Legal advice for holiday shocker please.

[mousemole]

Jus back from 2 weeks in greece. Stayed in a villa on a small complex. All great until second week when we all came down with tight chests, wheezing, nausea, chronic headaches etc. That morning the villa floors had been cleaned by the cleaner and it had left a weird smell. I was convinced there was a link and after a night of sleeping with all the windows and doors open ( or rather NOT sleeping) I approached the complex owner and asked what the floors had been cleaned with. She spoke to the ( very young) cleaner and turns out our floor was cleaned with CHLORINE ! It was not clear whether it was neat or diluted but the upshot was due to inhalation of chlorine fumes we were all pretty ill. The rep arranged for us to see a doctor who confimed the chlorine had made us ill and prescribed some drugs to inhale. This was 4 days before the end of the holiday. Since then husband and I have had seriously tight chests and horrid coughs, DS1 and Ds2 seem better. We saw our doctor yesterday who said that only time would make things better and for the lungs to heal. I am very pissed off - the last 4 days of our holiday and the last 3 days since we have been back have been rubbish and IMO most of the holiday was spoilt by this. Thoughts please.

Thought Chlorine was safe.At least when we all go swimming in it..?>>!

you need to contact your insurance company - did you get legal cover with it? sounds liek something to sue over IMO, not that I am a legal bod, sounds horrible.
Did you get the name of the rep?

What a dreadful experience. I sued Airtours many years ago and Irwin Mitchell solicitors were wonderful. I would speak to them and see what they recommend. Initially you should definitely be writing a letter of complaint to the Holiday Company that you booked it through, detailing exactly what happened. Don't let them fob you off with having to claim via your insurance co. Also, do not accept any offer they make you. It will be a hard struggle but Irwin Mitchel are the experts. Good luck

thanks very much MrsRecycle - will contact them. It was a dreadful experience and Cutekids, I can assure you that neat chlorine is NOT safe and arguably neither is the level of chlorine used in many European pools.

ps - Mrs Recycle, can i ask what you sued for ? Or is it private ?

that is terrible

chlorine is potentially extremely dngerous

it would not be alowed to e used in this way in this country and i am surprised it is where you were on hliday in fact i suspect it isnt

that is why there are chlorine alrms on public swimming pools

and all sorts of household chemicals products are dangerous

this why there are hazard labels

and you are advised against mixing chemicals in eg a toilet

this is a very dangerous practice and requires action

i am sorry you suffered this

thanks Zippitippitoes - I too feel it was incredibly dangerous and irresponsible. Thomson should be helad accountable for the way the properties they sell are managed. Luckily my two children were in kids club for a lot of the time and they seem to be doing much better than me and DH although DS1, who is 3 has a horrid cough

totally orrelevantl well tangenital

i was evacuated from a public pool with the two dds once dd1 was 1 and dd2 was 8 weeks

because the chlorine alarm went off

this was an acute emergency

we had to get out of the pool immediately and they opened the poolside doors and we had to go straight out side not to another part of the building

it was january

i was terrified that dd2 would get hypotermia

but that is how dangerous chlorine fumes are considered

it was a long time ago but it was our wedding/honeymoon and the hygene standards were awful - rats climbing up our legs as we were eating, dog shit swept into pool at night. I got post viral IBS (awful stomach bug). It is a very very long story and a lot more went on - I could right pages on it. There were 42 other people that sued them and stayed at the same hotel as us. You never know there might be a few already contacting Irwin Mitchell. It took 6 years to get a settlement and me and dh got one of the highest in the group (as it was wedding/honeymoon). There were many times over the 6 years I really needed the money and wished I'd taken the first offer. I am so glad I held out as it was 100 times more than this. I did contact a local solicitor initially and, as they had no experience of these sorts of claims before they screwed it up. So I contacted Irwin Mitchell and they knew exactly what to do.

apologise for my comment on chlorine.in my total ignorance,i absolutely wasn't aware that chlorine was dangerous.shocked that swimming pools can be dangerous too.

cutekids, chlorine gas was widely used as a weapon in the First World War -- at Ypres, for example.

cutekids -dont worry, its a chemical with danegers that people should be more aware of.In many holiday pools they just pour in more chlorine to kill off germs from the kids pee etc rather than change the water. GRIM. Next holiday for me has to have a freshwater pool. Mrsrecycle, so sorry to hear about your horrid experience but well done for hanging on in there to get the recompense you deserved.

cutekids i wasnt having a dig at you...i imagine it isnt something which you would particularly think about as unless you use chlorine yourslef there would be no reason for yopu to be educated in its safe use

tho as this example shows perhaps we have to know these things in oreder to protect oursleves against other peoples negligence/ignorance which is quite shocking

There has been some quite extensive research in America on the link between Chlorine and breast cancer. Most people dont know that it is in all tap water. Buying a water filter was the ebst thing I ever did !