Cancelled holiday let - owner claiming I still need to pay in full

[HarlanPepper]

Help! I'd hugely appreciate any advice.

I had booked a holiday cottage for a week in July. To secure the booking, I paid a £100 deposit, the balance (£1200) being payable 8 weeks before the start of the holiday. Since I made the booking circumstances have changed pretty drastically and we now can't afford a holiday this year. So I emailed the owner earlier this week, as soon as the decision was made, to let them know. I didn't think it would be an issue, the cottage is in a popular tourist area.

I received the following response today and had a nasty shock - I was expecting an acknowledgement and obviously to lose the £100 booking deposit:

Dear XXXXX

I refer to your email unfortunately that you do not intend to pursue your holiday in XXXX for the week beginning 8th July to 15th July, 2023.

You have so far paid £100 deposit and the balance remains to be paid as per conditions stated at time of booking. Our policy states late cancellations may only be partly refunded subject to the explanation of rebooking in the terms and conditions. Whilst our bookings for '23 -'24 have been good I
must point out that our assessment of chance of rebooking that week is low.

Your e mail does not mention any exceptional circumstances that have led you to cancel which we might wish to take into account .

It may help to understand our position if you know that as an operator we cannot get insurance to defray our loss of income.

That is why our terms and conditions recommend you take out insurance to cover your change in circumstances.

We are sorry you will be unable to enjoy your planned holiday in XXXXX

Best wishes

--------

So the guy is saying I still owe him £1200!!! I checked the T&Cs on his website and I emailed him back. My email:

__

Hello XXXX

These are the terms on your website that I agreed to at the time of booking:

3. To pay the non-refundable deposit on booking, with the balance payable 8 weeks before the start of the holiday. If a booking is made less than 8 weeks before the start of the holiday full payment is required at time of booking. Failure to pay the balance of rental charges will result in the owner treating the property as available for re-booking.

4. To notify any cancellation as soon as possible in writing and pay any monies due. If we are able to re-let the accommodation at the full rate, a full refund will be made; if at a lesser rate a partial refund will be made. In the event that we are unable to re-let then no refund will be made. To safeguard against such costs we strongly recommend that you take out Holiday Cancellation Insurance.

The balance would have been payable 8 weeks before the booking, not four months before, so no more monies are due at this stage.

I am sure you will have no difficulty in reletting the cottage for the week in July, which is four months away. This would not be classed by any reasonable person as a ‘late cancellation’.

---

Is he likely to be able to come after me for this money? Those are the only pertinent sections of the terms and conditions, apart from an opening standard section about the booking being a contract.

I've had a look online and compared his T&Cs to other holiday lets, and a couple of templates I found. His interpretation of the terms of his own contract is highly unusual, to say the least. But I'm fretting now because it's a lot of money and hassle I don't need.

Yeah sounds like you are supposed to pay it all if they can't get another booking. How cld u trust them on that one though. They mention exceptional circumstances etc but I don't think you said anything in your response. Can't you tell them your personal circumstances have changed and you can't afford to pay it hence why ur cancelling.

What about this bit?

"Failure to pay the balance of rental charges will result in the owner treating the property as available for re-booking."

I wouldn’t be paying another penny before the date of the booking.
If he re lets at actual full price he will be £100 up on the deal, so he can offer it at a slight discount to attract another booking.
If you pay in full you will have no way of knowing if he re lets and no way to force him to refund.
If, in the event, he is unable to re let at full cost he will have the option to pursue the matter in court. It will be for him to prove his case that his contract was fair, and unambiguous, and that he has made reasonable efforts to mitigate his loss from you breaking your agreement.
It is strange that he has decided at this stage that he will be unlikely to let the property in a peak holiday week.

I'd call his bluff, not pay a penny more and see what he does

99 to 1 he will let it again and not take any further action

If you do pay the full balance then presumably that means the property is yours for the week if he doesn't manage to relet it. I'd see if there's anyone else you know who is willing to take it off your hands, or perhaps share the cost and holiday with you. It should get snapped up in the school hols so whatever happens you won't be down the balance

Reading of the conditions aside, are the terms fair?

Interesting document (bit old now) on fair terms relating to package holidays. See the bit on cancellation.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/616960/oft668.pdf

The wording of those terms does seem to be a bit unfair to me. Once booked, it doesn't allow any leeway and that seems an unfair practice.

You could make up some exceptional circumstances, or tell him your actual situation. I understand you might not want to do that, though.

