LHH Scotland cottage booking refund

Sylvestris

Just in case anyone was wondering if LHH Scotland had now changed their ways since the original Coronavirus lockdown and were now complying with the law, they are NOT. This was posted today on Trustpilot by SL. Seems like the latest Covid-19 restrictions will be generating another batch of customers cheated and robbed by the owners of LHH Scotland, Wynne Bentley (aka Wynne Shilland) and Sarah Louise Fraser. Please please Trading Standards, hurry up and sort out this appalling, greedy, immoral and arrogant company. SL’s post:

“AVOID AVOID AVOID ANY BOOKING WITH LHH!! BE WARNED ......... ROGUE TRADERS

Like many other customers of LHH, we too are now in a legal wrangle for return of our deposit. Our contract with LHH for rental of a property in October has become 'frustrated' due to the current COVID restrictions. (At this point, I would also like to make it clear for any other people experiencing the same issues with LHH, that contracts becoming 'frustrated' as a result of COVID have nothing to do with a consumer's decision to take 'cancellation' insurance at the point of booking. So if LHH tries to palm you off with that as a reason, its legally inaccurate and contrary to consumer protection rights).

After taking advice from Trading Standards / Advice Direct Scotland and our own lawyer, we are now considering alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to recover the deposit, failing which a claim through our credit card company, or at worse, a small claims action. Given the absolute non-sensical replies so far from LHH and their complete disregard for UK consumer rights legislation, I doubt we will get anywhere with them in respect of ADR, however my advice to others is absolutely avoid a booking with them at all costs. Highland Council Trading Standards are also now conducting their own investigations. AVOID !!!”

Sutch

"After taking advice from Trading Standards / Advice Direct Scotland and our own lawyer, we are now considering alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to recover the deposit, failing which a claim through our credit card company, or at worse, a small claims action. Given the absolute non-sensical replies so far from LHH and their complete disregard for UK consumer rights legislation, I doubt we will get anywhere with them in respect of ADR, however my advice to others is absolutely avoid a booking with them at all costs. Highland Council Trading Standards are also now conducting their own investigations. AVOID !!!”

Hi Sylvestris - can I urge you not to pursue the ADR route. My legal advice was that ADR is only appropriate where both parties agree there is an insoluble dispute. I was advised that in this case the law is abundantly clear and hence agreeing to ADR would effectively indicate a willingness or your part to compromise - which you have no need to do. I reproduce below the legal wording I was advised to incorporate in my Letter of Claim before action.

"3.1 As noted above, this is my letter of claim, sent in accordance with the Practice Direction

3.2 Given that this is a straightforward claim, I do not consider there to be any need to obtain expert evidence.

3.3 There is no basis for you to dispute this matter, and therefore I do not consider this matter suitable for resolution by alternative dispute resolution (ADR)"
Good Luck.

Bob40g123

Some good news regarding refunds from LHH. We were scheduled to spend two weeks in an LHH cottage earlier in the summer. Obviously, this was cancelled due to Covid and like everyone else LHH refused to refund us our deposit. Thankfully, we never got as far as paying the full amount. We did have travel insurance, but they would only pay if all other avenues were exhausted. So, we instigated a charge back on our credit card. Our bank were excellent and within a couple of weeks they had reviewed our case along with all our email communications with LHH and got back to say that we were clearly due a refund and they refunded our deposit. LHH then had 30 days to appeal. This expired over 3 weeks ago with no appeal from LHH, so looks like we're all sorted!

I'd definitely recommend going down the charge back route as the first port of call. It was really easy and our bank (Co-op) were excellent.

eskbanker

Some publicity in yesterday's 'Scotland on Sunday' about a successful claim against LHH, settled out of court:

https://www.scotsman.com/business/lettings-firm-under-investigation-settles-out-court-german-holidaymaker-3020396