Olivers Travels - owner cancellation

JGPeterkin

Hi All

I am hoping you can help.

Before Covid 19 I secured a villa in France and paid the £1683 deposit. Then Covid happened and I was issued with a voucher for the same value. The voucher expires in Dec.22. I used the voucher to re-book the same Villa for Summer 2023.
All good so far. 

Then in May/June this year I was contacted to say the owner of the villa no longer wishes to rent it out. 

Please can you kindly let me know if I am entitled to a refund of my deposit here and if so how I should best go about obtaining it.? Olivers Travels will undoubtedly make me reserve another place, but the point is we don't want another place.

Here is an extract from their T's and C's with the original booking:
"Changes and Cancellations by the Owner We will inform you as soon as reasonably possible if the Owner needs to make a significant change to your confirmed arrangements or to cancel them. We will also liaise between you and the Owner in relation to any alternative arrangements offered by the Owner (if any) but we will have no further liability to you. In the event the booking is cancelled by the Owner of the property and no alternative can be offered, a full refund of all monies paid by you as at the date of cancellation will be made by the Owner. This policy directly reflects the Owners' individual policies. ‘Oliver's Travels’ cannot be held liable for any additional costs incurred by the Client (such as travel). 'Oliver's Travels' recommends that the Client takes out holiday insurance to ensure against any losses incurred by an owner cancellation."


Very much looking forward to any suggestions/advise.
Best wishes
J

eskbanker

JGPeterkin said:

We will also liaise between you and the Owner in relation to any alternative arrangements offered by the Owner (if any) but we will have no further liability to you. In the event the booking is cancelled by the Owner of the property and no alternative can be offered, a full refund of all monies paid by you as at the date of cancellation will be made by the Owner.

I'd argue that this wording obliges the owner to refund you if they (the owner, not the agent) cancels and is unable to offer an alternative - has the owner intimated that they'd be able and willing to offer an alternative and/or made any comment regarding a refund?

JGPeterkin

eskbanker said:

JGPeterkin said:

We will also liaise between you and the Owner in relation to any alternative arrangements offered by the Owner (if any) but we will have no further liability to you. In the event the booking is cancelled by the Owner of the property and no alternative can be offered, a full refund of all monies paid by you as at the date of cancellation will be made by the Owner.

I'd argue that this wording obliges the owner to refund you if they (the owner, not the agent) cancels and is unable to offer an alternative - has the owner intimated that they'd be able and willing to offer an alternative and/or made any comment regarding a refund?

Thank you. At the time I did manage to reach the owner directly and he replied "Dear Jessica
I have arranged to return the deposit I received from OT (€768) directly to them; they  would have charged you fees in addition"

Ok I will try for a refund and hope they give it to me.
Thanks
J 

eskbanker

I'd suggest that there's little value in getting involved with the split between deposits and fees, and would simply advise the agent that the owner states that they've refunded them, so please refund me with all monies paid....

JGPeterkin

Many thanks indeed. Will do. J