Aunt won't refund money

[Casals07]

Aunt has a home abroad that myself, DH and kids go to every year. We go in August as it's too hot for Aunt to go. I pay to stay there and always take care of the place and top everything up before I leave. The house is now 20 years old and is definitely showing signs of wear and tear. Nothing has been replaced. This year I arrived to find black mould in the bedrooms, job had been started but won't be finished until November. My Aunt never informed me of this. My DD has now got pneumonia and we have had to move out at a considerable expense. My Aunt has refused to return any of my text messages. My DH rang her and asked for the money back we paid as the house is not habitable. She has point blank refused.

Some people are giving you a really rough time, OP. I can only presume that if they turned up to a holiday villa with stinking black mould, having had no warning, they'd still be happy to have paid for it (regardless of if you get a discount/how much).
I wouldn't be going again. Maybe if all the family the aunt rents to do the same, she'll need to start renting to the public, and then she'll get a lesson in consumer rights.

Do you and your aunt live permanently in England?

If so, you and she are bound by English law and I’d be writing to her asking for a full refund and advise her that if she doesn’t pay you with 7 days, you’ll be lodging a claim in the county court for breach of contract. It’s not expensive to do this and you can do it by yourself without any legal representation.

To clarify: A contract exists between you after she offered the use of her holiday home and you accepted and paid her, regardless of whether you have an actual written agreement in place.

Don’t let her get away with scamming you.

Is your aunt resident in the UK? If she is small claims court. I hope you took lots of photos and get everything in writing from the hospital. Photograph her notes if necessary.
No one should rent out a property that’s not fit for habitation. Mould can be so dangerous, children have died from living in mould infested flats and houses. I’m sure your dd will be fine after antibiotics , I’m talking more about long term living conditions. People who make money from renting accommodation I wouldn’t let my dog stay in really anger me. And I was a LL for years.

Come off it, virtually uninhabitable and threatening to health is a whole lot worse than "isn't perfect".

Also if your aunt is resident in the UK I’m pretty sure rent has to be declared as income in the UK.

Are you sure? Is there a specific exception in the contract for "private rental" and, if so, how do they define that? Normally it makes no difference if you rent straight from the owner, holiday insurance should still cover it. Contrary to what people on here are saying, if you paid for the house you do have an enforceable contract.

You're absolutely right that this sort of attitude is ridiculous, but it's the very reverse of woke. People on MN have some weird ideas about what that means.

I'm really shocked anyone is trying to defend this. Obviously it's unacceptable and you should be refunded. I'm not sure how you go about forcing your awful aunt to do that though.

I was thinking along similar lines. In the UK you could report to environmental health if someone were running a business letting uninhabitable properties, so it's worth looking into whether there is anything similar available in the area where the property is.

No i know exactly what it means.
And Im correct.

I came to say that too. Very sorry for the OP and her family, especially her poor DD. I was shocked by a PP who stated, obviously without any knowledge at all, that you can't get pneumonia from black mould. Incredibly rude and 100% wrong. What did she think happens to your lungs if you're breathing in the spores which are everywhere.

For people questioning if mould can cause pneumonia, it absolutely can.

My friends son had fungal pneumonia after living in a house with damp and mould. It was all over the house and her son was only 1 at the time.
My friend had her son quite young and wasn’t aware just quite how serious damp was but still complained constantly to the landlord.
Her then boyfriend (now husband) got ill from it as well but it wasn’t till her son got pneumonia that they realised the severity and moved out.

They had only lived there a few weeks before my friends husband and child were ill from it but mould is serious and people have died from exposure to it.
it us unusual for healthy people to get pneumonia though.

The reality is that there is still a contract to rent the property from her even if verbal and evidenced by the payment and stay. Sue her if she won't refund

What does this have to do with anything??

That’s awful OP. Of course she should have told you. She couldn’t rent it commercially in that condition so she is absolutely taking advantage. Hope your DD gets better. Send her the hospital report, claim on insurance and obv never do business with her again

Small claims and ensure anyone she normally rents to is aware. If it’s on any rental websites, I’d also make them aware.

Whose posts are you describing as woke?

I don’t get the posters on here sometimes. The DD got Pneumonia and the hospital has confirmed it’s from the mould.
Why are people now googling to try to disprove this?
That aside, whether it was market rate or not, money was paid for a place to stay and that place is not habitable.
Doesn't matter if its family or not, the Aunt knew and still let them go there.
I wouldn’t put up with it either!

This. I cannot believe some of the responses on this thread. Your aunt is a piece of shit for doing this and I would never speak to her ever again. Considering how MN hate landlords I am shocked by the stupid excuses they are making for her "well its not perfect", "maybe she cant afford to fix it"- then she shouldn't be renting out her damn property then should she or at least be warning people about it.

Your aunt is a cunt of the highest order and I would be posting those pictures everywhere for everyone to see.

Fuck her.

Why assume no contract? If OP is paying for the flat, there almost certainly was an enforceable contract. There is no requirement for this sort of arrangement to be in a formal document for it to be a contractual one.

OP, if there is evidence that your daughter's illness definitely came from the flat, you could claim not only a refund but damages for your daughter. You might want to talk to solicitors specialising in holiday claims.

@Singleandproud An inquest was held just a few weeks ago into the death of a small girl from a respiratory infection caused by black mould. It was stated that this is an increasing problem exacerbated by neglectful landlords.

The house is only 20 years old! That is a very poor construction. What country is it in?

Charging you to rent is mean anyway. An amount for a clean and utilities maybe but a rental cost is stingy. So much for family!

You cannot catch Pneumonia from mould. It’s a virus. The place looks unpleasant, but didn’t cause an illness.

It wasn’t Pnemonia.

Is your daughter immune suppressed, I assume so, as that’s the only way to get it other than long term exposure, you wouldn’t get it from a few days in a mouldy room like that,

does your aunt know your child is immune suppressed, maybe she’s not responding as she doesn’t know that so thinking it’s not feasible to get pneumonia so quickly. Maybe explain to her?