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.

If you post what you claim are medical facts, you need to state your qualifications to back that up.

Anyone can claim to be anything. You can google if you want to establish basic facts such as;
Fungal pneumonia is very rare in the otherwise non-immunocompromised population. However, is it very much possible for an otherwise healthy individual to develop fungal pneuma.
The doctor can suggest a diagnosis on symptoms.
To confirm the type of fungus and actually confirm it wasn’t bacterial or viral, you need a culture and it is not possible to have a culture back in that time.

Why are people still arguing about whether the mould caused the pneumonia🤣
is it really ok to charge a relative and expect them to stay in a property that has that bad of a mould problem?
would anybody really be happy to be staying there???

It is a red herring. The aunt is completely and utterly unreasonable and out of line. She should be accused of being a selfish cheap skate. Nobody should be staying or paying in a property that filled with black mould. Accusing her of giving a child pneumonia due to her negligence is quite another matter - and needs confirmation before stating that as fact.

There are bylaws about rentals in Australia just as in the UK. I don't know what State you are in but you can google the state authorities. I think renting out a property in that state is probably against regulations. That might sway the aunt?