Timeshare in Turkey: How to Cancel the Contract and Get Your Money Back

A consumer who signs a timeshare contract in Turkey (Türkiye) can withdraw from it within fourteen days without giving any reason and without paying any penalty, and the seller may not take any payment, or any document creating a debt, before that period has expired (Consumer Protection Law No. 6502, Art. 50(6)). If money was taken in spite of this prohibition it must be returned immediately, and any promissory note or similar document signed is invalid as against the consumer. Since 2022, timeshare contracts may be concluded for a maximum of ten years, prepaid timeshare sales to consumers are prohibited, and a timeshare cannot be sold by someone who holds no right in rem over the property (Art. 50(2), (8), (9)).

Timeshare (devre tatil) and "holiday club" sales are among the commonest sources of consumer loss for foreign visitors in Turkey's resort areas: an invitation to a presentation, hours of pressure, a contract signed the same day, a card payment or a set of promissory notes — and regret the next morning. Turkish law is firmly on the buyer's side, provided the buyer acts within the deadlines. This guide explains what the law covers, how to withdraw, what to do about payments and notes, what can be done after the fourteen days, and how claims are pursued from abroad.

• Timeshare contract: a contract of more than one year giving the consumer one or more nights' accommodation for more than one period (Art. 50(1)).
• Long-term holiday product: a contract of more than one year giving discounts or other benefits on accommodation, alone or with travel or other services (Art. 50(3)).
• Pre-contract form: must be given at least one day before the contract (Art. 50(4)).
• Handwritten date and signature by the consumer; a copy must be given (Art. 50(5)).
• Withdrawal: fourteen days, no reason, no penalty (Art. 50(6)).
• No payment or debt instrument during the withdrawal period; anything taken must be returned at once, and debt documents are invalid for the consumer (Art. 50(6)).
• Linked contracts and loans end automatically on withdrawal (Art. 50(6), (7)).
• Maximum term: ten years; no prepaid timeshare; seller must hold a right in rem (Art. 50(2), (8), (9)).

Legal status of this guide. It reflects Article 50 of the Consumer Protection Law as amended by Law No. 7392 of March 2022, and refers to the Regulation on Timeshare and Long-Term Holiday Service Contracts for detail. Contracts signed before the 2022 amendment took effect may be subject to the earlier rules in some respects. Last updated: October 2026.

In this guide

• What the law covers
• What the seller must do before you sign
• The fourteen-day right of withdrawal
• Payments, card charges and promissory notes
• The 2022 limits on timeshare sales
• After fourteen days
• Annual fees and not using your week
• Resale and exchange schemes
• How to pursue a claim
• Timeshare with title: devre mülk
• Frequently asked questions

What the law covers

Article 50 regulates four kinds of contract between a consumer and a seller or provider.

Contract	Definition
Timeshare (devre tatil)	A contract concluded for more than one year that gives the consumer the possibility of overnight accommodation for one or more nights for more than one period (Art. 50(1)).
Long-term holiday service	A contract concluded for more than one year that gives the consumer the right to discounts or other benefits in respect of accommodation, or accommodation offered together with travel or other services (Art. 50(3)). "Holiday clubs", "points" and "discount membership" schemes fall here.
Exchange	A contract under which the consumer joins a system allowing his or her timeshare to be exchanged for accommodation elsewhere.
Resale	A contract under which a seller or provider assists the consumer in selling or buying a timeshare or long-term holiday product (Art. 50(4)(ç)).

It does not matter whether the right granted is a personal (contractual) right or a right in rem, or whether the sale is structured as a financial lease: the provision applies in every case (Art. 50(2)). Nor does it matter what the document is called. A "membership", "certificate" or "reservation agreement" that gives recurring holiday rights for more than a year is within the Law.

The buyer must be a consumer — a person acting for non-commercial, non-professional purposes — and the seller a business. Nationality and residence are irrelevant: a tourist on a two-week holiday has the full protection of the Law. General consumer remedies are described in our guide to consumer rights in Turkey.

