We had booked a holiday cottage in Middleton in Teesdale for Easter week many months ago through a well know cottage booking company.
The deposit and full payment had been paid well in advance. Any cancellation by us would have to be at least 6 weeks prior and after that there would be no refunds.
Yesterday Mrs FC received a call from the booking agency informing us that the holiday was now cancelled due to the fact that the property has been sold. That's 2 weeks notice.
Mrs FC was able to contact the owner directly and she confirmed that the property was sold and the new owners wanted to be in for Easter.
Now forgive my cynicism but a 2 week window to cancel a booking because the purchasers are pressing them does not stack up.
I've not been able to find the property on the market. As we all know conveyancing takes time and if the owner was intending to sell the property then they would be aware of potential timescales and even a quick sale would be able to arrange a suitable completion date based around bookings and cancel well in advance.
Issue now is that its Easter week and there is little accommodation available in the area we want. Family have taken holiday from work and Mrs FC is supposed to be doing the Blaydon Races in Newcastle. All in all its a complete cluster****.
Said booking agency has stated that they will waive an alternative booking fee. Thats real gracious of them.
There is the possibility of course that we've been gazumped.
Anyway Mrs FC is not happy. Well none of us are really and at this point we intend taking the matter further.
Terms and Conditions protect the booking agents but there seems to be a clause whereby the owner could be liable for compensation.
2.10 Unavailability of the Holiday Period. We may also, acting on behalf of the Owner, have the right to cancel a Booking even after we have sent you the Booking Confirmation, where the Owner notifies us that the Property is unavailable for your intended Holiday Period (and this is not due to an Unexpected Event (when clause 13.1 applies) or for one of the reasons referred to in clause 12 (when clause 12 applies)). If this occurs, the Owner shall refund you: (i) the Rental Charges that you have already paid for the Booking; (ii) the amount equivalent to the Booking Fee; (iii) the XXXXX Other Services Charges and the Third Party Other Services Charges that you have already paid for the Booking; and (iv) any other compensation that may be due to you (other than any low deposit charge you have made directly to us). In these circumstances, and sometimes in other circumstances too, the Owner may be liable to pay us certain cancellation changes for failure to make the Property available for your Holiday Period, but this does not concern you, and you have no responsibility for such charges which are a matter between the Owner and us.
Not necessarily looking at legal advice as such but has anyone or knows someone who has been in similar circumstances and achieved a satisfactory outcome.
At the very least we would be looking at covering reasonable additional costs. The owner seems to have totally disregarded the impact on customers. It wouldn't have been difficult to manage in advance and show some consideration.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Fri 24 Mar 23 at 13:32
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Happened to me once, large H holiday letting agents. Turns out the owner died 4 weeks previously and the estate swung intestate two weeks later.
It was out of peak season, so I was able to rebook at no extra cost.
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Always knew they were going to cancel at some point then.
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If it was on the market last year, probably before you booked, then I think you've been 'had over'.
Honestly, is one supposed to check such things for oneself on Zoopla when you book?
Terms and conditions for holiday lets seem to be written for the advantage and protection of the owner and letting agent rather than the customer. No sense myself of how reasonable that is in terms of customer protection legislation.
My inclination caught thus, assuming that the agent hasn't anything on their books nearby and to which you could transfer at no cost/minimal inconvenience, would be to threaten agent and or landlord with proceedings for the extra costs. Or compensation for loss of a holiday and out of pocket spends - eg pre booked trips.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/
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Write a damning critique of the booking agency, send it to them, asking why they think you shouldn't post it on trip advisor and anywhere else you can think of.
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>Write a damning critique of the booking agency,...
Nah. Straight for the jugular.
Borrow someone's kids and take a pic of Mrs FC and the kids with really sad faces. Send the pic to the booking agent and tell them it's going to the redtops if they don't sort it.
Even better if you give the kids a squirt of pepper-spray.
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..it's worth a few minutes practicing the "compo face", though... ;-)
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Very bad behaviour by the agency and the owner. However the owner wouldn’t care about any reviews and if it’s the agency I suspect it is, I doubt if they do either. If you get your original money back the chances of the agency willingly meeting any consequential loss or additional costs are slim to none. I suppose you could go down the small claims route.
