Airbnb nightmare

stauce_2

Hi 
We recently stay at an Airbnb and now we are being made an example of. 
The old noise boiler in the house, has packed up, so they need a new one. We now are fighting the bill, so any advice would be greatly appreciate. 
Cheers

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Why do they think you are responsible for the boiler stopping working?

Aylesbury_Duck

Did you do anything to damage the boiler?

CKhalvashi

Did you touch the boiler other than to turn it on or off?

It's quite suspicious that you'd be charged for something of this nature without having done something to it.

stauce_2

We arrived at the house, on not a particular cold day, with the heating on. Then when going to bed, we noticed the boiler was quite noisy. Not noisy enough to think it was on its way out, but enough to keep my girlfriend awake. 
The next day she message the owner, to ask if there is a way to turn it off, as there was no wall controls, which straight away we are thinking it must be quite old. We got no answer that day, so decided to take a look and was right, the boiler still had a manual preset clock. We change the time on the preset clock to stop it at night. 
This was the only thing we touch, but now we have a £2000 bill and an owner telling us, we moved a valve which burn the boilers motherboard and could of burnt down the house. 
Not happy, nonetheless. 

CKhalvashi

Looking at my boiler, there is no valve exposed without taking the cover off.

I paid around £1700 for a boiler earlier this year, which included installing a new radiator while the job was being done. £2000 is likely therefore too high anyway.

I'd ask the LL (through Airbnb) to take you to court if they feel the money is owed, as IMO it's not your responsibility that the boiler has failed. In addition, I can't reasonably see (although I'm not a heating engineer) how a moved valve could cause the boiler to fail.

pphillips

stauce_2 said:

We arrived at the house, on not a particular cold day, with the heating on. Then when going to bed, we noticed the boiler was quite noisy. Not noisy enough to think it was on its way out, but enough to keep my girlfriend awake. 
The next day she message the owner, to ask if there is a way to turn it off, as there was no wall controls, which straight away we are thinking it must be quite old. We got no answer that day, so decided to take a look and was right, the boiler still had a manual preset clock. We change the time on the preset clock to stop it at night. 
This was the only thing we touch, but now we have a £2000 bill and an owner telling us, we moved a valve which burn the boilers motherboard and could of burnt down the house. 
Not happy, nonetheless. 

They are basically pulling a fast one, their old boiler packed up while you were staying and they think you are stupid enough to agree to buy them a new one.

Aylesbury_Duck

pphillips said:

stauce_2 said:

We arrived at the house, on not a particular cold day, with the heating on. Then when going to bed, we noticed the boiler was quite noisy. Not noisy enough to think it was on its way out, but enough to keep my girlfriend awake. 
The next day she message the owner, to ask if there is a way to turn it off, as there was no wall controls, which straight away we are thinking it must be quite old. We got no answer that day, so decided to take a look and was right, the boiler still had a manual preset clock. We change the time on the preset clock to stop it at night. 
This was the only thing we touch, but now we have a £2000 bill and an owner telling us, we moved a valve which burn the boilers motherboard and could of burnt down the house. 
Not happy, nonetheless. 

They are basically pulling a fast one, their old boiler packed up while you were staying and they think you are stupid enough to agree to buy them a new one.

I agree with this.  Sounds like it was about to die, was perhaps left permanently on because of that, and you adjusting the timing meant it turned off and wouldn't restart.

stauce_2

Thanks very much for advice. 
Does anyone know Airbnb terms and conditions about refusing to pay, as have hear they can just take the money, which we cannot afford. 

davidmcn

I doubt Airbnb's conditions allow landlords to just swipe the cost of home improvements from random guests' accounts.

stauce_2

I just found out, Airbnb tried to take money from our account, but luckily it failed. 
Airbnb then sent a message saying, We have reviewed your case and decided you need to reimburse the landlord, with a link for the payment.