What the seller must do before you sign

• Preliminary information form. At least one day before the contract is concluded, the consumer must be given a preliminary information form containing the matters prescribed by the Ministry (Art. 50(4)) — the seller's identity, the property and the period, the price and all additional costs, the annual charges, the right of withdrawal and how to exercise it, and the prohibition on advance payment. A contract signed on the day of the presentation, with no form given the day before, breaches this requirement.
• The consumer's own handwriting. Except for contracts concluded at a distance, the seller must ensure that the consumer writes the date of the contract in his or her own hand and signs it (Art. 50(5)).
• A copy. One copy of the contract must be given to the consumer on paper or a durable medium.
• Language. The implementing regulation requires the information to be clear and comprehensible; a foreign consumer should be given documents he or she can understand, and the burden of proving that information duties were fulfilled lies on the seller.
• Stricter form where the law requires it. Where the contract purports to create a right in rem, the formal requirements of land law apply in addition.

These duties matter beyond the first fortnight. A seller who cannot prove that the information form was delivered a day in advance, that the consumer was told of the right of withdrawal, or that a copy was handed over, is in a weak position if the consumer later contests the contract.

The fourteen-day right of withdrawal

The consumer has the right to withdraw from the contract within fourteen days, without giving any reason and without paying any penalty (Art. 50(6)).

How to exercise it

1. Put it in writing. State that you withdraw from the contract of the given date and number, and ask for the return of all payments and documents. No reason is needed; do not let yourself be drawn into arguing about one.
2. Send it in a way you can prove. A notice served through a notary in Turkey is the strongest evidence. Registered post with advice of receipt, and email to the seller's official address with a delivery record, are also used; send by more than one channel. If you are still at the resort, hand over a copy against a signed, dated and stamped acknowledgment as well — but do not rely on a verbal assurance from the sales office that the contract "has been cancelled".
3. Within fourteen days. Count from the date of the contract, or from the day you received a copy of it if that was later. Send it on the first day you can; you may already be travelling home by day fourteen.
4. Notify the lender too, if the price was financed — see below.
5. Keep copies of the contract, the notice and the proof of sending.

What happens on withdrawal

The timeshare or long-term holiday contract, and all resale, exchange and other related contracts concluded together with it, end automatically when the right of withdrawal is exercised (Art. 50(6)). The consumer owes nothing: no administration fee, no charge for the "free" gifts or the stay offered as an inducement, no compensation.

Linked credit

Where the price is wholly or partly covered by a lender on the basis of an arrangement between the seller and the lender, and the consumer withdraws and also sends notice of the withdrawal to the lender within the withdrawal period, the linked credit contract ends as well, without any obligation to pay compensation or a penalty (Art. 50(7)).

Payments, card charges and promissory notes

Before the withdrawal period has expired, the seller or provider may not ask the consumer to make any payment under any name, or to give any document that puts the consumer in debt. If any sum is taken from the consumer despite this prohibition, it is returned to the consumer immediately; and every kind of document that puts the consumer in debt is invalid as regards the consumer (Art. 50(6), as amended in 2022).

In practice sellers take a deposit by card on the day, or have the buyer sign a stack of promissory notes (senet), one for each instalment. The law's answers:

• Card payments. Demand a refund in the withdrawal notice. In parallel, raise a dispute with your card issuer, attaching the contract, the withdrawal notice and proof of sending. Card schemes allow chargebacks where a merchant refuses a refund to which the cardholder is legally entitled; issuers have their own time limits, so act within weeks, not months.
• Cash. Recoverable in law, harder in practice. Insist on a receipt at the time; claim it in the notice.
• Promissory notes. Ask in the notice for their return and state that they are invalid under Article 50(6). The danger is that a note has been endorsed to a third party — a bank or a factoring company — which then presents it for payment. The Law makes the document invalid as regards the consumer; nevertheless, if enforcement proceedings are started on a note, you must respond within the short objection periods that apply to bills of exchange, or the order becomes final regardless. See our guides to payment orders in Turkey and debts in Turkey.
• Standing orders and direct debits. Cancel them with your bank and tell the bank why.
• "Administration" or "registration" fees. No payment "under any name" may be taken in the period. The label makes no difference.

A seller who collects money during the withdrawal period commits an administrative offence under the Consumer Protection Law, for which the Ministry of Trade imposes fines per contract. A complaint to the Ministry does not by itself return your money, but it adds pressure and creates a record.

