Can the hotel dispute my Section 75 decision?

Jnv9518

I was supposed to travel to Crete in June 2020 which obviously didn't happen, at the time they issued us a voucher which we did not accept as they wouldn't refund us under the newly passed Greek Law 'Article 70', at the time I filed either a Chargeback or Section 75 with Halifax (can't remember which one), which was initially approved but then the hotel disputed the claim as they were not 'irrecoverable funds' due to the voucher, and Halifax subsequently reversed their decision.

Fast forward 18 months, and thanks to a nifty clause in the now revised Article 83, we were eligible for a refund as we hadn't claimed the voucher. I contacted the hotel several times to arrange and they ignored me continuously, therefore I found myself again applying to Halifax for a Section 75. After a lot of back and forth, Halifax have offered us the amount in full and final settlement, which we have accepted and sent back a signed form to confirm this. We haven't had the money sent just yet as I only returned the signed form yesterday, but I am conscious of what happened last time, we don't want to spend the money in fear of the hotel disputing again, and having it taken back off us. 

So that brings me to my question, can they dispute a Section 75 decision? Can Halifax reverse their decision again and take the money back off us, or are we relatively 'safe' to spend the money now?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Deleted User]

Not if it was s75. If it was processed as a chargeback, then yes.

Your first was a chargeback but the latest one sounds like a s75.

Sandtree

Jnv9518 said:

So that brings me to my question, can they dispute a Section 75 decision? Can Halifax reverse their decision again and take the money back off us, or are we relatively 'safe' to spend the money now?

A chargeback is accomplished by your card issuer clawing the money back from the merchant's acquiring bank (who in turn take it from the merchant's account - assuming no insolvency involved). There is a managed process for this all to be done which gives the merchant an opportunity to defend the claim given its coming from their pocket

A S75 of the CCA mirrors your rights against the merchant to your creditor, a claim under S75 therefore is a claim against your bank themselves and as such the merchant has no say in the matter (and suffers no loss). In theory the bank then may have a counterclaim against the merchant but in practice its rarely cost effective for banks to explore this option in anything but the largest losses.