ex-boyfriend demanding holiday money back

grff

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that someone could give me a little advice to ppass to my sister as she wants my help and don't really know how to help.

She booked a 600.00 holiday over christmas for her and her boyfriend, to go away in March 2013 using her credit card. He transferred 300.00 into her account for half of the cost. Since then the date of the holiday had to be changed so an additional 200.00 was paid fully by my sister to change the dates.
They have since split up and my sister has cancelled the holiday and received back 133.00 as a refund.

The problem she now has is that her ex is demanding his half back and has threatened to contact the police over it.

Is he within his right to do this? Or is this my sister's choice as it is her credit card that was used?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

pinkshoes

Why did she cancel the holiday? Did he agree to cancel the holiday.

Given £800 has been paid, then £133 isn't much of a refund. The ex should have been consulted, given he paid half, and one of them should have been given the option to take the holiday and go with a friend.

If he wasn't consulted in the cancellation process, then I see why he wants his £300 back, and I'm afraid she might have to pay it back if she didn't give him the opportunity to buy her out of it.

fluffnutter

Firstly, he'll get nowhere with the police. It's impossible to determine whether this money was a gift or not, and the police will simply not be interested in a domestic issue like this.

But morally, you could argue that he's 'entitled' to a bit back. The holiday cost £800 in total, £500 of which was paid by your sister, and the rest by her ex. The percentage split is therefore 62.5% versus 37.5%.

She's received £133 as a refund. Perhaps 37.5% of that refund should go to him? I make that £49.87. Just a thought.

Cherry_Bomb

Well I would say he should be given half the refund but seeing as he never paid his half of the £200 it cost the change the date (who's fault was this by the way?) I wouldn't give him anything.

grff

pinkshoes wrote: »

Why did she cancel the holiday? Did he agree to cancel the holiday.

She cancelled as they had split and he said that he wasn't going to take anyone else.
They've not been in contact for a week or so as he got a bit nasty according to my folks.
I guess it's down to my sister in terms of whether she gives him any of the refund.

Fluffnutter - I'll mention the percentage refund to her and see what she thinks to that.

BitterAndTwisted

She's £200 more out of pocket than he is, so I'd say she gets to keep all of that paltry refund. And he can go and boil his head. Petty doesn't quite cover it for me.

mountainofdebt

I'm assuming that your sister was the lead person on the booking so if push had come to shove, she could have changed his name and took someone else.

I personally like the percentages solution

pinkshoes

grff wrote: »

She cancelled as they had split and he said that he wasn't going to take anyone else.
They've not been in contact for a week or so as he got a bit nasty according to my folks.
I guess it's down to my sister in terms of whether she gives him any of the refund.

Fluffnutter - I'll mention the percentage refund to her and see what she thinks to that.

In which case, if she paid £500, and he paid £300, then he's entitled to 37.5% of the refund she received, so £49.88.

This is fair.

real1314

pinkshoes wrote: »

In which case, if she paid £500, and he paid £300, then he's entitled to 37.5% of the refund she received, so £49.88.

This is fair.

Surely the fair method is for him to pay his half of the £200 extra (he pays her £100) paid, then he should get half of the refund (she pays him£66.50).
:cool:

meritaten

he gave her £300 for a holiday which didnt happen as they split up - before that she paid an extra £200 - to rearrange the dates. so if you split that by half she does owe him £200, the fact she then cancelled the holiday and only got £133 in refund is nothing to do with him - that was HER decision.
I know its not what you want to hear - but ex boyf paid £300 and got nothing in return! I would say she owes him £200.

DreamerV

I'd say she put a much higher (relatively) amount of money on the line. If he gets 50 quid back and her the rest (83) then she's effectively paid £417 and he's paid £250. That seems unfair. It was meant to be a holiday for both of them, and presumably they were both to pay £400 at the end. I'd think the fair thing is for both to be out of pocket to a similar amount. They've paid 800 and got back 133, which equals £667. Each should have effectively paid £333.50. If anything I think the boyfriend should be making a further contribution but I don't think it's worth chasing up. I certainly wouldn't be giving him money (personally).

Edited to say: my solution is the same as real1314's