Advice on Timeshares

On 14th November 2025, Rip Off Britain investigated a timeshare scam where one couple paid thousands of pounds to companies in order to leave a timeshare agreement. Our investigations confirmed they’d been fully released some seven years earlier – meaning they’d paid thousands of pounds for nothing.

In HQ, we were joined by travel expert Simon Calder and solicitor Gary Rycroft to answer your timeshare queries. Here are their top tips:

Simon and Gary’s top tips on timeshares:

• If anybody asks for any money upfront in connection with any timeshare deal, it's a scam.
• If you get a cold call about a timeshare, no matter how convincing they seem, simply say you’re not interested and hang up.
• If you do want legal advice, search for a genuine lawyer or ask for recommendations from your family and friends. Specialist lawyers, regulated providers of legal services, will be able to analyse the type of contract you have and provide you with the options and the cost of exiting. But do your research.
• If you are in a timeshare agreement and need advice on how to cancel, contact Citizens Advice if you’re in England, Scotland or Wales - https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/. In Northern Ireland, you can access free support through the Consumerline https://dfe-tss.economy-ni.gov.uk/resident2/s/consumerline.
• One option to verify timeshare companies is to visit the website timeshareassistance.com. This is run by KwikChex, which is Trading Standards approved. Anyone that's worried about a particular company can share the information on that website and one of the KwikChex team will contact you.
• If you are in debt, you can get free, confidential and independent advice from a number of UK-wide organisations listed on the government website: https://www.gov.uk/debt-advice. These include StepChange and MoneyPlus Advice.