Harbours Reach Cottage, Polperro Austin Mockeridge

hendryclan

Hi guys,
Just wondering if anybody else has had dealings with Austin Mockridge who lets out holiday cottages, Harbours Reach, Chaipel Steps and Primrose Cottage in Polperro. I have had the misfortune of being "schtupmped" by this shyster. He advertises with a Cottage Let company called Stilwells. They advertise on his behalf. To cut a long story short, I have just been awarded judgement over this "person" to pay back £585 we paid to stay in one of his cottages (sh*thole more like) together with court costs. He hasnt replied to the court judgement which was awarded to me on the 27th February at Taunton County Court. He didnt even have the balls to come to court and face me on the day. He lives in Taunton and I live in Wales. I managed a 4 hour train journey to get there, but he couldnt even manage a bus ride to Taunton County Court.
Anyway I digress ..... I would like to hear from anybody else who has had dealings with this Mockeridge bloke, and what, if any, was the outcome should anybody else had taken him to court.
He obviously doesnt give a sh*t about this, but I am now like a dog with a bone, he has picked on the wrong girl here. As he advertises through a holiday cottage company I have written to them to let them know what he is up to. They have replied and said they will be looking into it, but where would I stand with them? Can I write to a Complaints bureau with regards to the letting agents allowing somebody like him to advertise knowing full well the state of his properties, (I had contacted them back in October 2008 when I first put my claim in via Money Claim Online). They did reply and said they would speak to Mockeridge but looking on his website he is still advertising this "dung heap". Is there some sort of Regulation Bureau I can contact. I dont think he is a member of any Tourist Board, so there is nobody there to help me.
Thanks guys

omen666

suggest you post as much information in this thread as possible:

Name?
Website address?
His Address?
His cottages adress?
Comapny names?
Telephone numbers you have for him.

That way google will pick them up and anyone else trying to rent from this shyster will if they search the web first will get a link to this thread and not pass anymor hard earned money his way

cheerfulness4

Wow, you'd never know to look at the pictures on their website. It looks so cosy. Just the sort of place that I'd book. What was wrong with it?

spider125

i checked the cottage via google looks nice but pricy!! he also has some bookings remindsme when we rented a cottage in Looe it was full of spiders webs and hadnt been cleaned for ages, but I got the hoover out and we made do!

hendryclan

Dear Spider 125

Thanks for taking the time to reply. If the cottage would have been a small amount ie £200 for the week, then yes we would have done what you suggest and just put up and shut up. However, we come down to Cornwall every year and stay in a cottage in Bude, but just for a change last year we decided to go somewhere different for the week. This shyster charged us £585 for one week at the end of the season. The description made it sound luxurious, but it certainly wasnt. I understand what you are saying but if you have been given a description of this place as luxurious and clean and also not smelly, then you dont mind paying that little bit extra ... but this guy just took advantage of the situation and thought he could get away with charging us this amount. He obviously thought that we wouldnt follow the compaint up ... If you are interested I would let you know the full extent of the disgraceful cottage, together with a phone call from him the night before we were due to go to the cottage, telling me that he was a little behind on finishing the roof garden .... what he had forgotten to mention was that the roof garden had been started without planning permission and the council had stopped all work on it, due to complaints from his neighbours .. I only found this out from the local Post Office lady who knew who exactly I was talking about when I went in there to get credit on my mobile phone to try and arrange further accommodation for my family for that week... the cottage was not habitable.
i could go on and on ... but i wont bore you ... however if anybody is interested i would be only to happy to list everything that happened that day just so that nobody else gets fleeced by this "person" (a name I use loosely!!!)

hendryclan

dear omen 666
thanks for your advice. i will follow up on that, so here goes:
cottage owner Austin Mockridge
Website Address: www.cornishholidaycottages.com
*He is also on quite a few other holiday cottage websites, namely:
www.ukcottage.com, stillwells website, britainexpress.

his cottage names are: harbours reach, polperro (the one we booked)
chapiel steps cottage, polperro, primrose cottage, polperro.
he lives in taunton in somerset. his contact numbers are:07976622458/01823602939

