Gowan Bill to Clean Up Time Sharing Licensing System Heads to Hobbs

Legislation aimed at modernizing Arizona’s timeshare licensing system sponsored by Arizona Senator David Gowan is heading to the governor’s desk.

Gowan’s bill, SB 1274, aims to improve consumer protections, and ensure timeshare sales professionals receive training that is directly relevant to the work they actually perform.

SB 1274 passed the Senate with bipartisan support and seeks to replace outdated licensing requirements with a more practical, industry-specific approach.

SB 1274 establishes a dedicated timeshare salesperson license and creates education and examination requirements tailored specifically to the timeshare industry. Under current law, individuals who sell only timeshares must obtain a traditional real estate license, which requires them to study and test on broad areas of real estate law and practice that have little or no connection to timeshare sales. The bill instead focuses training and testing on Arizona timeshare laws, ownership structures, consumer protections, ethics, and industry-specific business practices, helping ensure licensees are better prepared to serve consumers while maintaining professional standards.

“Arizona homeowners and consumers deserve to work with professionals who are trained in the products they’re actually selling,” said Senator Gowan. “For years, timeshare sales professionals have been required to spend countless hours studying for a full real estate licensing exam that covers subjects many of them will never use in their careers. Meanwhile, valuable training time that could have been spent learning Arizona’s timeshare laws, consumer protections, ownership structures, and ethical responsibilities was devoted to unrelated material. SB 1274 brings common sense to the licensing process. It creates a pathway that is more focused, more efficient, and more relevant to the real-world responsibilities of timeshare professionals. That means better-trained licensees, better-informed consumers, and stronger protections for Arizona families making important vacation ownership decisions.”