Is a Timeshare Forever? How Long the Contract Really Lasts

Is a timeshare contract forever?

Often it is open-ended. A deeded timeshare usually lasts as long as the timeshare plan behind it, which can be many decades or have no fixed end at all, and the yearly fees go with the deed to whoever holds it next. A right-to-use contract is different: it ends on the date written in the contract. A plan can also end early if enough owners vote to terminate it, and Arizona, for one, now makes sellers tell buyers in writing how long the agreement lasts or that it has no set duration.

The FTC puts the stakes plainly for anyone at a sales table: “You’re committing to paying thousands of dollars,” it says, “potentially for decades or for the rest of your life.”

How can a timeshare obligation end?

There are only a handful of ways, and most are outside your control:

1. The term runs out. Right-to-use contracts end on their stated date. Deeded plans end if their documents set a termination date and owners don’t vote to extend it.
2. The owners vote to terminate the plan. In states with a termination statute, a supermajority can end the plan and sell the property.
3. You transfer it. A sale, a deed-back to the developer, or an accepted surrender passes the interest, and its future fees, to someone else.
4. You cancel during the rescission window, right after signing.
5. A foreclosure takes it. This ends ownership but can leave debts and credit damage behind; see our foreclosure guide before you treat it as an exit.

Death does not by itself end a deeded timeshare. The FTC says deeded timeshares are “considered real property that your heirs may inherit.” It also says “states have procedures allowing heirs to disclaim any timeshare inheritance,” which is covered in our inherited timeshare guide.

What do “perpetual” and “term of the plan” mean in your paperwork?

Two documents tell you how long yours lasts.

The public offering statement. Florida requires it to state “the duration, in years, of the timeshare plan.” If yours gives a year, that is when the plan is scheduled to end unless owners extend it.

The purchase agreement and its disclosures. Since 2019, Arizona has required sellers to hand buyers a separate disclosure, before signing, of “the duration of the timeshare agreement entered into by the purchaser or whether the agreement has no set duration.” Another required disclosure says the buyer “may be responsible for paying maintenance fees, taxes and other assessments every year for the duration of ownership.” When an Arizona contract says it has no set duration, that is what owners mean by “perpetual.”

Right-to-use contracts carry their term on their face. ARDA, the developers’ trade group, describes this product as a “right to use contractual interest that expires at some future date,” and its questionnaire offered resorts answers ranging from one year or less to “100+ years” when asking how long these contracts run. Florida calls the same thing a timeshare license, which the statute defines as a right to occupy a unit that is not an ownership estate.

What you hold	When it is scheduled to end	What can end it sooner	What can make it last longer
Deeded week with a plan termination date	The date in the timeshare instrument	Owner vote to terminate; transfer; foreclosure	Owner vote to extend
Deeded week with no set duration	No scheduled end	Owner vote to terminate; transfer; foreclosure	Nothing needed; it continues
Points held in a trust	Under the trust agreement	Termination under the trust or state law; transfer	Check the trust agreement
Right-to-use contract	The end date in the contract	The contract’s own cancellation or assignment terms	A renewal you agree to, or a new contract

Not sure which row is yours? Our guide to types of timeshare ownership shows how to read the deed and contract.

Can a timeshare’s term be extended without you?

Yes, by a vote of the owners. Florida’s Legislature has found that many older timeshare properties in the state “are approaching the termination dates set forth in their timeshare instruments,” and created a way to push those dates back. Under section 721.1255, unless the plan’s documents set a lower bar, 66 percent of the eligible voting interests present at a properly called meeting can extend the plan, with a quorum of 50 percent of all eligible voting interests. The board can treat owners more than two years behind on assessments as ineligible to vote.

The effect is the important part. Once extended, “all rights, privileges, duties, and obligations” continue “as if the extended termination date of the timeshare plan were the original termination date.” If you were counting on a plan’s end date to free you, check whether an extension vote is coming, and vote.

Can owners vote to end a timeshare plan?

In some states, yes, and this is how many aging resorts are being wound down.

Florida (section 721.125). Unless the plan’s documents say otherwise, “the vote or written consent, or both, of 60 percent of all voting interests in a timeshare plan may terminate the term of the timeshare plan at any time.” The section applies only to plans that have existed for at least 25 years. After termination, where a separate owners’ association manages the property, its board serves as termination trustee and may seek a court partition or sell the property to a buyer approved by a majority of the former owners, who now hold it as tenants in common. The trustee’s reasonable costs, including lawyers, are paid by those co-owners in proportion to their shares.

