Timeshare Exit Team Lawsuits, Settlements, and Shutdown

The main Timeshare Exit Team lawsuit was brought by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson in 2020 against Reed Hein & Associates LLC, the Kirkland, Washington company behind the brand. It ended in a September 28, 2021 consent decree requiring the company to pay $2.61 million in restitution and stop the practices the state called deceptive. Reed Hein closed in February 2022. A separate $150 million class action against Dave Ramsey, who endorsed the company for years, is still active in federal court.¹²

What the Company Was Accused of Doing

Reed Hein was founded in 2012 by Brandon Reed and Trevor Hein, with Thomas Parenteau as chief operating officer. It advertised a “100 percent money-back guarantee” and charged upfront fees ranging from under $3,000 to tens of thousands of dollars to help owners exit their timeshare contracts.¹³

The company had no proprietary legal process. It sent client files to outside “vendor attorneys” for a flat fee of about $500 per case. One of them, Mitchell Reed Sussman, took roughly 7,800 referrals and about $3.9 million in revenue. The actual exit methods were basic: boilerplate resignation letters to developers, unilateral deeds recorded without the developer’s agreement, or transfers of the interest to one of Sussman’s associates for $10.³

The company also told clients to stop communicating with their resorts and stop making payments. According to the Washington attorney general, that advice left many owners facing foreclosure, collection actions, and damaged credit. Refunds under the money-back guarantee were frequently denied, even when the promised exit never happened.¹

The Washington Attorney General’s Case and Settlement

Ferguson filed suit in King County Superior Court in 2020 under Washington’s consumer protection laws. The complaint alleged false advertising of the money-back guarantee, failure to deliver promised exits for more than 2,800 Washington clients, the practice of telling consumers to stop paying their resorts, and reliance on unverified third-party vendors.¹

The September 2021 consent decree required Reed Hein to pay $2.61 million toward restitution and partial litigation costs. Another $19 million in penalties was suspended, hanging over the company if it broke the agreement. The decree also required Reed Hein to stop claiming it could force resorts to release owners, cease any exit method performed without a resort’s knowledge, disclose risks like potential foreclosure, set aside at least 20 percent of every customer payment for possible refunds, offer partial refunds if an exit wasn’t achieved within three years, and publicly retract statements it had made attacking the attorney general’s office during the litigation.¹

Less than six months later, in February 2022, Timeshare Exit Team shut down.²

Who Can Get Money Back

Only Washington state residents who bought Timeshare Exit Team’s services are eligible for restitution from the consent decree. The attorney general’s office hired Kurtzman Carlson Consultants to run the distribution and reached out to identified customers directly using records from the company. Eligible consumers completed a survey about their experience, submitted by email to Info@TimeShareExitTeamSettlment.com or by mail to the settlement administrator in Los Angeles. Restitution checks had been issued as of February 2025. Individual amounts were set by the attorney general’s office based on how badly the consumer was harmed, whether a refund had previously been denied, and whether the case was still unresolved.⁴¹

Customers outside Washington were not covered by the state settlement. Their potential path to recovery runs through the separate class action against Dave Ramsey.

The $150 Million Class Action Against Dave Ramsey

Radio host Dave Ramsey made Timeshare Exit Team one of his “endorsed local providers” beginning in 2015, promoting it through his radio show, newsletters, website, and church-based Financial Peace University courses. According to the class-action complaint, listeners “were not aware he or his company were paid for their endorsements or for referrals.”⁵

The lawsuit alleges Ramsey was paid roughly $450,000 per month, about $30 million in total between 2015 and 2021. Over the same period, Timeshare Exit Team allegedly collected roughly $70 million in fees from customers Ramsey referred, and more than $200 million overall. The suit claims Ramsey kept promoting the company after Washington regulators took action against it and only stopped when the payments stopped.⁶⁷

Seventeen former Ramsey listeners filed the case in April 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The defendants are Ramsey, his company Ramsey Solutions (formally The Lampo Group), and Happy Hour Media Group, a marketing firm co-founded by Brandon Reed that allegedly helped route endorsement payments to Ramsey. The complaint asserts violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, conspiracy, and negligent misrepresentation, and claims customers were charged between $4,000 and $72,000 for services that were never delivered.⁶⁸