On the plus side, I'm sure he'll have no trouble reletting (yes, even in Scotland, for the person who seems to have odd ideas!) so I don't think you'll have to pay in the end.

whats the point of a deposit :S surely its just the deposit thats not refundable, also it isnt a late cancellation

I have just had to cancel accommodation for four of us from next Friday. Owners said as we had given them a week's notice we would get a full refund. I was expecting to pay about a third of the cost!

What a dickish clause to add!

But no monies are due at this stage. The balance isn't due for 2 months. The whole point of a deposit is that if you cancel you lose it. There's no point having a deposit if you have to pay the whole amount anyway if you cancel.

This is really badly worded OP and I wouldn't pay anything. I think your reply was entirely correct and he's just trying it on. Once it's sorted I'd leave a review warning other people that the deposit isn't a deposit and that you are expected to pay the full amount even if you cancel months in advance.

Based on what you have posted, I think you are correct OP and you should only loose your deposit at this stage.

You don’t have any other monies due, but as I say, based on what you have posted, your balance would not be due until eight weeks before travel, so currently there are no monies due.

If the contract was meant to say something else, then it was ambiguous and as they wrote it not you, it is their problem. Definitely do not pay this.

Thanks again for all the responses - I do feel encouraged now that at least if the worst came to the worst and he did take us to small claims, I would have a case for not paying.

A couple of people have mentioned that I could tell him what our circumstances are. I made a deliberate decision not to do this as it didn't feel right. It's a combination of family circumstances - we were meant to be going with my mum who would have paid half the cost, but she's having treatment for bowel cancer and although hopefully that will be over by July, she undestandably doesn't feel up to a 1000 mile round trip from where she lives. And then our dog randomly needed an echocardiogram this week because she split her dewclaw open! The vet was worried about sedating her to remove it because she has a heart murmur and he wanted to check it out first. The insurance won't pay because the murmur was detected before we renewed. So that's £800 ker-ching! I don't want to say all this to him because it's none of his business, but the blunt fact is we can't afford it.

Appreciate all the responses so much! I opened my emails this morning with that pit of dread in my stomach but he hasn't responded yet.

(Ps the dog's fine thankfully - a mildly leaky mitral valve which is apparently not unsual in older dogs, no treatment necessary, and she is now minus a dewclaw)

Well if he doesn't relet and you have to pay make sure you go even without your dm. That way you will know if he really hasn't managed to relet. Get a friend to try and book it in a few weeks and see if it is available. Maybe post a letter clearly stating that you are cancelling as he may say an email wasn't in writing.

I would ask for him to contact you if it doesn't get re-let, and keep an eye on their booking system - do they readvertise it? Does it vanish soon?

We had a situation with DS during Covid - he was due to be going away with his friends, but some got Covid and the rest had to isolate.
The owner claimed they still had to pay, she wouldn't be able to re-let at short notice (very popular area, height of summer, fully booked). It was a lot of money to DS and his mates, so they asked her to try, and we kept an eye on her booking system - it was basic, you could literally see the rooms available on the web page, then when they went it was obvious too.
It just felt a bit rubbish that they were going to lose all of their money, and she was going to gain a full weeks income for two unused rooms.
She still tried to not pay them back, until one of the lads disclosed to her that they had screenshots showing the rooms had been re-let..

The deposit secures the booking without paying the full cost. It is used for things like holidays in order to give people time to save. Essentially the OP was given the choice to pay by instalments.

I don’t agree it’s unfair. It’s either that or pay the full amount up front. Which makes small businesses like this uncompetitive compared to big companies and disadvantages people who don’t have access to credit.

This payment arrangement is entirely separate from a cancellation policy. I don’t know what is difficult to understand about this.

Once booked, it doesn't allow any leeway and that seems an unfair practice.

I agree about the unfair practice. The owner would argue that he does allow a bit of leeway but you have to write to him telling him a good reason why you need to cancel several months in advance. It's difficult to know what reason might be acceptable to him. I've been diagnosed with a terminal illness and been given three months to live might cut the mustard. But would My daughter has just announced that she is due to give birth in Cornwall that week be considered a good enough reason? Or My husband has run off with another woman leaving me the only breadwinner and I cannot afford the holiday? And what level of proof will he require for any of those three scenarios? Will he expect to see medical records? It's bonkers.

A contract should not be ambiguous and should be capable of being understood by a lay person. On these grounds alone, OP, I'd not pay up and would challenge him robustly in the small claims court if he took out a claim. In the meantime, if you have a DH or a male DP, I would get him to write the letter and sign it. Or make a husband up and write the letter from him. I do think a lot of men are inclined to step down a bit if they think they'll be dealing with another bloke.