Section 75

Kettle13

In Aug 2019 I made a Vacation Booking in Arizona for the following May. I paid extra for their comprehensive Trip Cancellation policy. In January due to illness to our Daughter which prevented her and so her Children from going we asked the Vacation Company if we could transfer to a smaller property. They agreed and sent a Reciept of new booked property which included the Trip Cancellation policy still showing. As now obvious the Virus struck, All flights were cancelled and US banned travel from the UK. Had been speaking to Vacation Rental Company from Mid March who basically said they needed proof of Airline Cancellation before they could sort out re-payment. May months of emails including confirmation of Flight cancellation bore no fruit as they continued to demand other evidence. Went to Insurance company and was told I had to file a Section 75 first. Late June I contacted NATIONWIDE. In late August they came back to me and asked for all the evidence I had. Again silence till the 1st Oct when they told me that the claim was successful, but they Vacation Company had 30 days to respond. At end of Oct I phoned Nationwide to check on situation, was told they had not heard anything and they could transfer the funds back into my account. Was told the matter now closed. 
Move on to Feb 17th 2021 when a letter arrived from Nationwide to tell me the 

Kettle13

Vacation rental company had came back to dispute that the Trip Cancellation policy did not transfer over to new Rental.
Even though I had a receipt from them showing they had transferred it Nationwide eventually reversed thier decisin and on May 18th took the moeny back and put on my Credit Card. 

Aylesbury_Duck

What has Nationwide said about the existence of your receipt showing the cover in place?

Kettle13

Basically have said it is not enough evidence, and have taken the side of the Rental Company, who have used lots of reason prior to this not to pay us, but then came up with this one. 

Manxman_in_exile

Are you certain Nationwide treated it as a s75 claim and not as a chargeback?  Apparently it can happen that a consumer makes a s75 claim but the bank (for various reasons) treats it as a chargeback claim which is generally easier for a supplier to reject.

If the circumstances are as you say, I would have expected a s75 claim to succeed, but not necessarily a chargeback.  Confirm with your bank that they did actually proceed it as a s75 claim which is what you asked for and, in any case, ask them what further evidence they expect you to provide.

Kettle13

They have said it was looked at as a Section 75, but not enough evidence to support that type of claim
As said they put the money back into my account and from the phone call I had with them on Oct 31st the matter was closed.
They then came back almost 4 months later to say they needed more evidence despite having the emailed receipt I had from the vacation Rental company way back in August. I have asked what further evidence they need (which is the evidence to show it was tranferred over to new property). My receipt shows this but they refuse to take this as proof.
I am at a loss as to what more i can do. Has dragged on for over a year now 

Kettle13

The Rental Company are based in Phoenix and after the fact I discovered they are very poor in returning any claims.
They originally used the argument that they are just the conduit between Owners and renters so are not responceable.
However they have an inbuilt Rental management company who deals with all the queries and then the Hosts of each property are from the same company. They were very understanding and more then happy to pay us back from the raft of emails and online messaging I had with them from mid March when it all kicked off until early June when I supplied them with the Airline Cancellation invoice. Then they went dark and have not replied to anything ever since

pbartlett

You might get better responses if you post in the COVID travel section. Lots of similar threads.

As I understand it  (correct me if I am wrong), the property was open and available but you could not go there because of travel restrictions. That is not the property owner's fault - they will just say 'the property was available, but you didn't tur up and use it'. Thus no refund due from them, and none on on credit card either. Your card company is right.

So what you fall back on is travel insurance. Is it a UK based policy that you bought? Or a US one? Would be good it you post on here a picture or something showing that the policy was definitely transferred so we can help. If it wasn't, then no insurance claim. If it was, then you could put in a complaint to the insurance company. You should have a policy number, dates of validity etc etc

unholyangel

Kettle13 said:

They have said it was looked at as a Section 75, but not enough evidence to support that type of claim
As said they put the money back into my account and from the phone call I had with them on Oct 31st the matter was closed.
They then came back almost 4 months later to say they needed more evidence despite having the emailed receipt I had from the vacation Rental company way back in August. I have asked what further evidence they need (which is the evidence to show it was tranferred over to new property). My receipt shows this but they refuse to take this as proof.
I am at a loss as to what more i can do. Has dragged on for over a year now 

Ask for a final response so you can refer to the ombudsman.

The part in bold is utter rubbish. If they'd looked at it as a s75 claim, they'd have issued a rejection letter in response to that claim. What they've essentially done is deprive you of a statutory right. Even if they disagree they're liable (for whatever reason), they should still have processed the claim. 

The courts have the sole jurisdiction on how law is to be interpreted and whether a claim satisfies the requirements of the law. No one, not even government (who draft most laws), can interpret law. 

born_again

Well a S75 claim would require ti sign a full & final settlement agreement. So this is going to be a chargeback that was done. I can see a issue with S75 and the debtor creditor link as (Vacation Rental Company) sounds like a 3rd party booking co.

Really annoys me that people pay for travel insurance & the Ins co's tell you to go to bank for S75 claim... Time FCA slapped them down and told them to pay out rather than passing the buck for something that is what people pay for.

unholyangel

I was thinking more s75 claim for the insurance they paid for as part of the contract that they don't appear to have been provided. And given the banks response to OP, this seems to be the banks approach also. 


But I would highlight that travel AGENTs are exactly that - an agent of someone else and not the same as paying by PayPal. Just the same that if you are an employee, you are an agent of your employer. It's not entirely clear what the exact relationship was but if they were acting as agent then there is no 3rd party like PayPal, it's just an agreement between the principal (person the agent was acting for) and the customer