Aunt refusing to refund money

[Casals07]

We paid my Aunt to stay in her holiday home in Spain. House was in a bad state with rising damp and black mould. We had to move out and got alternative accommodation. Aunt is refusing to answer phone calls/texts regarding refunding us for the nights we did not stay there. My DH has requested the payment back from her on revolut but she has rejected that request.

Didn’t you have another thread about this?

Take the advice from your last thread.

Why the 2nd thread?

Seriously just let it go , it was a private arrangement and unless you want to take her to small claims you will get nothing .

I suggested on your other thread that you take her to the small claims court
She obviously knew about the damp and had arranged for work later in the year
Your DD was taken to hospital?
If that isn't you, then my reply is the same.

Yes we are going to put a claim through the small claims court. Only arrived home yesterday. Just wondering if I have a case though.

You’re unlikely to succeed with this at smalls claims court if it was you just giving your aunt some money privately, less than market value, for some time in her property, without a formal agreement.

We are going to contact a solicitor and see what they advise. Don't want to go through the small claims and give her the satisfaction if we lose.

It was only a small amount of money, why do you want to pay a solicitor? Honestly you need to let it go and learn that accepting favours from friends and family can go wrong.

How much are you out of pocket? Is it really worth pursuing in the small claims court? If it was a private arrangement between family members it might be difficult to prove - she will say that you knew the state of the property and it will depend on who the judge believes unless you have proof she misled you. And if you lose, you are liable for her legal costs also.

I never said how much it was but if you must know we paid her 2k for her house for the month. We then paid an additional 1,600 to rent somewhere else.

To put this into perspective, a few hours with a solicitor could easily be £700 ish (where we are you’d be looking at £220 an hour roughly). Plus extra charge for any letters, around £30 each time, there’s £800. Your application to small claims court £115. That’s nearly £1k, and you could lose.

With an informal agreement between family members, and if you’ve paid less than what a random member of the public would have paid for the property, without a contract in place, you’d fail at small claims anyway and be an extra grand down for the privilege

You can try to make a claim. Personally, I wouldn't bother. I would write it off as a learning experience and never do business with family again.

But you could have just flown home with your daughter before your husband even arrived and it wouldn’t have cost you £1600 so I can’t see you getting anything back there .

My DD could not fly at that time due to being in the hospital and we were advised by the doctors not to fly home until her health improved.

I don't live in the UK so small claims court here is different. Its 25 euro to lodge a claim and it goes through a mediator in the hope an agreement can be arranged before going to court.

This !

Unfortunately taking her to court, will not end well. Either you win and she's hacked off or you lose and you are.
There's no contract and no commitment from her on the state of the property you rented I assume. Just an informal agreement to pay her.
Yes she is BU, yes you are morally right and it was not a good flat to be in but I can't see this ending well and if you throw more money at it ie solicitors then you'll feel even more aggrieved

This thread feels familiar.

If you dont live in the uk this isn’t a great place to ask for legal advice to be honest ….