UK Holiday Cottage Booking: What are my Chances of getting a Refund?

[Deleted User]

The OP has already stated they paid by bank transfer @Flash32.  I would just like to add that your claim the contract is with the agents is not necessarily true.  Many ‘booking’ agents merely advertise the property and will state in their paperwork that the contract is with the owners.  As far as I am aware this is perfectly legit?   

Flash32

Tedber said:

The OP has already stated they paid by bank transfer @Flash32.  I would just like to add that your claim the contract is with the agents is not necessarily true.  Many ‘booking’ agents merely advertise the property and will state in their paperwork that the contract is with the owners.  As far as I am aware this is perfectly legit?   

Then if the contract truly is with the owners - check the Ts and Cs carefully - the third option I listed still applies to them.

Jilly888

Flash32 said:

Your contract is with the agency - in the same way that a travel agent will book flights, package holidays, etc., on your behalf.  If you paid the agency, your contract is with them.  They will probably try to fob you off by either telling you that your contract is with the owner (which it isn't) or with an offer of vouchers - which you do not have to accept and with the current financial situation I would suggest you don't.  If the agency does not play ball, your alternatives are:

- If you paid either partly or fully by credit card the card company are jointly liable for fulfilment and you should have redress under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.  Put a polite, concise dossier of the facts together and submit this to the card company specifically mentioning the above act and that you are holding them liable for fulfilment or refund.

- If you paid by debit card, you are probably not covered under the above act, but you can still use chargeback as some PPs have already mentioned.  Same method - concise dossier and submit to the card company.

- If you paid by bank transfer you probably won't have either option available.  In this case, use Moneyclaim online (used to be called the small claims court) - .  BUT before you pay the fee and submit the claim - fill out the claim details, then take a screen snap and save it.  Go to www.!!!!!!, find out the email address of the CEO of the company and politely email a short resume of the facts, mentioning that you are making a Moneyclaim Online claim against the company and attach the screenshot of the claim.  This usually works wonders as if they have to provide a defence, it takes loads of valuable time and companies do not like court judgements against them - particularly mentioning the CEO.  You do not usually have to appear in court and even if you do, the Court is very informal and unless the claim is malicious, is generally orientated toward the claimant.  Even if you lose (unlikely) you do not have to pick up the other side's costs.

By the way - I did one of the above methods to reclaim £3k and it worked, although it did take 6 months to fully resolve. 

Hope this helps - good luck.

Thank you for this advice-very helpful and you've given me lots of detail too. I have asked a friend who is a solicitor to take a look at our case. Once I have more info I'll come back on here with more information so others can benefit. Interestingly, the Guardian are running with a covid holiday cottage issue today. (I just tried to post the link but as I'm a probationer on here that's not allowed). The Guardian article has a link to the Moneyclaim site so I've had a look on there this morning. However, separate to any of these legal issues is trying to get agreement between 10 friends as to what is the best course of action. But that's a whole other issue and one that might involve a lot of wine (drunk online of course)!! 

kerri_gt

Citizens Advice are really helpful if you need them when using MCOL. I got lots of help when putting in a claim against a landscaping company whom I paid to carry out work then did not. Unfortunately that's got as far as the bailiffs now but that's another story.