Hello everyone,
I hope there is someone out there that can throw some advice our way.
We booked our 4 month stay via the internet for a house in Gard. The owners are English and the terms were agreed prior to our arrival.
We gave a 900 euro deposit and paid this amount every month despite half of the property being severly damp (summer months). we advised the owners of the the damp and other damages to the property within the first three weeks, stating that we could not use the ground floor as all of our clothes and bedlined were becoming tainted by the damp. We received an email from them stating that there was nothing they could do regarding the damp the other queries were dismissed except for the replacement of an old Television. We were paying for all their sky/internet and phone commitments but the TV was broken. They reluctantly repalce the TV at a cost of 260€
We documented everything at the time of arrival - when the damp was at it worst and on our departure. The house was cleaned professionally every two weeks and we even tended their garden which we were not contracted to do.
Our contract stated that we were renting a 5 bed + 4 living room property. The property only had 4 bedrooms.
The damp curtailled this by 2 beds and 1 living room. We had to book another rental apartment for my family when they visited in August as we could not let them stay with us.
In hindsight the signs were there, the owners tried to bill us in Sterling instead of euros from the outset, the made demands on our time during the stay - (waiting for painters they had arranged to do readings and works in the house) and were rather unhelpful on our arrival and departure with the keys.
They demanded that we meet them on the departure date to hand of the keys and check the property, we had left the property one week before and it was a 6 hour journey to do this. They were rigid in this and would accept no other solution. We were promised the return of our deposit via bank transfer within one week of the keys being returned.
On the date, they did not attend but sent a representative who has no authority, they kept the keys, observed us for an hour as we packed the last of our goods and redressed the settee as the covers were also cleaned once per month during our stay. The representative did not have any issues with the property, asked if we had broken anything - we had not - we packed all of the masses of their personal belongings down in a storeroom. We brought all of our own domestic goods.
I sent an email to the owners, stating all was fine and if we had taken anything inadvertantly to let us know where they what address to return. There was no issues raised what so ever.
Within one week I received a threatening email, stating that the property was not as clean as contracted and they woud be withholding 260€ for cleaning. Also that we had over paid the bills by 132€ but no actual bills have been produced despite many requests during ans since the end fo the rental, Accused us of stealing three items : an extension lead, pair of ladders and a pot.
They have kept some items we left and are now refusing to answer emails.
Lastly stated we had breached the contract as the house was not secured properly on their inspection (3days after our departure) with lights being left on blowing 3 blulbs.
Their reps closed up the house!! now they are keeping the whole amount 900€ depsite all of the evidence I have and no proof of damages or lack of care to the property or proving the actual costs of the bills.
Sorry for the big rant, but we rent our apartment in France and our House in UK and expected to be treated as we treat our tenants, fairly and not through greed.
The scary thing is they have three properties they rent out, this is the only one the have done on a long term basis and we were there first long term rental. They also offer their services to other home owners as honest and relieable managers/keyholders.
Any advice will be most welcome.