Cancel a Timeshare in the Rescission Period: Letter and Deadline

Signed in the last few days? Cancel in writing today

The rescission period is a short window set by state law, typically five to ten days and as long as 15 in a few cases, during which a timeshare buyer can cancel the purchase for a full refund with no reason required. To use it, send a signed written notice by the delivery method your contract names, to the address it gives, before the deadline, and keep proof of when it went out and when it arrived. You don’t need to hire anyone for it, and no other exit refunds everything you paid.

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

Send the letter before you talk to anyone at the resort. Vacation Ownership Consultants, an exit firm we work with, published an example from an owner who phoned the sales representative the day after buying to ask about cancelling. According to the owner, the representative reassured them and talked them out of it. Back home, the owner mailed a cancellation, and the resort answered that it was one day late. The owner was left holding a $34,000 developer loan and a $14,000 credit card balance from the down payment.

How many days do I have to cancel?

The number comes from the timeshare statute of the state whose law governs your contract. The developer cannot shorten it, and the salesperson’s version of it does not count. A few examples, each checked against the statute:

• Nevada (NRS 119A.410): the fifth calendar day after you execute the contract, ending at midnight.
• Colorado (C.R.S. 6-1-703): a five-calendar-day right to rescind, counted from the sale.
• California (Bus. & Prof. Code 11238): seven calendar days from signing or from getting the public report, whichever is later, or longer if the contract allows.
• Arizona (A.R.S. 32-2197.03): until midnight of the tenth calendar day after you sign the purchase agreement.
• Florida (Fla. Stat. 721.10): until midnight of the tenth calendar day after signing or after the last required document reaches you, whichever comes later.

The full list, with the 11 states that have no statute we could confirm, is in our rescission laws by state table.

Go by the paperwork, never by what you were told at the table. In one client story VOC published, a couple buying in Las Vegas remembered being promised, “You’ll have 10 days to change your mind.” The Nevada statute allows five. VOC’s account says the couple would have found the real number had they asked to see the contract.

Does the clock start when I sign, or when I get home?

Usually from the signature, or from the day the mandatory disclosures reach you if that is later. The day your flight lands has nothing to do with it. Florida, California and many other states use the “later of” rule, so a developer that handed over the paperwork late may have given you extra days without meaning to.

Picture a five-day trip with the sales presentation on day two and a signature that evening. Under a five-calendar-day rule, more than half the window is gone before your suitcase is empty. Find the cancellation clause before checkout: it normally gives the deadline, the mailing address and the accepted delivery methods together.

The FTC suggests a question for the sales table that is worth asking yourself afterward: why is today the “only” day the deal is available? A rush is a warning sign.

How do I count the days?

Write the dates on paper before counting, and count from the later of signing or receiving the documents where your state uses that rule. Here is one purchase, signed on a Wednesday, run through three different statutes:

State rule	Day 1	Last day	Notice has to be
Nevada: 5 calendar days after execution	Thursday	The following Monday, until midnight	Sent by a method the statute lists; aim for arrival by Monday
Delaware: 5 business days after execution (Saturdays count, Sundays do not)	Thursday	The following Tuesday	Mailed by certified mail by Tuesday; it counts on mailing
Florida: 10 calendar days, documents all received at signing	Thursday	Saturday of the following week, until midnight	Postmarked by Saturday and actually received by the developer

A federal or state holiday can push a business-day deadline later, and Delaware’s statute treats Saturday as a business day. A late public offering statement can push a “later of” deadline later. Nothing pushes a deadline earlier, so if you are unsure, use the earliest date you can come up with. Our rescission deadline calculator does the counting, but the statute and your contract decide.

What does a cancellation letter need to say?

A plain, dated statement that you are cancelling is enough. Minnesota’s and Oregon’s statutes both say the notice does not have to take any particular form, as long as it shows in writing that you do not intend to be bound by the contract. Put these in:

• Today’s date
• Every buyer’s name as it appears on the contract, with a mailing address, phone and email
• The contract or member number, and the developer’s name as printed
• The resort, the unit or points package, and the purchase date, copied from the paperwork
• One sentence that says you are cancelling the contract under your right of rescission
• Every buyer’s signature

Leave out reasons and complaints. VOC’s own rescission guidance says to keep the letter simple and skip the explanation. If your contract or state requires particular wording in the notice, use it, and if your paperwork included a printed cancellation form (California requires one on the public report), you can fill that in instead.

A sample letter you can adapt

[Date]

[Developer name as shown in the contract] [Cancellation address from the contract]

Re: Cancellation of timeshare purchase, contract number [number], signed [date] at [resort name]

I am exercising my right to cancel this timeshare purchase within the rescission period. Please cancel the contract and any loan, exchange or club enrollment signed with it, and refund all payments made under it as the law requires.

[Signature of each buyer] [Printed name of each buyer, mailing address, phone, email]

Make two copies before you seal the envelope: one for your files, and one to bring to an attorney if the developer disputes the date.

How should I send it so the date holds up?

Use the method your contract names, at the address it gives, and nothing less. The statutes vary on what they accept and on when the notice counts:

• Nevada accepts personal delivery, certified mail with return receipt requested, or an express, priority or overnight service with proof of service, sent to the developer’s business address. It does not say when a mailed notice takes effect.
• Florida, Maryland and South Carolina treat a mailed notice as given on its postmark date, provided the developer actually receives it.
• Delaware allows only certified mail, and the cancellation takes effect when mailed. Oregon requires certified mail with return receipt if you mail it, and counts the notice from the day it goes to the post office.
• California makes the notice effective on the day you send it, whether by mail or to the developer’s fax number, according to the notice its statute requires. Colorado also accepts email, which counts when sent.
• Texas accepts hand delivery, prepaid U.S. mail, or an overnight carrier, without saying when the notice counts.

