£4000 taken from credit card for damages to holiday apartment
Comments
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TBH, whichever way things go, I would be expecting a court case over this.
Either...- The CC company will do a chargeback (refund you), and so the property owner will sue you in court for £4k
- The CC company will refuse a chargeback, and so you will have to sue the property owner in court for £4k.
So it might be sensible to gather whatever evidence you can.
I guess the first question is: It seems like somebody did this maliciously, why would somebody want to do this? Possible explanations include...- A feud between neighbours
- A flat below was already water damaged - this is an attempt to hide it and pass the repair cost on to you
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If nobody agreed to the £4k charge when it was being applied you have a valid dispute on either MasterCard or Visa. Any T&Cs about damage agreed in advance are not applicable.
They must have your agreement to pay the damage costs by either signature or card payment at the time you were made aware of it.
If you win the dispute, which I believe you will, then as others have said, you may be pursued via other means ie the courts.
As an aside, Section 75 would not cover a charge you did not authorise.
Best of luck0 -
Thanks again for all advice. So far we have spoken to the police. There is nothing they can do. It’s a civil case. My sister is in process of completing dispute form to credit card company. I will look into section 75. We have not been charged with malicious or criminal damage. You would think they would have contacted the police. She did not give us datails of damages but on the day we left she took £4000 off the credit card in quite a lot of different transactions. She sent an email saying she had done so. These were pending transactions when my sister contacted credit card company but they said they couldn’t stop them. Credit card company said it had not appeared suspicious as my sister had already used credit card to pay this company for the flat rental which was around £350. All very frustrating. Only hope the dispute will end in our favour but we are not that hopeful as they say the company only have to detail the damage and amounts spent. Which I am sure they will provide. They say the only other person with a key was the cleaner but she was on the other side of town and keys can’t be copied. So we are being blamed but with no hard evidence. We would not have had a motive as the photographs of the shower set up definitely point to malicious rather than carelessness. We know we left apartment the way we found it and locked. Our word against theirs. Next time I am on holiday will take photos and videos before I leave.0
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PamelaNapier wrote: »Thanks again for all advice. So far we have spoken to the police. There is nothing they can do. It’s a civil case. My sister is in process of completing dispute form to credit card company. I will look into section 75. We have not been charged with malicious or criminal damage. You would think they would have contacted the police. She did not give us datails of damages but on the day we left she took £4000 off the credit card in quite a lot of different transactions. She sent an email saying she had done so. These were pending transactions when my sister contacted credit card company but they said they couldn’t stop them. Credit card company said it had not appeared suspicious as my sister had already used credit card to pay this company for the flat rental which was around £350. All very frustrating. Only hope the dispute will end in our favour but we are not that hopeful as they say the company only have to detail the damage and amounts spent. Which I am sure they will provide. They say the only other person with a key was the cleaner but she was on the other side of town and keys can’t be copied. So we are being blamed but with no hard evidence. We would not have had a motive as the photographs of the shower set up definitely point to malicious rather than carelessness. We know we left apartment the way we found it and locked. Our word against theirs. Next time I am on holiday will take photos and videos before I leave.
Last year I was on holiday with a friend. One of us managed to leave the tap on and when we got back the apartment was flooded. Although it was our fault, the owners had insurance and we just paid the excess. Think it was £200.
Surely they should have insurance? This is what insurance is for.0 -
Could you have a friend enquire about said apartment eg the 1 you stayed in, see if its availanle to book.
Im just thinking its been 6 days since your first post and maybe the damage hasnt been repaired.0 -
It is for a CC to prove that a transaction was authorised, not for you to prove it wasn't. Here you authorised the merchant to recover the cost of damage to the property from your card with no specified limit and they have charged the suspiciously round sum of £4000. Hopefully the CC will reverse the transaction on the basis it is unauthorised and the merchant cannot prove that you caused the damage and this is an appropriate amount.
I think you will get nowhere with the police. They are very good at saying something is a "civil matter". The fact is we don't know. This sounds like an attempt to defraud you, but really the police aren't interested in looking into such matters. If the landlord argues criminal damage/acts of malice, then you probably have a defence in that the police didn't take up their claim (and they probably didn't even report it).0 -
I so hope you get a resolution to this, re the cleaner issue it really is an avenue to develop as there is an alternative explanation and of course she wouldn't want to lose her job so wont own up.
This has taught me a lesson to take photo's before I leave not just a rental car but any hotel room or anywhere I have stayed.0 -
That would be ridiculously paranoid and completely useless in a case like this. Possibly even counterproductive.This has taught me a lesson to take photo's before I leave not just a rental car but any hotel room or anywhere I have stayed.
If malicious damage is being alledged, they could just say you set the shower up to flood the apartment straight after taking the pictures. And going to the unusual step of taking pictures might indicate that you were trying to provide yourself with an alibi.
Personally I'd just avoid booking any accomodation which states that they can charge for damage, unless there's a reasonable cap/deposit eg £200 or so.0 -
Just posted this in another similar thread - Barclaycard guide for hotels/lodgings etc. They say hotels can't charge for damage to the room: https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/files/Lodging_or_Accommodation.pdf0
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That would be ridiculously paranoid and completely useless in a case like this. Possibly even counterproductive.
If malicious damage is being alledged, they could just say you set the shower up to flood the apartment straight after taking the pictures. And going to the unusual step of taking pictures might indicate that you were trying to provide yourself with an alibi.
Personally I'd just avoid booking any accomodation which states that they can charge for damage, unless there's a reasonable cap/deposit eg £200 or so.
Please stop talking total rubbish, you could say the exact same thing about moving out of rented accommodation but guess what, renters do take pictures on move out and lots of them so they don't get stiffed by the landlord.0
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