Holiday cottage - Booting family out, AIBU?

[HolidayCottageAnnoyance]

I have a holiday cottage which does not allow children under 12. This is for health and safety reasons (think steep stairs, pond, open and functioning fireplace etc). It says on the listing at three different points on the listing page that children under 12 are not allowed. This includes babes in arms. It also makes it clear when you book (i.e. once you've selected dates and you get through to payment) that children are not allowed. There is literally no way this can be missed.

I had a phone call from a neighbour this morning as they had seen a toddler in the garden and had noticed that the car that the 'couple' arrived in has a baby-seat in it. I rang the cottage company before lunch and received a rather passive response that made it clear they didn't want the grief of turfing the family out. I was very firm and said I wanted them out by the end of the day. Long story short they are still there (I have texted said neighbour to check).

So here is my AIBU: would I be completely unreasonable to send a relative tomorrow to boot them out if they are still there? As it's all done through the cottage company I have no way of getting in touch with them myself, so either relying on the ineffectual cottage company or sending a relative are my only choices.

YABU: Let it go, the child hasn't been injured so far and it's only four more nights.
YANBU: They're cheeky fucks and you should boot them out even if the holiday cottage company isn't going to help. Then you should find a new holiday cottage company to list through.

Why do you say 'faux concern' for the child? The parents are cheeky chancers, but the toddler is 100% not to blame for them choosing that holiday let.

Aside from the question of who would be liable, I can't imagine anybody would want to think of a toddler dying in their (or indeed any) property, just because their parents ignored the clearly-stated fact that it was not suitable for a young child.

You literally can, as long as the reason for stating a policy of no children or no under 12s etc is due to the unsuitability of the holiday let for children and doesn't appear to be a blanket ban. An unfenced pond would be a perfectly good reason, as would something like steep stairs with no bannister on one side. High end items the owner doesn't want damaged, etc.

The poster is talking about the insurance policy, not the holiday let rules

Because the op just duesnt want children (like I don’t want dogs in my cottage). Her outrage was that, not because of her concern about the child .

I rent out a holiday cottage and there are no laws about locks . Unless I’ve totally missed it in which case I’d be grateful if you link to this legislation.

sometimes local authorities can have their own regs (ie fir HMO’s) but not for holiday lets, I dint believe.

Here you are @ThisDandyWriter
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-your-small-paying-guest-accommodation-safe-from-fire/making-your-small-paying-guest-accommodation-safe-from-fire-accessible

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-your-small-paying-guest-accommodation-safe-from-fire/making-your-small-paying-guest-accommodation-safe-from-fire-accessible#fire-protection-measures

9th paragraph down from the heading 'Means of Escape'.

We were told about it by the owner of a place we stayed at for a few years. He was reluctantly selling up, because the punitive changes in the tax laws for holiday lets no longer made it worth his while - the government decided to start treating hands-on fully-managed holiday cottages, let out on a weekly basis, the same as standard rented properties with 6 or 12-month terms, and treat it as unearned profit.

The house was to become a standard residential home; but he was forced to change all of the locks just for his remaining few months of bookings until the end of the season.

It has cost me a fortune to install fire doors, wired interlinked smoke alarms in all bedrooms etc and I have to have a professional fire risk assessment done every year, as my house sleeps over 10. However at least I know I am totally compliant, and it does irritate me when I hear of other holiday lets that haven’t bothered with everything.

Sorry, I didn't see before that this very link had already been posted!

You have to have a keyless method of exit on all exits. So for example a thumb turn lock. Also interlinked smoke alarms in all rooms. This is a minimum, lots of other things depending on the property.

Ignorance of a law is not a defence in court, so should the worst happen the consequences of not having these things in place could be catastrophic.

I can't think of any agency that really would see it as their responsibility to remove guests under these circumstances. I used a local.agency for mine gor a while and any problems had to be sorted out by me. Sykes don't deal with things like that, ditto Air bnb, VRBO, booking dot com.

That is unless you've paid for a fully managed service.

Did the agency place the family? Did they know they had children? If so I’d be mindful that maybe they should deal with it. But agencies lie.