Secret_Lady

hendryclan wrote: »

Dear Spider 125

Thanks for taking the time to reply. If the cottage would have been a small amount ie £200 for the week, then yes we would have done what you suggest and just put up and shut up. However, we come down to Cornwall every year and stay in a cottage in Bude, but just for a change last year we decided to go somewhere different for the week. This shyster charged us £585 for one week at the end of the season. The description made it sound luxurious, but it certainly wasnt. I understand what you are saying but if you have been given a description of this place as luxurious and clean and also not smelly, then you dont mind paying that little bit extra ... but this guy just took advantage of the situation and thought he could get away with charging us this amount. He obviously thought that we wouldnt follow the compaint up ... If you are interested I would let you know the full extent of the disgraceful cottage, together with a phone call from him the night before we were due to go to the cottage, telling me that he was a little behind on finishing the roof garden .... what he had forgotten to mention was that the roof garden had been started without planning permission and the council had stopped all work on it, due to complaints from his neighbours .. I only found this out from the local Post Office lady who knew who exactly I was talking about when I went in there to get credit on my mobile phone to try and arrange further accommodation for my family for that week... the cottage was not habitable.
i could go on and on ... but i wont bore you ... however if anybody is interested i would be only to happy to list everything that happened that day just so that nobody else gets fleeced by this "person" (a name I use loosely!!!)

I was looking at this cottage at the weekend (on the web), thought it looked really nice and was considering booking, thank goodness I read this post. I would be very interested in hearing the problems you experienced either here or by pm.

Many thanks for letting people know about it. I too have stayed in places where we've had to clean etc. before we could feel happy and it really is unfair that people get away with it.

hendryclan

dear cheefulness 4
the cottage was disgusting ... we walked in ... after stepping over dog muck outside ... the first thing was the smell .... very damp and musty. the wooden floor was filthy and sticky ... the dining table was engrained with other peoples leftover food ... the washing machine had washing in it and was broke.. the light switches didnt work ... the kitchen had no clean utensils in it to use .. there was no fire extingusher .... the windows wouldnt open because the catch was broken ... the back garden (it was just a square piece of concrete had green mould all over it. the steps leading up to the "roof garden"" ha !! were covered in green mould ... very dangerous ... there was no roof garden just planks of wood left. there was a bedroom with a 3rd bed, which ws just a mattress on the floor, which only a small child could sleep in as the roof sloped so you couldnt stand up. you couldnt get into the wardrobe, one because the handle was missing and two because the bed was up against it.. the chest of drawers had knobs missing .... the pull out sofa bed had springs and metal sticking out of it ...it was dirty and smelly ... i wouldnt let my dog sleep on there never mind any of my family ... overall it was pretty bloody disgusting ... nobody had bothered to explain why there was a load of washing in the machine with water in it ... obviously it had flooded because there was a mop and bucket by the door but you could see where the water had flowed into the kitchen......

hendryclan

hi secret lady
i have listed the problems we encountered when we arrived there. however since the judgement he has not attempted to rectify this matter. i have now taken it further with the courts, but looking on some of the comments by people who have been in the same situation as myself and my family, i am not holding up much hope in retreiving any of my money. this is why i have decided to put this post up, so at least people can make their own minds up about this shyster .... if just one person like yourself doesnt make the same mistake I did, then it would have been worth it.... you never know he might have done something about it since then, but like I said earlier I wont hold my breath ....

spider125

congratulations and well done for speaking out, we put our trust and money into these holidays and they are not cheap! after a long drive with kids looking forward to holiday I can imagine how you felt, you wouldnt leave your home a mess I spend ages gutting my house before my holidays so its fresh when we come home, you dont and shouldnt expect to clean a place on arrival what you have payed for I hope you get recompence keep us informed and dont give up! isnt there a site somewhere you can feed back on bad holidays? I know I checked it out once when daughter and family were going abroad

sarahg1969

Just one thing, OP. You have spelled his name slightly wrong - it should be Mockridge. If you amend, then anyone searching should find your "review" more easily!