Can they make me pay them?

maddipops

Hi,

we went to kefalonia, greece for a 2 week holiday. we got a private villa, the cost was 2100 euro.

Whilst staying in the villa after about a week I was taken to hospital with an unknown illness, the doctors in kefalonia said I had kidney stones caused by dehydration. I was in agony for the rest of the holiday and on powerful painkillers.

towards the second week of the holiday, we noticed our villa started to smell like a male night club toilet. It wreaked of urine. To our amazement we had a rat living in the cupboards in the kitchen, rat urine and droppings were all over it. we also once had a rat in the dishwasher.

the rat also chewed through the dishwasher cable one day causing a powercut.

It turns out after speaking to a UK doctor upon my return that the kidney stones werent kidney stones, it was a kidney infection. when googling rat urine, I see that humans that come into contact with it suffer from kidney infections!

On the last full day on holiday they came to ask for payment, baring in mind I didnt know that the rat had probably poisoned me during my second week of stay, I had to be drug into town for 3 hours to try to pay them.

they couldnt take the money off my card because it was a nationwide debit card, and apparently their greek bank account wouldnt recognize a building society as being a bank, so I couldnt pay them there and then. (my nationwide credit card was also no good to them). Instead they made me sign a letter, took a copy of my passport and told me that they would require me to send them a picture of the front and back of my credit card when I got back.

I did this, on friday 22nd july, they still havent taken the money.

Since then I have learned that the kidney infection was likely due to rat infestation, so my question is to you - would you pay them? I am tempted to cancel my card, how could they get the money from me? can they go through a small claims court here? they have no UK bank account and its a private greek company, I know they have no UK bank account because of the fiasco of payment on the last day of the holiday.

I have written to them to complain about the rat, they offered me 200 euro off.

This doesnt seem like its worth it, seeing as if it was through thomson or someone I could probably sue for damages whilst getting a substantial discount off the holiday.

what do you think?

to the sceptics - assume Im telling the truth about the kidney infection and the rat infestation, as I am doing. then consider whether or not you would pay them.

Enterprise_1701C

Firstly, stopping a credit card would not stop them taking money off it. Informing your card company that any payment to these people would be challenged would have more effect, you should inform your cc people immediately that there was problems and you are challenging the need to pay. If the payment comes through on your card then challenge it immediately.

I assume the payment is for the villa.

I think personally I would write to the people that handled the rent of the villa and inform them of the problems and say you are going to refuse payment due to the fact that the rat problem caused you a serious illness, and was a very serious health risk - if it had chewed through wires where you could have touched them that could have caused death. There will then probably follow some heated negotiation, I would say half payment might be worth it but would rather not pay at all if it were me in this situation.

I certainly do not think 200 euros off is enough for this.

I do not think they could go through the small claims court here, but at least if they did yu could counter-sue.

As for payment not being taken yet, probably a bit early as you only sent them the info on 22nd July. It would have taken a few days to get there, and of course it is Greece you are talking about, they don't exactly rush about!

Have you got the facts about the infection in writing, saying it may have been due to the rats? If not, it might be a good idea to get a note from your doctor even if it costs you.

richardw

Were there any other rats around?

maddipops

There was about two or three sightings of rats. Difficult to know if it's the same one doing the rounds. Great idea on medical letter. I only have meds for Infection, not it's likely cause.
I didn't even think of the electrocution risk! Good point! I sent payment details via email and they acknowledged this the same day

thegirlintheattic

I would have thought with no actual proof your illness was caused by a rat that the owners will not go above the 200 euro discount offered.

maddipops

The owners know about the infestation though. We complained of the smell, the rat in dish washer, the powercut caused by rat chewing through wires, and the emergency a and e trip. So they probably wouldn't dispute that my illness was likely caused by coming into contact With rat excriment. Probably from the times it was in the dishwasher. It makes me shudder to think about it!

thegirlintheattic

maddipops wrote: »

The owners know about the infestation though. We complained of the smell, the rat in dish washer, the powercut caused by rat chewing through wires, and the emergency a and e trip. So they probably wouldn't dispute that my illness was likely caused by coming into contact With rat excriment. Probably from the times it was in the dishwasher. It makes me shudder to think about it!

Which you only noticed at the end of your second week, an infestation would have been noticeable very quickly, and this was after your illness.

I'm just saying that they are unlikely to want to take the hit for this, you've got to consider that whilst a big company like First Choice will want to avoid bad publicity, legal action etc. by letting you have the holiday free/half-price, a family is unlikely going to want to loose a big slice of income if they can help it.

I personally would take the 200 euros off, especially as if your card had worked you would have paid out the whole thing at the time. Sounds like the rat wasn't a major issue at the time, you would have paid and it is only since you got home and found out that your illness may have been caused by the rat that you don't want to pay.