What Are Timeshare Maintenance Fees?

Most people are aware that owning a timeshare comes with annual timeshare maintenance fees. These dues go towards the upkeep of your home resort to ensure that everything is updated and running smoothly for continually great vacations. You can think of it like owning a condo—you pay regular condo fees to maintain the property and take care of anything that may need fixing or updating.

Common Timeshare Maintenance Fees Questions

While understanding maintenance fees seems pretty simple, there can be more to it. We’ve found that many people have further questions regarding timeshare maintenance fees and how they work, so we’ve decided to give you all you need to know in today’s blog.

Timeshares with Low Maintenance Fees

Your timeshare annual fees depend on a number of factors. Owning a larger suite at a higher-end resort will result in higher timeshare maintenance fees, whereas a studio suite at a less ritzy resort will have you paying less. Previously, we have made a list of timeshares with low maintenance fees, where we found incredibly affordable timeshare annual fees at resorts in Myrtle Beach, Marco Island, Pigeon Forge, and more.

Low maintenance fees don’t necessarily mean low quality, it’s all about the nature of the resort and their needs. It’s also worth noting that it’s common for timeshare maintenance fees to rise on a yearly basis. So be sure to keep that in mind when shopping around and budgeting your timeshare ownership.

Are Timeshare Maintenance Fees Tax Deductible?

This question is a little more complicated. As a general answer, no, timeshare maintenance fees are not tax deductible.

You are paying your annual maintenance fees for the purpose of maintaining and updating your home resort, just like you would spend money repairing and improving your own home. Just like you don’t deduct home updates from your taxes, you cannot deduct your timeshare maintenance fees.

However, there can be an exception. If you want to rent out your timeshare, you may be able to then deduct your maintenance fees from your taxes. This is because you are renting out the property for income as a sort of service, and as such, you’re not visiting the resort you are paying for. Be sure to consult with your tax agent to confirm you are able to write these fees off.

What Happens if You Don’t Pay Your Maintenance Fees?

When you purchase a timeshare, whether through the resort developer or on the resale market, you have to sign a contract that outlines your maintenance fee amount and when it needs to be paid. Like any other bill you may have to pay, if you don’t pay your timeshare maintenance fees on time, there are consequences.

The timeshare company will first begin calling you to ask for payment, you’ll get mail notifying you of your overdue payments, and you will likely incur interest fees (like any other bills you don’t pay on time).

If you consistently don’t pay your bill or work out arrangements to do so, the company will send the bill to collections. This will be highly damaging to your credit report and your score will drop.

The timeshare company may also take you to court to pay your overdue bills. This results in attending a court hearing where you will defend your failure. Most likely, the judge will side with the timeshare management company and you may face a bank fine.

And finally, failing to pay and live up to your deeded timeshare contract, the resort will foreclose on the property and sell it at an auction. You then will face a judicial or non-judicial foreclosure, which can lower your credit score up to 160 points and will stay on your credit report for seven years.

How to Stop Paying Maintenance Fees

If you want to continue owning and visiting your timeshare, you have to continue to pay maintenance fees. So if you no longer wish to pay these fees, for any reason, you can always choose to sell your timeshare.

In some rare cases, the resort will be willing to buy back your timeshare, but more likely you will have to sell it on the secondary market through a reputable reseller like SellMyTimeshareNow.com. You can start by determining what your timeshare is worth. We’ll then help you to create a custom advertisement and promote it on our global online platform that attracts thousands of visitors per day.

Once you find an interested buyer and agree on a price, you will no longer have to pay your timeshare maintenance fees!