The 2022 limits on timeshare sales

The amendments of March 2022 were aimed at the abuses that had filled the consumer courts. Since then:

• No prepaid timeshare. A prepaid timeshare contract — one where the consumer pays for a facility not yet built or ready — cannot be concluded with consumers, including contracts conferring a time-share property right (Art. 50(8)).
• Ten-year maximum. Except for contracts conferring a time-share property right, timeshare contracts are concluded for at most ten years (Art. 50(9)).
• No fractional ownership sold as timeshare. Apart from contracts creating a time-share property right under the Condominium Law, a timeshare contract giving consumers a right in rem tied to a share of ownership cannot be concluded.
• No disguised schemes. A timeshare right cannot be granted by way of membership of a cooperative or commercial company, or of an association or foundation.
• The seller must hold a right in rem. Those who hold no right in rem over the property that is the subject of the timeshare cannot sell timeshares (Art. 50(2)). A marketing company with no title to, or registered right over, the resort has no business selling weeks in it.
• Opting out of a year. If the consumer notifies the provider at least ninety days before the holiday is due to begin that he or she will not use the holiday right under a personal-right timeshare for a particular period, no charge under any name may be demanded for that period (Art. 50(10)).

A contract concluded in breach of these prohibitions is open to challenge as contrary to mandatory law, and the consumer can reclaim what was paid.

After fourteen days

Missing the withdrawal period does not necessarily leave the buyer bound. The grounds available afterwards require proof, and usually a court, but they are regularly successful.

• The withdrawal period never started, or started late. The seller must prove that the consumer was properly informed of the right. Where the information form was not given, or a copy of the contract was not handed over, the buyer can argue that the period did not run in the ordinary way.
• Breach of the mandatory prohibitions: a prepaid sale, a term over ten years, a seller with no right in rem, a scheme dressed up as membership.
• Non-performance or defective performance. The resort is not built, is of a lower standard than promised, the week is never available, the property has been seized or the operator has lost its licence. The consumer may rescind and claim back the price under the Law's provisions on defective services, and under the general law of obligations.
• Deception and unfair commercial practices. False statements about ownership, resale value, rental income or "today only" prices. A contract induced by deception can be avoided within one year of discovering it.
• Unfair terms. Clauses not individually negotiated that create a significant imbalance against the consumer — forfeiture of everything paid, unlimited increases in annual fees, waiver of the right to sue — are void.
• Excessive penalty clauses can be reduced by the court.

Limitation periods apply, and evidence fades; a buyer who intends to contest the contract should do so promptly, and should stop making payments only on advice — an unexplained default hands the seller a counter-argument.

Signed a timeshare or holiday-club contract in Turkey and want out? If you are within fourteen days, the notice must go today. Send the contract and what you paid or signed. Message Yayla Law on WhatsApp or use the contact form. We serve the withdrawal through a notary and pursue refunds from abroad under a power of attorney.

Annual fees and not using your week

Buyers of older contracts are often pursued for annual maintenance charges for weeks they never use. Points to check:

• whether the charge, and the method of increasing it, was clearly stated in the contract and the information form; open-ended increase clauses are vulnerable as unfair terms;
• whether you gave ninety days' notice of non-use for the period, which bars any charge for that period under a personal-right timeshare (Art. 50(10));
• whether the contract has exceeded, or was concluded for more than, the ten-year maximum;
• whether the operator is actually providing the service;
• whether the claim is time-barred — periodic charges are subject to a five-year limitation period.

Do not ignore a payment order served in Turkey on the footing that you live abroad; an unopposed order becomes final and can be enforced against assets here.

Resale and exchange schemes

A second wave of loss follows the first. The owner of an unwanted timeshare is contacted by a company that claims to have a buyer, or offers to "cancel the contract legally", against an upfront fee — taxes, registration, legal costs. The fee is paid and nothing happens.

• Resale and exchange contracts are themselves covered by Article 50: preliminary information form, fourteen-day withdrawal, and no advance payment — for resale contracts, under the regulation, no payment before the sale actually takes place or the contract otherwise ends.
• A company that takes an upfront fee to resell a timeshare is acting unlawfully from the outset.
• Where money was obtained by deception, the conduct is fraud. See our guide to filing a fraud complaint in Turkey.
• No lawyer or public authority will telephone you unsolicited offering to recover your timeshare money for a fee.

