I found a vacation rental online. The ad made it sound great for the price. Talked to the owners on phone and email, made the reservation and mailed them a check. It was for 4 nights. The ad stated a clean, comfortable place on a waterfront lot. None of that was true. It was a mobile home that was not taken care of very well. When we got there on the first day and opened the door, me and my two small children were greeted with a terrible smell. In the smallest of the 3 bedrooms (which the ad listed as two double beds and was actually a daybed and pull out trundal) is were we found the worst of the smell. The refrigerator also had a terrible smell and some sort of bloody water in the bottom and left food. The carpet was really dirty, the whole place needed a good cleaning and lots of maintenance. Also, we found out that the waterfront lot was actually about a block away from the home. It was listed as having a "private lot and dock".....it was far from that. We walked around to check it out to find the "private dock" filled with not very pleasant people that lived in the mobile home park. And they didn't care one bit that they were not supposed to be there. I went straight back to the home and called the owner. I told him about the terrible conditions of the rental and the not so private dock. His idea was to have his wife come down to check out the smells and call the police about the dock. He told me that he had been there the day before and didn't smell anything or have any problems. Right! His wife showed up about 6:00 that night. She pulled the bed out in the small room to find a dead rat being the cause of the smell! You could smell it in the whole place! At that point, she started cleaning the whole room, washing the sheets and trying to clean the refrigerator. Now the rental was nasty, smelled like dead rat, dead fish and bleach! By now, it's after 7pm and myself, my elder parents and my small children are standing in the driveway waiting. Waiting and wondering if we would have a clean place to sleep that night. It was about 7:30pm (she still had the whole place torn apart cleaning) when we decided that we needed dinner and to find a hotel. I contacted the guy and told him we were not staying in those conditions and I wanted my money back. I even offered to pay for that night but I wanted the rest back. The ad was misleading and the property was very nasty. I was not standing around on the first night of our vacation waiting for someone to clean, when that should have been done before we arrived. He admits in an email since then that the place was not clean and that he has changed some of the ad that sounded misleading, but he refuses to return the money. I never signed anything and no deposit was paid. I want to know what I can do it get my money back? I need legal backup. We just wanted a small family vacation that wouldn't break the bank and we didn't get that at all. Thanks so much! Kosha
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Good afternoon. Yes...you are entitled to every dime as well as any other damages and costs you incurred as a result of the misrepresentation. A person in your position would want to send them a certified, return receipt requested letterdemanding that they refund your money in total within a short specified period of time;and inform them that if such demand is not timely complied with, there will beno choice but to file a suit against them for damages. The letter would want tomake sure to specifically mention that this claim will be filed not only as abreach of contract case, but also as a deceptive trade practice action, whichwill entitle one to not only to actual damages, but also an additional amountequal to 3 times that as punitive damages. That should provide plenty ofincentive to comply with your demands; but, if it does not, a suit should befiled.
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Thanks for allowing meto be of service to you. Please be aware that the information provided here isnot legal advice. Rather it is simply general information. All states have intricacies in their lawsand any information given is simply information only and specifically is notintended to be, nor does it constitute, legal advice. This communication doesnot establish an attorney-client relationship with you. I hope this answer has been helpful to you.
I just wanted to say Thank You! That makes me feel much better about getting the money back that we wanted to spend on a nice family vacation. Maybe now we can have that.