Negligent, unresponsive owner
Submitted: March 3, 2012
Stayed: January 2012
Before we rented we communicated with the owner by email. He said he had not figured out how to accept payment by credit card, so would we please pay by check? (No problem.) Then when we asked for a rental contract, he said he preferred to keep it informal. To be fair, he did offer to prepare a rental contract, but we had had perfect luck with many Sea Ranch and Irish Beach rentals till this one, so in the spirit of his request we agreed to keep our arrangement informal. We arrived for our weeklong January 2012 stay to a note on the counter saying that the hot tub was broken and would not be working for the duration of our stay. Then the house book said to not use the fireplace and the heater at the same time because the heater would draw the fireplace smoke back into the house. Other notes said to not use the kitchen sink disposal or the trash compactor because both were broken. The oven made a racket when we used it and it kept making a racket after we turned it off, probably due to a faulty convection fan. Water leaked through living room ceiling window seals. Numerous light bulbs throughout the house were out or missing. The grates in the old charcoal barbecue out back were nearly rusted through. The stained, weather-beaten deck chairs had to be covered to use. The roof shakes were covered with moss. There was not enough hot water to enjoy the two heads in the shower for more than a minute or two. With one head there was barely enough hot water for a normal shower. After our stay we asked the owner by email about some of these issues, especially the hot tub and fireplace, and received no response. We had to stop payment on our security deposit check because the owner did not return it and did not explain why. Perhaps not cashing it was the owner's way of returning it? We'll never know because the owner refused to communicate. This is a beautiful, comfortable home, and very well kept other than that noted above. But we wouldn't rent it again from the same owner for obvious reasons. The house is on the market. Perhaps that explains the lack of maintenance.
Owner's Response: Dear Joel and Elizabeth,
I'm so very sorry that your stay was less than perfect. I fully apologize and take full respnsibility for the miscommunication.
I'm sorry about the email mix up, I did attempt to contact you via the address that I beleived was correct and never had any response. Somehow we must have got our wires crossed with the email addresses.
As far as the hot tub issue, unfortunately with the hottub situation, our property manager had only disocovered that there was in issue with it a day prior to your stay, and it was improbably for us to be able to fix it on time, and we do apologize for that as well.
As far as all of the other issues, I assure you that they have been taken care of. Our previous property manager wasn't (obviously) handling things the way we would have liked, and i can assure you that all of the issues stated above were taken care of.
Lastly as far as the security check goes, yes we do shred them and dispose accordingly. Again sorry for the miscommunication.
Feel free to send me an email and we can work something out to get you guys up there again so we can get you a much better expperience.
Sincerly,
Dillon
Helpful votes: 2/2
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
No
