An executor for a parent’s estate called me from Brooklyn last week. While sorting through his father’s papers, he found a deed to a timeshare in Florida, purchased in the 1990s. Tucked behind it was a thick stack of invoices for annual maintenance fees—thousands of dollars a year for a property none of the children had ever used or wanted. His question was simple: “Are my siblings and I stuck with this?”
In my practice, I’ve seen how certain assets can feel more like liabilities. A timeshare is often the prime example. It is not a simple piece of real estate; it is a binding contract that comes with perpetual financial obligations. For many New York families, inheriting one feels less like a gift and more like a burden passed from one generation to the next.
A Liability Disguised as an Asset
Unlike a home or a brokerage account, a timeshare’s value is often negligible on the secondary market. The real inheritance isn’t a vacation spot—it’s the endless stream of maintenance fees, special assessments, and club dues that the resort company can increase at its discretion. These costs do not stop when the owner passes away. They become a debt of the estate, and if the property passes to a beneficiary, they become that person’s personal responsibility.
Many of these contracts are deliberately difficult to exit. The resort has little incentive to take the property back; it would rather continue collecting fees from the estate or the heirs. An executor is a fiduciary, with a duty to act prudently with the estate’s assets. Paying fees on an unsellable property with no real value is rarely a prudent act. It drains resources that should go to the rightful beneficiaries.
The Right to Refuse: Disclaiming an Inheritance
No one in New York can be forced to accept an inheritance. The law provides a formal process for refusal, known as a renunciation or a disclaimer. This is a powerful tool for problematic assets like a timeshare.
The rules are laid out in New York’s Estates, Powers and Trusts Law. Specifically, EPTL § 2-1.11 governs the renunciation of property interests. To be effective, a disclaimer must meet several strict requirements:
- It must be in writing, signed, and acknowledged before a notary public.
- It must be filed with the Surrogate’s Court overseeing the estate within nine months of the decedent’s death.
- The beneficiary cannot have accepted any benefit from the property before disclaiming it. You cannot use the timeshare for a vacation and then decide you don’t want the financial responsibility.
A proper disclaimer treats the beneficiary as if they had predeceased the person who left them the inheritance. The law sees it as a clean refusal of ownership. Stewardship.
What Happens After You Say “No”?
Disclaiming a timeshare solves the problem for you, but it does not make the timeshare disappear. The property passes to the next person in line according to the will or, if there is no will, New York’s intestacy laws. This can create a domino effect, where your children or other relatives may also need to file their own disclaimers.
This is why a coordinated strategy is essential. We often work with the entire family to ensure everyone who might inherit the timeshare down the line also signs a disclaimer. Once all individual heirs have refused the property, it remains with the estate.
At that point, the executor has a few options—none of them easy. They can try to negotiate a “deed-back” with the resort, essentially giving the property away. They can attempt to find a buyer on the resale market, though this is rare. In some cases, the most prudent course is to stop paying the fees and allow the resort company to foreclose on its interest. This allows the executor to finalize the estate and distribute the true assets to the family.
An inherited timeshare is a solvable problem. It requires deliberate action and an understanding of your rights under New York law. If you are serving as an executor or are a beneficiary notified of a timeshare inheritance, your first step is to locate the deed and the most recent maintenance fee statement. With these documents, an attorney can advise you on the most direct path to resolving the issue for the estate.
