Section 75 - Holiday villa rental. Advice please

n_mcardle

Hi all

I have recently returned from a holiday to Marrakech staying in a villa on a golf resort. Booked the villa via someone I found online. Paid £355 deposit via Paypal and then paid remaining £709 on arrival with my credit card.

Everything was fine, villa as described, fabulous, blah blah blah. Until 12pm of day 4 of the holiday when we lost all running water. It came on for 1 hour at 8:30pm that night, then was off again until the same time the following evening. Then it came on again on the 6th day of the holiday in the evening for 30 minutes or so. It then remained off for the final day of our holiday. As a result we were unable to use many of the amenities of the villa including the dishwasher & washing machine. We could not shower, nor could we even flush toilets. We spent a small fortune on taxis to the supermarket (some 20 minutes drive away) to purchase additional bottled water for brushing teeth, etc.

I have tried to gain some financial compensation from the golf resort management company to whom I paid the £709 on arrival. No joy. I have contacted the guy who we rented the villa from and to date, nothing.

Can I make any kind of claim via section 75?? In my opinion, the property was not as described and we did not receive the service described in that toilets didn't flush, no use of dishwasher, washing machine, etc?

If anyone has any advice I'd be really grateful as I am angry at the poor customer service and the fact that we spent a lot on our only holiday this year to have 4 of the 7 days we were there with no running water!!

Thanks in advance!

bigadaj

For clarity we presume you contacted the management and the issues were reported and not resolved.

Objectively the claim would be for loss of use of facilities and additional costs in urged in the failure to deliver the services promised. This may translate as a refund of between a third and half of holiday cost plus additional expenses receipted or justifiably substantiated.

If you've approached the owner and management the open a claim with the card, they'll probably try a chargeback initially but if unsuccessful then a section 75 has a good chance of being successful for a partial refund.

dalesrider

bigadaj wrote: »

they'll probably try a chargeback initially but if unsuccessful then a section 75 has a good chance of being successful for a partial refund.

No chargeback right here. As you need to prove (read something stating how much you paid for 24/7 water).
This is looking more like a quality issue.

TBH. I would call your card provider and talk to them explaining the issue. That is not the front line but the disputes team.

n_mcardle

Thanks for the advice

Yes I did report the issues to the management team throughout my stay, on the last day they suggested I attend their office at 3pm. I did this to discover that all staff had left for the day due to no electric.

I have contacted my card issuer today and they are sending me out the claim forms & seem to think I may be able to claim under section 75....

bigadaj

dalesrider wrote: »

No chargeback right here. As you need to prove (read something stating how much you paid for 24/7 water).
This is looking more like a quality issue.

TBH. I would call your card provider and talk to them explaining the issue. That is not the front line but the disputes team.

Would disagree on quality, we need to test this On a reasonableness basis, if this was a subjective issue then that would be fine. A lack of water for anything more than a few hours is a basic necessity and isn't a subjective issue at all.

dalesrider

bigadaj wrote: »

Would disagree on quality, we need to test this On a reasonableness basis, if this was a subjective issue then that would be fine. A lack of water for anything more than a few hours is a basic necessity and isn't a subjective issue at all.

As quality is a very subjective subject.
ie To someone living in many a 3rd world country that amount of water provided would be great... Yet to us it is not.
Is there anything in the T/C of the rental stating issues or a guarantee of 24/7 water supply?

To take it to Visa/MasterCard on a chargeback basis. You need to show how much that water cost. Clearly this is not something that will be broken down on any invoice.

Also how often does this event happen in Marrakech?
While in the Uk we expect 24/7 running water. Perhaps in Marrakech this is a regular event.
Which could be why the golf resort management are having nothing to do with this.
Also what was the payment to the golf resort management co for? As this was a private rental.

If this was simply a private rental and the golf resort management just took the final payment to pass to the owner of the apartment. Then it could be argued that there is not debitor/creditor link. As the party who will have debited the card. Are not the party providing the accommodation.

Given Visa/MasterCard chargebacks are a additional service offered over and above your legal rights and have no standing in legality. On what basis do you think it could be tested?

chattychappy

If amenities such as dishwasher, shower etc. are advertised, then it's reasonable to suppose that there will be the necessary water available to run them. Seems that most of the time there wasn't. Third world or not, we're talking about a golf resort. The water supply in Vietnam (where I often stay) is unreliable. Proper hotels/resorts etc have their own storage tanks to tide them over.

As for T+Cs, I would suggest that anything attempting to exclude liability for such a major performance failure would be unreasonable (but see below).

The issues I see for a S75 claim are 1) whether the second payment was made direct to the resort; 2) trying to quantify a suitable amount of damages; 3) applicable law. If the contract was formed overseas, then although S75 might still protect you for breach of contract/misrepresentation, it might not be English law that governs the contract itself. (Eg terms implied by English law might not apply - eg Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977). It be necessary to establish that there was a breach according to local law.