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Jon11 · Feb 9, 2011, 08:41 PM

I have just had a similar situation. I have an email aggrement reversation to stay in a vacation condo for a month. We paid 950 dollars up front as a down payment. We made this aggrement 6 months ago. Now 4 days before we are about to leave the owner sends us an email saying that the previous people renting out the condo did damage to it and they now don't want to rent it out to any short term deals. We have a contract with them, have had many clients in our business moved around this vacation. We can't find anything 4 days before our leaving date that anything near our budget. What can we do about this? Please help...

excon · Feb 9, 2011, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by Jon11

We can't find anything 4 days before our leaving date that anything near our budget. What can we do about this? Please help....

Hello Jon:

Spend what you need to spend, and sue the owner for any amount OVER what you would have spent.

excon

Jon11 · Feb 9, 2011, 10:03 PM

Thanks I'm calling a layer tomarrow, this is nuts we had this reserved for 6 months and 4 days before we leave they have the nerve to do this.

ScottGem · Feb 10, 2011, 04:43 AM

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Before you get too angry at the owners, try putting yourselves in their place. The damage may have been extensive enough that they can't get it cleaned up in time. Or they were so appalled by it, they just can't stomach having it happen again. By no means should you excuse them, but you need to temper your anger.

Did they offer to return your deposit? Granted that doesn't compensate you, in my opinion. The problem here is you need to quantify your damages to sue. If they haven't returned your deposit, that's one piece. As excon said, if have to pay more for accommodations that is something you can easily quantify.

This should be a slam dunk in court. The problem is it will take time to get a judgment against them and you will have to collect on it. You should be able to place a lien on their condo. Also, get a copy of your canceled check for the deposit to find out where they bank.

But I would go back to them first and tell them, that if they don't honor the reservation, that you will sue them for the costs of your vacation. You might offer to put up a damage bond to convince them. That would be easier than scrambling to make new arrangements.