LHH Scotland cottage booking refund

whinlatterdrive

Thanks for that video clip Sutch - very interesting.  Yes, I so wish CMA would get in there now!  It's been a long haul.
LHH and their solicitors are arrogant and despicable and they need to get their comeuppance  .............  sooner rather than later

Sylvestris

Thrugelmir said:

If the property owners are willing to play ball them the company themselves will simply go under. As they won't have the funds to reimburse everybody.  Easy to say somebody else pays. There's no magic money tree though. Just a row of dominoes that will topple over. 

Thrugelmir I assume you meant to say "not play ball". 

LHH won’t go under as they hold on to the money until the very last minute before passing it to the property owner. Their accounts show that they hold approx £300k cash in their bank account. If they have already paid over money to a property owner which subsequently needs to be refunded they can simply offset it against money they collect for future rentals. The worst case for LHH is that they lose some commission which is probably going to be less than the money they must be forking out for the erroneous legal advice they are receiving.

Please note that many property owners are apparently still unaware of LHH Scotland’s antics and if LHH had the decency to approach them, would probably agree to refunding customers’ money. Some of those owners who are aware of LHH’s behaviour are appalled and appear to be are sacking LHH. In the last month LHH have lost five properties. LHH Scotland are refusing to talk to property owners unless the customer can prove that their insurance claim has been declined and the customer has then challenged that decision and if deadlocked, escalated the decision to the Financial Ombudsman.  

drjnixon

Hi there, 
 We too have been victims of lhh. Were cancelled in April, and have tried (and failed) to claim on insurance as advised. Only just discovering the depth of the problem. There is a nice lady at Trading Standards Highland Council Lynn Foster, who appears to know all about the problem and is collating a list. I have a form from her to complete. Her email address is lynn.foster@highland.gov.uk. I advise that you drop her a quick email and check that you are on her list. If not, ask to be put on it. 
Jon Nixon

drjnixon

I also email LHH today (as a reply to their last email). 
Hi there,

  It's taken me a while to advance this, as work has been busy. I have contacted and complained to my insurer as they have been poor in communication, and have passed on the letter to them. I do not, however, intend to it on take to the Ombudsman though for 3 reasons.

 1) With the existing CMA advice, and the behaviour of the travel industry in general, I do not think that there is any reasonable expectation of success

2) I have already been at this for 5 months and an insurance ombudsman complaint will take a long time and a massive amount of work on my part (not yours) 

3) You have not offered me any kind of incentive to pursue that pathway ie a guarantee that failure there will lead to a refund. 

It occurs to me, though, that there is a way through this for us. If your stance is, as you stated, that the CMA advice doesnt apply because you are agents and are only acting as a bridge, you could contact the owners and ask them directly. If you could copy me into the communications that would be great. Alternatively you could give me their details and I can take it up with them myself. 

I am not willing to let this go I'm afraid. £1000 is a significant sum. If you can show me some good faith in this regard, I am confident we can all come to a reasonable resolution. If not I will be forced to look at other options.

Thanks again for your ongoing attention to this matter. 

Sylvestris

Despite LHH Scotland desperately trying to solicit 5-star reviews on Trustpilot, unfortunately for them, the 1 star reviews keep flowing. The latest posted on 8th Sep from Ross was entitled “Lying Holiday Homes Scotland” and said:

 

“This excuse for a company have retained my holiday money on the advice of 'their lawyers'. They are Wright, Johnston and McKenzie and I believe very soon they will change their tune. A juggernaut is coming down the line and will crash these conniving, lying, cheating and downright dishonest practitioners from business. The reputational damage to the legal representatives that support them will be immense. I await their demise.”

 

LOL. I really hope that he is correct. I thought I would share Ross’s post to this forum as Wynne Bentley (aka Wynne Shilland) the owner of LHH will no doubt be getting it redacted asap. More specifically the name of the lawyer advising LHH is Stephen Cotton. He has had the arrogance to (1) send a FOI request to the CMA asking them why they gave the wrong advice on holiday refunds, and (2) has instructed LHH to advise customers attempting to recover their holiday money that the advice from the CMA was incorrect.   

 

Wynne Bentley if you read this you need to speak to another firm of lawyers and get a second opinion before it is too late.

Sutch

"Wynne Bentley if you read this you need to speak to another firm of lawyers and get a second opinion before it is too late."
It is TOO late and was long ago. I just can't comprehend how a firm of lawyers and a so called entrepreneur can continue to cheat and defraud people out of their hard earned money when being demonstrably unable to provide the service that they claim to offer. Now we hear that they are charging the property owners for referrals that never materialise!
I've been in the international business world for many years but this is by far the most blatant unethical and corrupt behaviour that I have ever encountered.

