Looking for some advice. We recently booked out a holiday lodge in the highlands for a few days and paid a £300 security deposit. Since check out we have been informed we are being charged for a set of keys which have gone missing, a locksmith to pick and replace the lock and a broken yale lock on another door.
Now the yale lock was snibbed open when we arrived, we turned it to lock the door from the inside and the knob fell off in my hand. I didn't think to report it at the time as it was so obviously a known fault. Fair enough this was my mistake.
We had 3 sets of keys, 2 which we posted through the door and another we left in a lock box on the garage. Now after various emails with the company to argue that a set are missing we have had 3 different stories from the housekeeper. Firstly she found 2 keys on the mat and none in the lock box, then she confirmed she found the ones in the lock box but only 1 set were posted. Now she claims the backdoor keys were missing but shes already confirmed she found them. We have all this in writing that her story has changed several times. The company now state that because the housekeeper says we lost them, that is final. They have also confirmed the house keeper has her own keys so why then am I being charged for a lock smith to pick the lock when she had entry into the property? They are keeping our £300 deposit and are refusing to get involved any further, claiming its up to the lodge owner.
The lodge owner is a solicitor. She is refusing to allow the booking company to give us any contact information for her. We are being taken advantage of as a party of young people. How do I fight this ? We treated the house with nothing but respect, cleaned it before we left. I have 6 eye witnesses who can confirm that the lock was broken and the keys were left there. We have no evidence that we left the keys, how could we? But they also have no evidence we didn't. So where do I go from here?
Any advice greatly appreciated, this is so frustrating.