To cancel holiday and not pay?

[worstnotholiday]

I've got a holiday booked in October. Only booked on 3/3 and paid £120 deposit for four of us. Two adults two children. £230 to be paid every month thereafter. However my circumstances have changed overnight. My husband has left. I have no money. No hope of paying this. Will be waiting the next few weeks to get my uc claim set up and living out of what's in the cupboards till then.

I've just tried to cancel it online and have found that the company want £780 to cancel it?! My insurance apparently want £100 per person for a cancellation claim. I just do not have it. The payment will bounce next week and I'll never be able to pay them either the £400 or the £780 they expect (the whole remaining balance is only £900! If I had £780 I'd be able to find the extra!)

Wtf can I do? Dh will not help me. He's done this in the most cruel way possible and I have no chance of getting a penny out of him. Indeed, I have little chance of even having a roof over mine and the childrens heads come October let alone a fucking holiday. Aibu to think that this is a con? This "debt" will ruin my credit rating. The insurance was rather pointless too. I'm so defeated.

@User478

Are his parents not bothered about never seeing their GC again?!

Maybe write to his parents. "As you know, out of the blue John decided to leave me and the children. Days before he left we booked our annual family holiday. It was put into my name because of his bad credit and now I am on the hook for paying £1000. If I cancel they still want £780 and if I use the holiday insurance, they want £400 for the cancellation.

I was wondering if there is any way you could help with this, e.g. to put the holiday in You and Bob's names so you can take your grandchildren for a week away in the summer. As you know, I work part time hours around the kids and I am feeling rather in a tight spot with this.

I’m so sorry this has happened to you, OP. On a practical note, is there any equity in the house? Can you get it on the market asap, it’s a sellers market atm. Half of any equity would be yours and may just give you a little to fall back on. Then can you get yourself onto a list for council accommodation?
I hope you manage to get sorted, I really do :(

Speak to your MP as well as CAB. What a bastard.

Phone the company. Tell them your circumstances have changed. I bet you’ll be able to cancel.

Then contact CAB and get support with the rest of it.

You know, even if you end up (temporarily) in a council hostel, at least you’ll be self sufficient and not reliant on him. You and your girls will be fine. He’ll always be a dickhead.

I know you feel overwhelmed and completely side-swiped by your husband's despicable actions but you need to dig deep and act fast to secure you and your children's future.

Gather as much proof of your husbands income and account numbers for the account where he saved his 'fucking off' fund. Because half of that is yours !

If your husband is still working in the same job for the same hours and (you can show what he was previously earning) you need to keep this information for the divorce and to establish his true maintenance liability.

There are a number of ways to fund a divorce to get what you are entitled to. You have experienced economic abuse and will be in financial difficulties and not able to start divorce proceedings as a result.
There are a number of charities and organisations that can offer you funding, provide you with debit information and advice, such as Buttle UK, and the Heinz, Ann and Carol Kroch Foundation.
For a full list of organisation and funds that can help go to the national poverty charity Turn2us' website

The alternative is to track down your local law centre. Law centres are independent and operate on a not-for-profit basis. You can find your local centre on lawcentres.org.uk.
Also remember to claim a fee exemption /reduction for court fees based on your low income/UC claim.

This is only our experience but a few years ago we had a holiday booked with a few other families through Thomas cook. When it came time to pay the rest of the deposit one of the other families knew they could no longer travel due to their child having a long-term illness.

I went in store to pay the remaining deposit for the other families and explained the situation, hoping that they’d have some compassion. They didn’t and said it had to be paid but I decided to leave it and planned discuss with dh and pay their part later if necessary. He said to wait and see what happened. Nothing happened. They never chased it. I wonder if it’s too expensive or not worth the hassle for them.

If I was you I would leave it and hope that it is the same. Incidentally, I recently forgot to pay the next part of the deposit for a holiday with tui. They chased me a week or so later with an email stating that they knew that people were understandably anxious about travel plans due to covid etc. I obviously paid it but it wasn’t a demanding email and I got the feeling that if I’d changed my mind nothing would be done.

I once, inadvertently, set up a regular payment on my card. The bank were unable to stop it as it was against my card.

I phoned the next day and told them I had lost my card, they put a stop on my old card and issued a new one, which meant the payment could go ahead.

*Couldn't

So sorry you're in this situation! You can cancel the card payment by calling your bank and ask to cancel the 'continuous payment authority'. They'll put a stop on the company being able use the card details.

Also, as a pp said, contact your mortgage company and tell them that you were not aware of mortgage break and explain the whole situation. The FCA include marital split as a vulnerablity and mortgage companies are required to treat vulnerable customers appropriately.
Definitely contact the Citizens Advice bureau. They can advocate with companies on your behalf.