How to pursue a claim

1. Withdrawal or termination notice through a notary, with a demand for refund and return of documents within a stated period.
2. Card dispute with your issuer.
3. Complaint to the Ministry of Trade or the provincial trade directorate, which supervises compliance and imposes fines.
4. Consumer arbitration committee — for disputes below the annual monetary threshold. The procedure is free, written and binding, and can be filed at the committee of the place where the transaction was made or where the consumer resides, including electronically.
5. Consumer court — for larger claims, after mandatory mediation. Consumers are exempt from court fees. A foreign consumer may sue at the place where the transaction took place. See our guide to suing in Turkey as a foreigner.
6. Negative declaratory action where promissory notes are in circulation: a request that the court declare that you owe nothing on them, with an interim order suspending enforcement.
7. Criminal complaint where there was deception, a non-existent property or double selling.
8. Your home country. Consumers resident in some countries can also bring a claim before their own courts or use cross-border consumer bodies where the seller directed its marketing at that country, and a home-country judgment can then be recognised in Turkey. Whether this is useful depends on where the seller has assets.

All of this can be conducted from abroad through a lawyer; see our guide to powers of attorney for Turkey.

Timeshare with title: devre mülk

Turkish law also knows a true property right — time-share ownership (devre mülk) under the Condominium Law — in which co-owners of a dwelling hold a registered right to use it for a specified period each year. It is created by a deed at the land registry and appears on the title record.

• The consumer-protection rules — information form, fourteen-day withdrawal, no payment in the withdrawal period — apply to contracts for time-share ownership as well; since 2022 withdrawal automatically ends these contracts too.
• The ten-year maximum does not apply to time-share ownership, but the prohibition on prepaid sales does.
• A genuine time-share property right exists only if it is registered. Ask for the land registry record. A certificate issued by the seller is not title.
• Co-owners bear a share of the property's expenses and are bound by the management arrangement registered with it; see our guide to apartment maintenance fees in Turkey.
• Foreign nationals are subject to the general rules on acquisition of real estate by foreigners; see our guide to buying property in Turkey. Off-plan purchases of whole units are covered in our guide to off-plan property.

Frequently asked questions

Can I cancel a timeshare contract in Turkey?

Yes. Within fourteen days you may withdraw without giving a reason and without any penalty. After that, cancellation is possible on grounds such as breach of the legal prohibitions, deception, non-performance or unfair terms.

How do I cancel within the fourteen days?

Send a written withdrawal notice to the seller within the period by a provable method — ideally through a notary, and also by registered post and email — and notify any lender. Keep proof of sending.

They took a deposit on my card the same day. Is that allowed?

No. No payment may be taken during the withdrawal period. It must be refunded immediately; also raise a dispute with your card issuer.

I signed promissory notes. Do I have to pay them?

Documents creating a debt taken during the withdrawal period are invalid as regards the consumer. Demand their return, and respond at once to any payment order based on them.

I am already back home. Is it too late?

Not if you are within fourteen days: the notice can be sent from abroad. After that, other grounds may still be available and can be pursued through a lawyer in Turkey.

How long can a timeshare contract last?

At most ten years, except for registered time-share ownership.

Do I have to pay annual fees if I do not use my week?

Under a personal-right timeshare, no charge may be demanded for a period if you gave notice at least ninety days before it that you would not use it.

A company offers to resell my timeshare for an upfront fee. Is it genuine?

Treat it as a warning sign. Advance payment for resale services is prohibited, and such offers are a common fraud.

Where do I complain?

To the consumer arbitration committee for smaller sums or the consumer court for larger ones, after mediation; and to the Ministry of Trade, which can fine the seller.

Legal basis and sources

• Consumer Protection Law No. 6502, Articles 4, 5, 13–15, 50, 68, 70, 73 and 73/A — official consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr.
• Regulation on Timeshare and Long-Term Holiday Service Contracts.
• Condominium Law No. 634, Part Eight (time-share ownership).
• Ministry of Trade, Directorate General of Consumer Protection and Market Surveillance — tuketici.ticaret.gov.tr.

This article provides general legal information on Turkish law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Deadlines run from the date of each contract and should be calculated on the documents.