Unless your statute and contract plainly protect the postmark, plan for the letter to be in the developer’s hands before the deadline. Certified mail with a return receipt gives you proof of both dates, which is the method the FTC recommends for cancelling sales under its own rule. An email or a text to the salesperson does not replace the method in the contract, except in a state, such as Colorado, that accepts electronic notice.

Calls to the resort about cancelling tend to get routed to someone offering a discount or an upgrade, or vowing to “handle it,” and the deadline keeps running the whole time. Mail the letter first. Talk afterward, if at all.

What proof should I keep?

Assume you may have to show a judge or the attorney general exactly what you sent and when. Keep:

• A copy of the signed letter and of everything in the envelope
• The certified mail receipt with its postmark, or the courier’s dated receipt
• The return receipt, or a printout of the tracking page showing delivery
• A copy of the contract page that names the cancellation method and address
• The date you received the public offering statement and other documents, if later than the signing date
• Notes of any phone call about cancelling: date, time, name, and what was said

When should the refund arrive?

Most statutes set the refund deadline as well:

• Florida: 20 days from your demand, or five days from the date your check clears, if that is later.
• Nevada: within 20 days after the developer receives your notice.
• Delaware: within 15 days.
• Texas: by the 30th day after the developer receives a timely notice, or the 5th day after it receives good funds, whichever is later.

No refund by the deadline? Write to the developer and enclose your delivery receipt. If that fails, complain to the attorney general of the state where the resort sits.

My rescission period is over. What now?

Check that it truly is. A developer that never delivered the offering statement and the other mandatory disclosures may never have started your clock, in many states. And in Florida, a buyer can void a closing held during the cancellation period for up to five years afterward. Once you are sure the window is closed, the routes below are the ones left.

Contact the resort and check the resale market. Write to the developer or management company, ask for its exit, surrender or deed-back program by name, and ask what it costs and what it requires. Ask for a written reply either way, then look up real resale prices for weeks like yours. The FTC’s guidance is to “start by contacting your timeshare company directly,” and VOC’s How It Works page starts at the same point: “Contact your resort and check the resale market.” Each developer writes its own rules. Wyndham’s Certified Exit page lists voluntary surrender only for paid-off loans, asks owners to make it their “first and only call,” and cautions that going to anyone else may leave options “limited or nonexistent.” Wyndham owners should complete that process and hold Wyndham’s written answer before speaking to any outside firm. Holiday Inn Club and Westgate owners should also wait for the developer’s written reply before contacting any exit firm, free consultation included.

Sign nothing on that call. Developers often answer an exit request with an offer, sometimes at an owner update meeting. ARDA, the developers’ trade group, had Ernst & Young prepare its 2026 study, which found that people who already owned made up 61% of 2025 sales volume. In 2025 annual reports, Hilton Grand Vacations said 74% of its contract sales were to current owners and Marriott Vacations Worldwide put existing owners at about 70% of its sales, and Travel + Leisure Co., the Club Wyndham seller, said upgrades were 72% of its net vacation ownership interest sales. An upgrade enlarges the contract and does not end it. If the answer is an upgrade pitch, count it as a no.

The week has no resale value and the resort says no, or names a price too high? Consider an exit firm’s free consultation and file review. At VOC, the steps run like this: upload your billing statements, purchase agreement and any deed on its eligibility form; VOC checks which options your ownership may fit; it gives you a free file review; and you decide after that whether to sign up for its one-time flat fee. Its home page says VOC won’t “discuss billing until we’ve made sure you qualify,” and describes its consultations as “supported by seasoned industry partners and experienced timeshare attorneys.” A good review should match your ownership to an exit method and flag anything from the sales pitch that could support a claim. Whatever firm you consider should read your file before quoting a price, put a single flat fee in writing, give you the name of the attorney handling your file so you can look them up with the state bar, state in writing what becomes of the fee if the developer says no, and say so when a free route is still available. It should never tell you to stop paying, promise an outcome, or hint at a tie to your developer. Your own lawyer is the other route when you can document a claim, and so is a licensed resale broker with no upfront charge. The full list of routes explains each.

Write down anything misleading now. A wrong deadline, a pitch that called the timeshare an investment, or a promise of rental income or a buyback may violate your state’s timeshare law. Florida, for example, forbids oral statements making “any misleading or deceptive representation” about a purchaser’s rights under the contract. See what was said at the sales presentation for which statements count and what an attorney will ask for.

If the contract was an upgrade, look for its own notice. Paperwork from an upgrade is a separate purchase with its own cancellation clause. Find it today, and read why an upgrade is not a way out.

Expect scammers. A federal court has ordered Christopher Carroll to pay $140 million, the FTC announced in April 2026. He was one of the main operators of an exit scheme that used a company called Consumer Law Protection, and the FTC alleged the operation took over $90 million, largely from older owners, partly by falsely telling them there was no way out without its fees. The red flags page shows how a legitimate firm differs.

Keep up with the payments meanwhile. The developer loan stands on its own, usually at a high rate, and lenders seldom refinance a timeshare since it resells for next to nothing. A borrower who qualifies for a lower rate can use a personal loan to replace the developer loan; see paying off a timeshare loan.

Does the FTC’s three-day cooling-off rule cover timeshares?

Usually not. The federal rule allows three days to undo some sales made in your home or at a temporary sales site like a hotel or convention center, but the FTC’s guidance carves out sales that involve real estate. A deeded week is real estate, so your deadline comes from the state statute and the contract.

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 page is general information, not legal advice. A cancellation turns on the precise words of your contract and the statute of the governing state. When the deadline or the delivery method is in doubt, mail the notice today, then phone a lawyer licensed in that state.