South Carolina (section 27-32-520). Unless the timeshare declaration sets a lower percentage, 60 percent of all eligible voting interests may terminate the plan “at any time,” with the association board acting as termination trustee.

An example. Owners at Mountainside at Stowe in Vermont amended their declarations at a meeting on September 18, 2023. A week later, the units’ voting representatives (some of them seats held by owners affiliated with the resort’s managing agent) voted on termination. According to the association’s FAQ, “The vote was 100% in favor and the timeshare was terminated.” Owners became tenants in common, and the FAQ says each week receives a 1/51 pro rata share of the sale, with any balance an owner still owes the association withheld from that owner’s funds.

ARDA’s 2026 study says the industry “is experiencing an accelerated effort to sunset resorts that are older or no longer serving owners well,” contributing to an approximate 9% decline in resort and unit counts since 2020, and that 43% of responding resorts opened in 1985 or before. A termination vote is something owners do together, though, and payouts depend on what the property sells for after debts and costs. Our legacy resorts guide covers what owners at closing resorts have actually received.

Did any state try to put a time limit on timeshares?

Arizona came close. House Bill 2639, as introduced in 2019, would have let an owner who had paid the full purchase price and had no past-due assessments or liens, “at least ten years after” buying, “terminate the purchase agreement without cause and surrender all rights or property interests” to the seller without a fee. The introduced bill also had a cancellation right after the buyer’s first stay and a schedule of projected assessments over five, ten, twenty and thirty years of ownership.

None of those survived. The version signed into law as Chapter 245, approved by the governor on May 22, 2019, extended the cancellation window from seven to ten calendar days and added the separate disclosures described above, including the duration statement. It did not include the ten-year surrender right. So the law Arizona enacted gives owners no statutory right to hand back a timeshare after a set number of years.

What if you don’t want to wait for the term to run out?

Most owners asking whether a timeshare is forever already want to leave. Work through the routes in this order:

1. Signed in the last few days? Your state’s rescission window may still be open. Send a written cancellation today; the rescission guide, state table and deadline tool will confirm the cutoff.
2. Holding a parent’s timeshare after their death? If you haven’t used it or paid toward it, an estate attorney can tell you whether disclaiming is still possible.
3. Ask the developer, on paper, and price the week. The FTC tells owners to go to the timeshare company first, since some run exit programs. Name the program you want (surrender, deed-back, exit), ask for its cost and conditions in writing, and look up what comparable weeks have actually sold for. Two developers attach strings worth knowing about. Wyndham calls its Certified Exit team owners’ “first and only call” and says using anyone else may leave options “limited or nonexistent.” An exit company has alleged in court, as reported on Rebecca Tushnet’s law blog, that Westgate required owners to swear they had not used “any timeshare exit company, lawyer or law firm”; Westgate contests how far that wording reaches, and the judge described it as “sweeping.” With either developer, let its process finish and keep its written reply before you call any outside firm.
4. Turn down the upgrade. A conversion or upgrade is a fresh contract, which can come with a fresh term and a higher annual bill. More in the upgrade trap.
5. Refused, or quoted an exit price you can’t pay, and no buyers in sight? That is the point to ask a timeshare exit firm for a free consultation and a look at your file.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare works with Vacation Ownership Consultants, a timeshare exit firm, and may be paid when readers hire it.

Vacation Ownership Consultants (VOC), based in Scottsdale, Arizona, publishes a process whose first step matches step 3 above: “Contact your resort and check the resale market.” Owners the resort won’t help then upload their billing statements, purchase agreement and deed, if any; VOC checks what the ownership may qualify for and holds a free file review, and the owner chooses afterward whether to pay its one-time flat fee. VOC’s home page states that it won’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify.” Hold any exit firm, VOC included, to the basics: documents reviewed before a quote, a named attorney you can look up with the state bar, a single written fee with written refund terms, no advice to stop paying, and no guaranteed outcome. See the red flags page for the rest, and use the exit cost calculator to set ten years of keeping the timeshare beside the other routes.

Disclosure: Candid Timeshare 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. How long your timeshare lasts, and whether it can be extended or terminated, depends on the resort’s state law and your timeshare instrument. A real estate attorney licensed in that state can read your documents and tell you where you stand.