It is the sort of case the Daily Telegraph consumer champion might take on if the additional costs are significant. Coverage there might buck up the agency’s ideas.
But is it worth the aggro and keeping the issue active, spoiling the final holiday. Not in my book. I would want to put the whole affair behind me and get on with having a great holiday in alternative accommodation. I’d be darned if I let the pxxx poor attitude of the agency put a continuing dampener on things.
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Why you not naming the agency?
It’s not like this forum isn’t full of people naming and shaming Car makes, dealers, Utility companies, pubs etc???
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>> Why you not naming the agency?
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>> It’s not like this forum isn’t full of people naming and shaming Car makes, dealers,
>> Utility companies, pubs etc???
I suspect that doing so would be sailing close to the wind regarding name/shame and risk to the site owner.
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As mentioned in my post, plenty of it goes on.
And if it’s factual then no issue either.
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I can't see why you want to blame the booking agency. They've lost their fee as well as your goodwill. (Maybe they've managed to keep their fee from the owner, but I bet they haven't.) They didn't own the property, they didn't sell it, and they've been hung high and dry.
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As the booking company are trying to hide behind their terms and conditions and quote data protection regarding disclosing details of the property owner then they are the front of house and only people who action can be taken against. They are acting vicariously on behalf of the owner. To simply cancel a contract for a foreseeable reason is out of order. Certainly not,'force majeure' as a dispensation in their T&Cs.
I would well imagine that their T&Cs as regards their relationship with the property owner allow them some form of sanctions and protection if required. Any subsequent penalties awarded against them could be passed on to the property owner.
You can bet your bottom dollar if I had breached their T&Cs they would have had their pound of flesh and my money.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Thu 30 Mar 23 at 17:50
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I really do think you're being unfair. You write " To simply cancel a contract for a foreseeable reason is out of order."
What do you think they should have done?
The house has been sold, and no longer exists. (Which is to say, it no longer exists as a holiday rental property that belongs to the quondam property owner and is therefore available to be let to you.) If that isn't force majeure then I don't know what is.
I ask again, what else do you think the agency should or could have done?
And why do you want the details of the owner; are you going round with your baseball bat? And if not, then what do you want to do? The whole point of appointing an agent is to make sure that loons don't turn up at the front door!
I recognise that you're fed up, of course I do.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Fri 31 Mar 23 at 14:02
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And the Blaydon races is apparently 9th June, yet Easter is 8th April. Not sure your story stacks up that well either!
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Oh my bad! I believed it was the Blaydon races. Apparently its not but she is/was completing a race up in Newcastle so the name of the race is pretty insignificant. So if you're suggesting that my story doesn't stack up my interpretation is that you are suggesting I'm lying yes or no?
Unfair? Business revolves around contracts for protection to both parties. The same contract that states I cant have a refund if for some reason I cancel. They are for both parties protection.
The house was rented out and deposit taken after it was put up for sale so its foreseeable that some time in the future it will be sold and therefore not available for further rental unless the new owner is taking it on for rental. I say again the owner/agent could have been more upfront about the strong possibility our booking would be cancelled.
The conveyancing process takes time and during which time the payment was in taken in full. All things being equal it's possible to roughly judge when completion will be expected and achieved. The house owner and vicariously the agents at no point informed us that there was a possibility that the property would not be available. Had it been earlier we could have had the opportunity to find somewhere as suitable. On reflection Mrs FC informs me that the booking calendar was greyed out after our booking but had no reason to question why.
The owner could have made it clear to the new owners that exchange of contracts could not take place until a particular date taking into account contracts in existence.
Force majeure is not a pre-planned foreseeable event. Severe weather damage or a fire is.
And I want details of the owner as at this time I'm considering lodging a civil claim for losses. To suggest I would be visiting with a baseball bat is somewhat childish
Last edited by: Fullchat on Fri 31 Mar 23 at 16:04
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All points well made but if the contract says the owner can cancel you will lose any civil action you may start.
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Holiday Cottage Cancellation - Zero
