far more people looking to sell timeshares than there are looking to buy them.
As you can see in this article from This is Money, some people struggle to sell their timeshares for as little as 99p, so this is a route that you could find tricky!
The best advice we can give is to try to sell your timeshare at a low price, at a time when demand is high.
And don’t go through any of the resale brokers out there, many of whom charge high fees and some of whom are actually scam artists (read more about resale scams here)
Donate It
If you’ve tried and tried to sell your timeshare but are now happy to just have it taken off your hands for free, then the next option could be to donate it to a charitable organisation.
Many organisations are happy to take such properties off your hands as they’ll have their own strategies for making profits off timeshares, such as offering weeks stays at them as prizes in charity auctions.
There may also be the option for you to return the timeshare to the resort that sold you it, although many contracts will stipulate that they’re not obligated to take it back from you.
Explore Legal Action
Of course, legal action is something that everybody wants to avoid, although in most cases this applies to the timeshare companies themselves.
In many cases, it turns out that guests were actually mis-sold their timeshare, whether this was through coercive sales tactics, or misrepresentation in the contract, such as claiming the property to be something it’s not, or making fraudulent claims such as that you can easily sell or swap the timeshare.
While it might sound scary to challenge a timeshare company on stuff like this, a body called the Timeshare Consumer Association exists specifically to help people in this situation.
They’re experts in timeshare law and will be able to tell you whether you have a case to challenge your timeshare resort, but thankfully, the majority of cases never actually go to trial, with the timeshare company backing down once they’re threatened with legal action.
Of course, this varies a lot on a case by case basis, so give them a call to see how they can help you!
