Holiday cottage had mice infestation - Advice please

Magicaldebs

We have recently returned from a touring holiday in Scotland, we have a problem with getting a refund from a 6-night stay at one of the properties we planned to stay at during our three-week tour. 

We originally booked a two-night stay it looks a fabulous property, so we contacted the person managing the property and asked to book for a further 4 nights.  We paid:  £333 through Booking.com for two nights at the property and a further £720 direct bank transfer paid.  A total of £1053 for 6 night’s stay at the property. 

Immediately before our stay at the property we were touring the Outer Hebrides, this meant very little internet and no mobile phone coverage. 3 days before our arrival at the property we were sent an email via Booking.com from the property manager explaining that previous tenants had complained of mice but went on to explain that an assessment of the property had been made and ‘improvements’ carried out.  Unfortunately, we did not receive this email until we arrived at the property. The email had been sent to us when we had no access to internet, but also it contained a photograph of the gates to the property, this photograph took a lot to load especially as were travelling.  The information about the mice issue was situated in the email after the photo, so because the photo was taking a long time to load, the information after did not load either. 

 

We arrived at the property at 18.30 hours after a long drive and a 6am start to catch a ferry from North Uist, only then did we see the email with details about the mice problem.  We would have cancelled our stay had we known about this issue in advance, but it was too late by the time we arrived at the property, we were tired, and it is difficult to find other accommodation at such short notice on a Saturday evening.  My husband is disabled, so we needed to a place to stay, we could not have just slept in the car overnight.   

 

The property looked lovely.  However, during the night we heard scratching noises around the kitchen area, we could hear small creatures running around.  Later we found that a bag that contained shoes that we had left on the floor just by the kitchen step had been chewed by a creature of some sort.  We did not sleep all night; we were concerned about the mice and could not settle, the noises continued throughout the night. 

We contacted guy who manages the property the next morning and he offered a full refund for the rest of our stay at the property.  However, he did say that we could be charged for the restless and disturbed night we spent at the property, which we do not think is reasonable.

We have been in contact with Booking.com and have received a partial refund for one night’s stay at the property.  However, we are yet to receive a refund for the £720 paid direct to the property owner and they are ignoring our request for return of payment for the disturbed night. 

 We do not have the owner’s details to contact them directly, we are working through a manager who says he is not authorised to give refunds.  We have asked for him to forward our email to the owners and ask for:  

1.    We want to receive an immediate refund for the £720 we paid to the property directly. 

2.    We do not believe that it is reasonable to expect payment for the night we stayed in the property.  The argument seems to be that we knew about this problem in advance, but that is not reasonable or true.  First of all, it is not reasonable to expect that we had received an email on the day it was sent, and the email stated that ‘improvements’ had been made to the property, so it is reasonable for us to expect that the mice issue had been solved.  We would like a refund of £144 we paid for the one-night stay.

 

The manager is not communicating at all, Booking.com say are no longer involved since they returned one night’s stay to us.  Our stay at the property fell in the middle of a three weeklong holiday in Scotland, therefore we had to find somewhere else to stay and we have had to pay for that, so we are now significantly out of pocket.  We are not covered by the bank for payments made by Bank transfer.  How do we get our money back from this company? 

 

Can anyone advise us please? 

 

  

tacpot12

I tend to agree that you should not be charged for the night you spent at the property. Sending an email on the day is not reasonable. Plus the mouse problem was not sorted. The owner or a representative should have checked that the issue was solved before allowing you to occupy the property, and should have found alternative accomodation for you. 

You should ask the manager for the name and address of the owners. I would also for his name and home address. I did notice an inconsistency in your account: you say that the manager offered a refund the following morning, but you also say that he is not authorised to offer refunds. If he offered a refund, then the owners are almost certainly bound by this. If he had not authority to offer a refund, he should not have offered it because he was binding the owners to giving a refund. He himself may have become personally liable to give you a refund, but it could become a matter of "he said, she said". Make a note now of everything that was discussed and said by the manager. 

With the owners address, you should write to them setting out your case, and asking for a refund. Give them three days to decide what they are doing and another three days to make payment, then send them a Letter Before Action. 

If you have home insurance, check to see if you have Legal Expenses Cover as this is exactly the sort of situation is can help with. Call your insurer's legal helpline for advice before writing to the owners in case it is in conflict with my advice.  

Magicaldebs

Thank you for your very helpful reply.  I’ve actually done some of the things you suggest already.  The manager refuses to give any details of the owner.  Although he says then he will pass on emails to the owners.  He will not give me his details at all.  I know his first name, his mobile number and the property email address which managed by him but that’s all I have.  