In October 2023, U.S. District Judge James Robart dismissed the unjust enrichment claim with prejudice, ruling that the plaintiffs had not alleged they directly conferred a benefit on Ramsey. He rejected the rest of Ramsey’s motion to dismiss, finding the remaining claims were not time-barred because consumers could not have known they were injured until their contracts expired and the company failed to follow through. An amended complaint was filed in mid-December 2023.⁹⁷

In October 2025, a Ninth Circuit panel heard arguments on whether to compel arbitration. Two of the three judges signaled skepticism toward Ramsey’s position, noting that his arbitration argument “hinges on a contract that he never signed.” As of mid-2026, the case remains active before Judge Robart with no trial date, settlement, or class certification ruling on the public docket.¹⁰¹¹

Resort Companies’ Lawsuits Against Reed Hein

Major timeshare developers sued Reed Hein and its vendor attorneys separately from the state action, arguing the exit scheme interfered with their customer contracts and amounted to false advertising.

Orange Lake Country Club and Wilson Resort Finance, affiliates of what is now Holiday Inn Club Vacations, sued Reed Hein, its three principals, the law firm Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, and Mitchell Reed Sussman in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in 2017. The claims included tortious interference, civil conspiracy, violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, and false advertising under the federal Lanham Act. In January 2019, Judge Gregory Presnell denied Sussman’s motion for summary judgment.³

Westgate Resorts sued in the same court and obtained a permanent injunction in July 2021 barring Reed Hein and its operators from advising Westgate owners about terminating their memberships or telling them to stop making payments.¹² In a separate action, Westgate won summary judgment against Sussman personally in June 2019, with the court finding his letters claiming successful exits were “objectively deceptive.”¹³

Diamond Resorts filed its own Lanham Act and tortious interference case against Reed Hein, Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, and Sussman. As of March 2021, a federal judge had denied the law firm’s motion to dismiss and allowed the case to proceed.¹⁴

If You Used a Different Timeshare Exit Company

Timeshare Exit Team was one operator among many, and the settlements above do not cover customers of other companies. Separate enforcement actions have produced their own recoveries. In April 2026, a Missouri federal court ordered Christopher Lee Carroll to pay more than $140 million over the Square One Group and Consumer Law Protection scheme, which the court found had taken between $5,000 and over $80,000 from more than 11,000 consumers.¹⁵ In August 2024, a Florida federal court entered a $16 million default judgment in Wyndham’s false advertising case against Rich Folk, William Wilson, Pandora Servicing LLC, and Intermarketing Media LLC.¹⁶ In January 2025, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced settlements with Encore Law Inc., Last Resort Consulting, and Tradebloc, producing $269,378 in consumer refunds.¹⁷ If a company you paid appears in any of those cases, restitution is generally handled by the enforcing agency or a court-appointed administrator, and contacting your state attorney general’s office is the first step.

1
Washington State Attorney General. AG Ferguson: Reed Hein Pay $2.61 Million to Resolve Timeshare Exit Scheme Lawsuit
2
ARDA-ROC. Timeshare Exit Team Closes Its Doors Serving as Yet Another Warning to Consumers
3
Caselaw – FindLaw. Orange Lake Country Club v. Reed Hein & Associates
4
Washington State Attorney General. Timeshare Exit Team Settlement
5
Religion News Service. Dave Ramsey Sued for $150 Million by Former Fans Who Followed His Timeshare Exit Advice
6
CBS News. Dave Ramsey Getting Sued in $150 Million Lawsuit Over Timeshare Exit
7
Religion News Service. Class Action Timeshare Suit Moves Forward
8
Presbyterian Outlook. Dave Ramsey Sued for $150 Million by Former Fans
9
Bloomberg Law. Dave Ramsey Defeats Unjust Enrichment Claim Over Timeshare Help
10
Law360. 9th Circ. Doubts Finance Guru’s Stance in Timeshare Exit Suit
11
CourtListener. Patrick v. Ramsey Docket
12
Law360. Judge OKs Timeshare Exit Co. Injunction in Westgate Case
13
PR Newswire. Judge’s Ruling Demonstrates the Pattern of Fraud and Deception Perpetrated by Exit Firms
14
PR Newswire. Court Order Says Diamond Resorts Suit Will Proceed Against Timeshare Exit Team’s Law Firm
15
U.S. Department of Justice. United States and State of Wisconsin Obtain Over $140M Judgment
16
Shutts & Bowen LLP. Shutts & Bowen Litigation Team Secures $16 Million Award in Federal False Advertising Lawsuit
17
Minnesota Attorney General. Attorney General Ellison Announces Timeshare Exit Settlements