Leaking roof and deposit not returned
Review Submitted: November 19, 2009
Date of Stay: August 2009
The day before we arrived we were told that the water tank had just been found to have leaked and damaged the ceiling in the childrens room, it was obviously too late to change our plans so we went ahead with our holiday. The ceiling in the chlidrens room was indeed very damaged (although the beds directly beneath it and the carpet were bone dry?) The room had a nasty damp smell.
The house is lovely, but in desperate need of attention with water damage on a number of ceilings. A big problem was that the roof over the sun room leaked really badly everytime it rained (which was all the time while we were there!) resulting in water pouring in through the ceiling, we had to block the room off as my little girl kept slipping over on the wet floor.
The television has very few channels, the jacuzzi bath plug doesn't seal properly, so was unusable as it empties as fast as you can fill it. The swing frame in the garden was too rickety for even my youngest to use. The washing machine kept stopping with my clothes stuck in it, so I didn't dare use it.
When we got home we didn't get our deposit back for two months, despite numerous attempts to contact the owner (the emails were being sent back as she had closed the account) when we finally managed to phone her she sent us the deposit minus a large amount for damage that we didn't do (or see) to a mattress in the childrens room Again, when questioned by email, we got no response.
Owner's Response: This review is as a result of the family being angry that I deducted just £60 from their £300 damages deposit in spite of extensive damage they and their 6 children caused to the property. The day before they arrived the hot water tank burst and so as not to have to cancel their holiday we paid a company to work through the night to fix the problem which they succeeded in doing. The only casualty of the burst was a water stain on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. There wasn't time for the room to smell of damp as it had only happened the day before! There is no water damage to any other ceilings and that one has now been repainted. The television has a Sky Freeview box and all the Freeview channels are available. The jacuzzi bath plug does work, they just failed to work out how and didn't bother to ask. They overloaded the washing machine resulting in it breaking and me having to purchase a brand new one after they had departed. They left the place in a terrible state - including excrement over the toilets and one of the bathroom floors and a filthy kitchen, resulting in my cleaning lady having to clean for 3 hours more than usual. I did not deduct anything from their deposit for any of these things. When they left there was only one bed which they had stripped which was one of the child's beds. There was a very large stain on the sheet and the cleaning lady was puzzled as there was not a corresponding stain on the mattress - so she turned it over and found a large damp stain underneath, matching that on the sheet and because the mattress had been turned over and not allowed to dry, the stain had gone mouldy. We had to get specialist cleaners in to clean it then eventually replaced it as the stain came back. All I charged from their £300 deposit was £60 to clean the mattress and nothing for any of the other things. The deposit was sent on time but was caught up in the postal strike and certainly did not take 2 months to arrive. These are the only grudgeful guests we have ever had and everyone else has been fantastic and we have only had great experiences welcoming people from all over the world to our house.
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