You have absolutely no right to say that. You are not a mind reader who knows what the ops concern is for so stop pretending you are. Fucked off with people who think children should be allowed everywhere regardless of the effects on others or safety issues. Plenty of child friendly cottages for families to choose from.

To those saying I should fence around the pond, I don't want to/can't. The pond backs onto ANOB (and indeed it used to actually be part of a very fast moving river, which has since shrunk) and there are lots of streams/rivers and lakes nearby which, mean that for several years in a row we have had nesting swans at the end of the garden. I think fencing the top part of the pond closest to the house it would probably count as interference.

Whilst I appreciate people think it's unfair that people will lose their booking, now I have come to see just how little responsibility the holiday cottage company will take for enforcing my very firm rule about no children, I think I am better off safe than sorry. There are still dozens of holiday cottages nearby that are available throughout summer and they will get their money back from the cottage company and can re-book quickly. It'll be me who takes the financial hit, and it's more than worth it for my peace of mind. Despite what a previous poster seems to think, I genuinely would be devastated if anything happened to a child regardless of whether I was held liable.

It’s your cottage and you can do what you like pond or no! No need to explain.

They apparently claimed they didn’t know children weren’t allowed.
Aye right, they were just chancing it.
Still, all's well that ends well!

Surely it is the holiday cottage companies liability if anything happens, so if they have said they won’t kick them out I would get that in writing and make sure you have put in writing that liability lays fully with them. Which I would have thought it does anyway as that is why you pay these companies

We have just sold our holiday let but for years we'd get chancers. It clearly stated in the specs six beds plus cot so maximum occupancy six people of any age plus a baby. And no dogs. Yet I lost count of the number of times just before arrival the holiday company we used would contact us and say 'oh they say they have a very small dog - is that ok?' or 'oh they want to bring two more children. Don't worry they'll bring blow up mattresses'.
Errrr no - two more children is much more hot water and mess, and therefore cleaning time, which costs money.
A dog is just a no. We have a dog and love dogs but many people wanted to book our place because it was dog free.
Guests would leave it til just before arrival to make these demands to the holiday company, so that it was hard to say no.

We also had guests bring a pet parrot one, which perched on the rafters and pooed over everything.

Thank god we sold. Most people are great, but there's a significant tranche of cheeky f-ers out there!

Why anyone would deliberately book a holiday cottage with open water and a toddler in tow is beyond me. Holidays are hectic, normal routine not in place, kids go exploring, parents distracted unpacking etc…the toddler of a family friend died this way many yrs ago. The tragedy and their heartbreak still haunts me. He had the most loving and caring parents but their risk factors changed significantly as soon as the walked jn the door of their holiday home and they weren’t on guard for a split second and that is all it took for him to go missing and into the water.

OP i applaud you for your firm stance on this.

The situation has the potential to become very complicated (legalese for expensive) very quickly.

Of course yanbu.
I would be so slow to accept taking a hit.
The company were extremely negligent in their response.
You rightly do not want a child hurt.
Very simple and understandable.
Those people were cheeky fxxkers taking a chance.

Legally, no it's not. OP has liability. Holiday booking company may have a bit.

Your house your rules - I'm sorry you've had all the hassle though. The visitors are lucky there was something suitable for them!

OP, in your place I would have a plague screwed into the wall both by the front door and inside, that this property is not suitable for young children to stay in, as per your booking conditions.

It's amazing how easily people will go to blame someone first chance they get.

Something similar happened to my friend with her holiday home.
She inherited it and her BIL asked her husband to borrow it for a weeks holidays as its just a bit back from the beech.
She agreed reluctantly at her husbands behest.

The beach path is a bit stoney to walk on down to the beach, nothing unusual there.
Instead of wearing sandles like normal people, they walked down barefoot and BIL's wife had her sister and her children staying too.
This had never been discussed.
One of the children walking barefoot cut his foot, a bit nasty, needed a stitch, had to go to A&E.

They got back to my friend like it was somehow her fault they were shoeless!
She asked him straight out are you blaming me for you all not wearing shoes?
She also said that you never mentioned you were having guests in MY holiday home.
He backed away from it quickly.

My friend was incensed.
She gave her husband a flea in his ear and to never ask her again for HER house to be used by his family.

Unsurprisingly they did come back and ask again but were told absolutely not.
No good deed and all that.