The commitment you make when purchasing a timeshare is serious, and, even more, it’s binding. New York is full of opportunities to obtain the right accommodations for your travel schedule. Dealing with the city’s legal system while managing an international residency, however, is complicated. When your timeshare isn’t being used anymore, it may be time to reduce your expenses and get rid of any liability. Consider the following options to cancel your timeshare agreement.
Surrenders or deed-back programs
Contacting your timeshare developer directly gives you the chance to honor a surrender clause or set one up. Your living conditions when you bought a timeshare could be drastically different today. A deed-back option is a clause specifically written into your contract. This deal is designed to rid you of your ownership, mortgage and maintenance fees. The drawback is that you give your timeshare away as opposed to selling or exchanging it.
Enter the seller’s market
Timeshares are stakes in a property that, like all real estate ownership, gives you the right to sell your portion. In some cases, you can sell your share back to the developer, but this will be at a loss. Putting your portion of a property on the public market instead gives you access to new buyers. In this example, you, not the developer, do the work to acquire or close a buyer. As you consider selling your share to the public, you should take into account:
- Potential losses via lower sale prices
- Troubled economies with less active buyers
- Smaller consumer base for the type of property
- Taking on all the costs of closing
- Less annual appreciation than common real estate
Speak directly with an attorney
Timeshares are difficult to get rid of in some cases. Therefore, attorneys get requests to broker deals for the timeshare holders and their developers. The specific clauses you agreed to or work through get examined by a lawyer in order to exhaust your options. Legal professionals then negotiate on your behalf, keeping you from having to speak to a developer’s lawyer.