Jackie0308641964

Hi i booked my holidays through loveholidays they refunded me my hotel etc straightaway but said they would have to wait for Ryanair to refund them before they could pass it on to me. Ryanair say loveholidays did a chargeback which was sucessful on 26/8 but loveholidays are still saying they havnt had it. I keep getting pushed from one to the other and getting no where any help of what to do next would be gratefully received

sheramber

Jackie0308641964 said:

Hi i booked my holidays through loveholidays they refunded me my hotel etc straightaway but said they would have to wait for Ryanair to refund them before they could pass it on to me. Ryanair say loveholidays did a chargeback which was sucessful on 26/8 but loveholidays are still saying they havnt had it. I keep getting pushed from one to the other and getting no where any help of what to do next would be gratefully received

You have posted  in a thread about a totally different holiday company. You need  to post in the loveholidays one.

Sutch

I have today received a response from the CMA notifying me that they intend to share my submission regarding LHH with the Highland Council’s Trading Standards Service.
Although both parties already have this information, it does indicate that they are still actively investigating LHH with a view to determining the legality of their behaviour. I quote from their letter : -

As part of the CMA’s Covid-19 Taskforce, you completed the CMA’s online form to report to us the behaviour of the trader LHH Limited. 

 

In considering the information you provided us, the CMA has been liaising with our enforcement partner, Highland Council Trading Standards Service (HCTS).  HCTS is the local authority within which the trader LHH has their head office located.

 

HCTS have now asked the CMA to share your information and your contact details with them.  They have asked for this information in order that they might consider what action might be taken against the trader should they find practices that breach consumer law. HCTS share similar consumer law enforcement powers to the CMA. 

 

The CMA thinks that under the law (Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR and section 8(c) of the Data Protection Act 2018) it is necessary to share your information and personal data with HCTS, to assist them in this work.

 

The purpose of this email is to let you know that the CMA will be sharing your information and contact details with HCTS. 

 

For more information about why and how we process personal data at the CMA,  your data protection rights and details of our Data Protection Officer, please see the CMA’s Privacy Notice

Thank you for sending the CMA your information which has been important in helping our understanding of how the market has been affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

 

Please note that any further information or enquiries on this matter should be directed to Lynn Foster of the Highland Council’s Trading Standards Service.

Sylvestris

Knock knock who’s there? Oh, it’s the Trading Standards. See the article published by the Scotsman Newspaper on 1st October:

https://www.scotsman.com/business/consumer/highlands-letting-firm-set-further-investigation-over-refunds-row-2989691

In case the article gets taken down this is the full text:

A Highlands holiday lettings firm which has received a deluge of complaints from customers who have not been refunded after their holidays were cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak is now to be further investigated by Trading Standards following an initial probe by the competitions watchdog. The Competitions and Markets Authority has written to holidaymakers who had booked with Dingwall-based LHH Scotland that they had considered their complaints and as a result, would pass the information on to the Highlands Council Trading Standards Service (HCTS) for further investigation.

Many customers who had booked breaks with LHH have complained that they have not been refunded after their breaks were axed due to the lockdown. Some have had a full or partial refund in recent weeks, but others have still been refused a refund, with many believing they are owed hundreds of pounds.

HCTS shares similar enforcement power to the CMA and can take action if it considers a firm to have breached the rules. LHH Scotland owner Wynne Bentley has previously claimed that the legal structure of the company, which acts as an agency, rather than a holiday letting company, means that the holidaymakers’ contracts are with the owner of each individual property, rather than with the firm.

In the email, sent to a number of customers who lodged a formal complaint with the CMA earlier this year, the watchdog said: “In considering the information you provided us, the CMA has been liaising with our enforcement partner, Highlands Council Trading Standards Service. HTCS is the local authority within which the trader LHH has their head office located. HTCS have now asked the CMA to share your information and your contact details with them. They have asked for this information in order that they might consider what action might be taken against the trader, should they find practices that breach consumer law.”

It added: “Thank you for sending the CMA your information, which has been important in helping our understanding of how the market has been affected by Covid-19 restrictions.”

The CMA has recently taken action against major holiday lettings firms Sykes Cottages and Vacation Rentals and forced them to reverse their policies of refusing to give refunds to customers. Other large firms, such as Airbnb, have also had full refund policies. The CMA has previously said it expected “all companies” to follow in the footsteps of Sykes Cottages and Vacation Rentals, which are now offering full refunds to consumers, following enforcement action from the watchdog.

Highland Council's Trading Standards Manager, David MacKenzie, said: “Highland Council Trading Standards recognises the uniquely difficult situation that local tourist businesses have experienced during 2020. As usual, the vast majority of them have acted very responsibly and provided re-bookings and refunds as requested by consumers. “Thankfully the season was not completely lost and many visitors were able to come to the Highlands and safely enjoy our beautiful countryside and some excellent hospitality.” He added: “It is always the case that a very small minority of businesses do not act fairly and we do not hesitate to deal with these firmly to ensure consumers’ rights are protected and the excellent reputation of the Highlands is maintained”.

LHH owner Wynne Bentley has not yet responded to a request for comment.