As he had promised to pass on an email to the owners, I composed a letter stating the case, my argument and what I wanted to happen.  I asked for a reply without 3 days (which I have not received) and a further week has passed since then. 

What is the situation if I cannot get the owners details?   Do I send a letter before action by email to the property address?   This will then be handled by the manager 

Debs.  

tacpot12

If you are lucky you may find the owner's address using the Land Registry of Scotland:  Search land and property information - Registers of Scotland (ros.gov.uk)  It costs £3+VAT.

Have you asked for the owner's details from booking.com, or were these on anything that booking.com sent you? It might be worth carefully studying the booking details, and even the advert for the property in case there are any clues. 

The manager probably doesn't want to give you the owner's details because they know they have messed up in not making sure the mouse problem was solved before allowing you to stay, but there is also the chance that they are rented out the  property without the owners knowing about it. 

Magicaldebs

Thank you very much for your help.  That’s a great idea to ask Booking.com.  I’ll do that.  

sheramber

the night you spent at the cottage was  paid for to booking.com,  since you paid them for the first two nights, but they have only refunded one night. Should it not be them that refund the first night also.

Or have they refunded the first night but not the second?

Magicaldebs

Hello Shemaber 
Yes I agree, Booking.com should refund the one night, but they seem to be relying on the propetry itself allowing the refund.  Booking.com tell me that the manager has told them he is not authorised to make a refund for that night, only for the night we did not stay at the property.  Booking.com are making all the right noises, but are not actully doing anything.   They tell me that they are investigating, but I cant see what they are doing and they have stopped contacting me now.  

martindow

In Scotland landlords are obliged to register - I'm not sure if that extends to holiday rentals but you could try searching here

https://www.landlordregistrationscotland.gov.uk/

Edit: It could be worth posting on the Mortgages and Homes board about ways of tracing ownership.  It is important that you make it clear that it relates to Scotland (preferably in the title of the thread) as Scots property law is radically different from the English system.  There are some Scottish housing law specialists there.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

pjcox2005

tacpot12 said:

I tend to agree that you should not be charged for the night you spent at the property. Sending an email on the day is not reasonable. Plus the mouse problem was not sorted. The owner or a representative should have checked that the issue was solved before allowing you to occupy the property, and should have found alternative accomodation for you. 
  

It wasn't an e-mail sent on the day, it was three days in advance. If you provide an e-mail address to be contacted on, then I don't think it's unreasonable for people to assume you would have read it within a three day period particularly with the booking upcoming. Your location and access to the internet is your issue alone. I would drop that from your line of complaint as it muddies the water, instead just focus on the mice issue and the damage to personal goods.

We don't know how big an issue it was but I appreciate that most people wouldn't want them in their holiday home. If it was just noise i'd probably say the first night shouldn't necessarily be refunded but given the damage to a bag and that they said it was being sorted then I think a full refund for the whole week is right.

I'd chase booking.com for the first night refund and explain why it wasn't fit for purpose and then keep chasing current owners separate for the rest. Trip reviews should also be put on relevant website until it's sorted.

YellowCarBlueCar

I don't think that just sending an email is sufficient for something like telling a guest about a rodent infestation, there is no guarantee that it will delivered successfully or seen.  As a cottage owner I'd be phoning to discuss, and if necessary looking to find alternative accommodation.

It does sound as though they did make an effort to inform you though, and may yet be willing to refund.  It could well be that booking.com are making this difficult as they will loose their commission too.  On that basis I'd hold off on any "revenge reviews" until you know that they aren't going to refund, as you shouldn't underestimate the damage that they can do to what is often a very small family business.

Magicaldebs

They did have our phone number, they could have texted or called us if they wished to make an effort to inform us.  But that is by the by, I tend to agree that until they were sure that the property was clear of rodents they should found an alternative accommodation for us.  

Once they were aware that there was still a mouse issue then they should have refunded immediately.  As you say, feedback like that can be harmful to a small business, but we have given them time and opportunity to make a refund.

I have even suggested that if the lack of refund was due to financial issues because of Covid then they should just tell us that and give some indication when we can receive our refund.  We want to be reasonable and we understand the situation. 

Remember that they owe us £720 we paid directly to them.  This was in the middle of our holiday so we have had to pay for alternative accommodation.  I think we have been fair and reasonable with them.   But we seem to be getting nowhere.