Traveling to Panama City Beach is an exciting opportunity for individuals and families alike. The attractions in this part of Florida are many, including the iconic beautiful beaches, restaurants and bars, entertainment venues, and on and on. While Spring Break is particularly notable in Panama City Beach, the reality is that this location is popular throughout the year – and for good reason.

One of the many ways to travel to Panama City Beach is to own a timeshare in the area. If you are a timeshare owner here, you may have had some great trips – but you also may be growing tired of dealing with maintenance fees, assessments, lacking availability, and more. To make a switch and go back to just booking Panama City Beach vacations one at a time instead of owning a timeshare, you’ll need to find a way to cancel or otherwise get rid of your contract first. Let’s take a closer look at that topic below.

Start with the Cancellation Window

Although many timeshare buyers aren’t aware of it, there is a legally required window during which you will be able to cancel your purchase of a timeshare without losing any money. This is commonly known as a cooling-off period after a major purchase. In the state of Florida, you should have 10 days to notify the developer or resort that you no longer wish to buy the timeshare. If it so happens that you are reading this page while that window is still open, stop what you are doing and reach out to the developer immediately. This is the best way to cancel your timeshare and save yourself from plenty of future frustration.

Don’t worry about getting pushback from the developer and the people on their team that you deal with. Sure, they may try to talk you out of this change of heart, and they might even make you an additional offer to sweeten the deal if you decide to stay, but you are protected by the law. If it is your wish to cancel the timeshare purchase, and you are still within the window that is provided by the state of Florida, there won’t be anything they can do about it.

Remember to think about the money that you handed over to the developer when you signed the paperwork and agreed to make the purchase. You need to confirm that all of the money will be returned to you, and how you will get it back. This can vary from situation to situation and will depend on if you started the process of taking out a loan to pay for the timeshare. Follow up on everything and don’t consider this matter finished until all of your money is accounted for properly.

Some Developers Offer Options

Let’s assume for the rest of this article that you are beyond the cooling-off period in the state of Florida and now need to consider other options in an effort to get rid of your timeshare. What can you do? Surprisingly, the first step you should take is actually the same as the step we recommended that you take in the previous section – contact the developer directly. You won’t have the legal right to cancel the timeshare like you would have within the first 10 days, but you still might have options.

Even if you have been unhappy with your timeshare for years, your developer has no way to know that is the case. So, reach out, explain your situation, and see if there are any options available. They might have a program that gives you the opportunity to give back your ownership stake, while getting nothing in return. Or, they might ask that you pay a fee in order to get out of your contract. You’ll be under no obligation to actually take these options, of course, but you can at least find out what is available and go from there.

You should know that it is entirely possible that nothing will be available to you in this way. There might be no programs offered by the developer of the timeshare property, and they might simply tell you that you’ll need to keep paying your maintenance fees and assessments. This is their legal right, as frustrating as it might be to hear over the phone.

You Might Be Able to Sell

If there are no viable paths to work with the developer to get rid of your timeshare in Panama City Beach, the next step in this process is to think about selling the timeshare on your own. There are platforms that exist solely for the purpose of helping you to sell a timeshare, where buyers and sellers can come together to make deals. You might as well give this a try when you are ready to be done with the timeshare experience, but understand that it will be an uphill battle.

The problem with trying to sell a timeshare is the extremely lackluster market waiting to make a purchase on the other side. You know all of those reasons you have rolling around in your head for wanting to get rid of the timeshare? Potential buyers understand those reasons, as well, which is why they will be very wary of making such a purchase.

Be Diligent Throughout the Process

When you first decided to purchase a timeshare in Panama City Beach, you did so thinking it would add fun and relaxation to your life. At this point, you are probably feeling like it did just the opposite. As you seek to get away from the timeshare, you’re probably tired of dealing with the hassles that it has brought into your life, and you’d love it if the whole thing would just go away.

In your rush to make it go away, however, you don’t want to make any mistakes that could come back to cost you later on. One such mistake would be to fail to save records of any communications that take place between yourself and the timeshare resort on your way toward canceling the contract. It’s not good enough to just hear something over the phone and trust that it will be honored – get everything in writing so you have solid proof and can point to that proof, if needed in the future.

In the electronic age, it’s easy enough to save things like emails that you trade back and forth with the developer so you can prove who said what and when. Just store those away in a folder somewhere and hopefully you will never need them later on. Of course, if anything is sent to you through the traditional mail, be sure to hold onto that as well, even if it doesn’t seem particularly important.

Did You Know That You Can Get Help?

While it might feel like you are all alone in the battle to get rid of your timeshare, that doesn’t have to be the case. Since so many other people feel the same way and are trying to get out of their own ownership situation, companies have been developed to serve people with the same problem as you. Timeshare exit companies exist to help people leave their timeshares through one means or another. If all of the other options available to you aren’t leading anywhere and you are getting frustrated with the situation, reaching out for professional help is a smart move.

This plan needs to come with a warning, however. Not all timeshare exit companies are worth your time and attention, and definitely not your money. Some don’t have much experience at all in the industry and are just hoping to get people to sign up for their services out of desperation. You don’t want to put yourself in their company, as you’ll only be making a bad situation worse. Instead, aim to team up with a proven exit company that is going to fight for you and will use a variety of tactics to seek results.

You can also leverage the security of an escrow account to make sure you get what you pay for with these services. The best ones will use escrow to hold your money at the start of the process so that both sides are protected. Then, when the exit company gets the job done and you are free from your timeshare, their money will be released and the process will be completed. You will enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having your money in escrow as opposed to just handing it over and hoping that you get good results.

Make Your PCB Timeshare a Thing of the Past

Traveling to Panama City Beach is a great experience, but owning a timeshare is not. Fortunately, you don’t have to do both. Give us a call at 833-416-8796 or use our live chat to get started finding a way out of your timeshare. Once you’ve moved on, you can then be free to schedule trips to Panama City Beach whenever you’d like, and to whatever resorts you choose. It will be a great feeling!