whats the law on private renting apartment?

[shelleps]

hi , would just like to know the current law please on renting out apartment

the reason I ask is that , we rented an apartment in alcudia, which I found on the internet. owned privately


messaged the owner and booked it for 2 weeks and paid for it and they sent us the keys. we got there and after a week, we had a family emergency and had to come home


I messaged the owners while we were there , saying we had to leave early etc.

on returning home, I have asked them if we could have a return of some of the money as we didn't stay the full fortnight. they have said no


am I in the right or wrong here?????????????/ had we stayed in a hotel, our travel insurance would have covered it but as it was a privately letting, it doesn't.

is there anything I can do,

??

[lovemallorca]

The "law" is whatever is in the contract between you and the owner of the property.

If the hire was undertaken on the understanding that the owner would make his property available for you use for an agreed period of time, then the owner has not breached any contract - Whether verbal or written.

That you had to leave early is unfortunate, but it is unreasonable to expect the owner to be out of pocket because of circumstances that are outside his/her control. It is not practical/reasonable to expect that they will get someone else to fill it for the remainder of your planned stay.

If you had booked a package holiday, you would have exactly the same situation - The hotel was booked for X number of days, and you would not get a refund if you left early as the hotel has made the room available as agreed.

Your best bet is to contact your travel insurance, as there may be a chance that they will entertain a claim, however, from experience, I would'nt hold your breath..

Sorry if this is not what you wanted to hear and I really hope that the family emergency is now over.

[Nick]

Couldn't agree more or have put it any better than above. Very unfortunate but can't see how you will get any type of refund unless via your insurers.

[copper]

Must agree

We normally rent privately and if had to cut our holiday short would still expect to pay for the appartment as obviously they wouldnt be albe to relet

My husband has had a few health problems this year and a couple of our holidays have been in doubt ( luckily managed them with no problems ) If we had cancelled at that late stage we would have just paid for the accomodation anyway

I cant imagine Hotels would refund your money either but would expect your insurance to cover it if it was elligible dont really see why insurance wouldnt cover a private let if you can prove you werent there

Sorry you had problems

Rosemary

[JMD40]

May I suggest that you ask the owner of the apartment to provide you with a confirmation of your booking and the price paid i.e. copy of an invoice then the insurance company should be able to accept this as proof of payment. It makes no difference to them whether it is a hotel or private apartment, you booked accomodation which you were unable to use. The owner has no reason to return the amount as they would of course be out of pocket and if it was high season have probably turned down other bookings for these dates.
Remember the insurance will never cover you if there was a slight chance of the `family emergency´happening and you had not advised them in advance. i.e. if you travel abroad and a relative is very ill and subsequently dies, if you have not told the insurance that this person was ill they can refuse to pay the claim as its an existing condition which you failed to advise them of. It really pays to take out insurance and to be very honest with them and therefore a good chance that all out of pocket expenses are covered. Good luck.