I'm sorry I have no real advice. I'd be sorely tempted to do a GoFundMe to cover next months rent, not expecting a penny but to shame him.

Call them. explain that due to a family tragedy you no longer have the funds to pay for the holiday and cannot meet any of their requests for more money.

I'd also tell your partner that he should reimburse you for any money you have already lost due to his sudden action.

Great post @secretsqizzle

I signed a pre up for instance to protect him from losing other properties and wealth.

Did you take legal advice before signing this?

I might be talking out of my arse but things I've read before that I really hope are true and are worth exploring:

A lot of divorce lawyers will save fee invoices until after settlement received so you don't have to fund up front?

Pre nups are notoriously iffy so get it checked legally you may be able to challenge it.

Op I have nothing constructive to add but I'm sorry you are having to go through this

Once you have uc, you can switch to bt essentials WiFi that is £15 a month.
Don't get a rental. Try and sort through. He's liable for the mortgage as well. Put in a claim for cms for child maintenance regardless. They'll use last year's figures which though not great is better than nothing. £7 is only if on benefits.

@SoupDragon

I signed a pre up for instance to protect him from losing other properties and wealth.

Did you take legal advice before signing this?

Yes. You need legal advice.

What assets does your H have? You mention other properties...

Pre nup is unlikely to be valid if it doesn't make provision for your children's needs and if you weren't legally advised before signing it.

You may be able to get an order that he pays/contributes to your legal fees if he has substantial assets.

You'll be selling yourself and your DC short if you don't get legal advice.

Do you have any family who could help/ lend you money?

Did you book a package holiday? If so the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations mean OTB can only require you to pay an amount that is appropriate and justifiable. Ring them, explain the circumstances and ask them to justify the £780. If they can resell the holiday or don’t have to pay the hotel for the room, they won’t be able to and you can’t be forced to pay.

I would be speaking to the mortgage company, if it's a joint mortgage you would usually need both parties to agree to a mortgage holiday!

In the UK I didn't think pre-nup were legally binding?

A few things here OP.

Apply for UC as soon as possible. Look into local council grants etc usually on your local councils website.

Water and electric companies do have grants available to clear outstanding debt. Look into those and apply where possible. You will likely need to set up UC before these applications will be successful but it may help take some of the burden off if accepted.

Things like tv are not needed. Cancel that and keep your Wi-Fi. Your children can watch tv online.

Put holiday/after school clubs on hold for now if you pay for those.

Call the mortgage company and explain the situation. Let them know you will be applying for UC and ask if they can put it on file to pause the payments until it comes through. UC may not pay the mortgage depending on some factors. Google may help you understand what those factors are. If they can't help, your local council may have discretionary housing payments but I am less informed on the process for that. There are options tho. If you are in shared ownership they will pay the rent aspect without question.

You then need to apply for child support. Although he has fudged his earnings; you can ask for an investigation into this. They usually base child support amounts on the last tax year, meaning for this year it's likely he will have to pay something unless he appeals.

Child support can look into depreciation of earnings by way of contract change or pension overpayment etc. if you have the proof he's done this, that's even better. But get the ball rolling on this now as it can be lengthy. Start with a child support online application.

I'm assuming you claim child benefit already. If not please claim this as soon as possible.

So what I didn’t know back in the day is that financial abuse is domestic violence and therefore you will be entitled to legal aid especially only earning what you earn, now start documenting everything and anything that he says around leaving you impoverished if you can get him to put it in an email or a text that would be even better ready for when you get to court because and here’s the cruncher, The court will examine his lifestyle versus what he claims to be earning so if he’s on minimum wage and driving round in an Audi TT the court is going to assume that he earns above a certain income level to be able to afford it and award you accordingly.

There's a lot of questions here and things you might be able to use to your own advantage.

How did he get the mortgage company to give a mortgage holiday without your signature/agreement? Sounds a bit fraudulent to me. I'd let him know that you're considering reporting him to the police for fraud unless he accounts for the money.

It does sound like they really might not chase you for this money, however another thought might be to ask to transfer the holiday to next year (while you still might not be able to go it gives you time to sell it?)

You’ll be able to sort the holiday, if customer service won’t help then write to the financial director outlining what you said here.
Do go to CAB, are there any other charities that can help with advice? Can you start looking for a WFH full-time job and still qualify for UC?
It’s a mess now but you’ll get through this. The holiday is stressful now but it might be the easiest bit to sort out TBH.

You need a lawyer. A shit hot one. You can pay after the division of assets. And they will ensure you get enough to make it worth paying for them.

He tried to break you. Imagine if you end up with over half his hidden money instead.