A Cautionary Tale

about staying in someone else's house...

Photo by Henry Ren on Unsplash

Today I want to tell you about something that happened to me that has clouded the entire month of January. It started on New Year’s Eve and was only resolved a couple of days ago. January is my birthday month, so when other people are abstaining from alcohol and carbs and punishing themselves through the gloom of Blue Monday, I’m usually all colour and sparkle, social events and smiles. But not this year. Yes, I’ve been out and about, enjoyed the gifts I’ve been given and the time with family and lovely friends. But all the while, something has been hanging over me.

So let me start at the beginning. My husband, my cousin and I had booked a house in South London for New Year’s Eve via a well known international company that specialises in these sorts of online bookings. My cousin, newly divorced and with the family house sold, was looking to buy a flat in the area and our plan was to celebrate the festivities then go out on New Year's Day for brunch at a pub that might become “her local” in the future.

The drive up from Sussex was plagued by the most bizarre low-lying cloud, which appeared from nowhere, several times during our journey, rolling over the car like smoke from a wildfire and reducing visibility to nil. We should have read into this a sign of things to come, but we ignored the pathetic fallacy and ploughed gamely on through the weird smoke towards the Big Smoke.

When we reached the house, in a fairly new residential estate, it was - well - weird. A bit off. There was an old fridge freezer in the garden, for starters. It looked like they were in the process of renovating. I’d stayed in houses and apartments before, using the same app, and those properties always been extremely well cared for and clean, sometimes including a welcome basket of pastries or biscuits. In this house, there were biscuits, but they were in a tin at the back of the cupboard. The fridge contained half a lemon, a bit of cucumber, some half drunk bottles of dandelion and burdock and a box of cheap chocolates with three strawberry cremes still in it. It felt as if the (elderly) owners had just gone out to the bingo and would be back soon, possibly to eat the remaining strawberry cremes while sitting in the lounge on the sofa blanket that looked like it had been placed there to hide incontinence stains.

“Oh, lots of the houses I’ve stayed in from this company have been a bit weird like this,” said my cousin airily. “But it's a lounge and a kitchen and a bed for the night and it's such good value, I don't know why anyone even bothers to go to a hotel any more.” Words that would come back to haunt us.

“It does feel a bit odd,” my husband agreed. “We should definitely take photos and videos before we leave, you know, just in case.” My cousin and I agreed. And then we decided to concentrate on having a good time, and we forgot all about it.

We got on with the dinner prep. I made us Aviation cocktails and heated up a proper beef chilli I’d made at home, while my cousin made salsa.

We also had crispy artichokes on ricotta toasts with salsa verde, a brilliant Flavour Nuggets recipe that always goes down well even with people who think they don't like artichokes.

We played some card games we’d brought with us, talked about the good and the shit bits of the year that had just gone, set our intentions for 2026, then settled down to watch some of the Hootenanny and the fireworks (which we would have been able to hear, but not see, from the back garden of the property).

However, when we tried to get the TV to work, we just got static. Many, many WhatsApp messages and explanatory videos showing the lack of picture to the home owner later, we had to admit defeat and ended up watching the incredible display of drones and incendiaries celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another - on one of our phones propped up on the coffee table. Not the awe-inspiring spectacle we had envisaged.

So, after some good food and drink, we each agreed it had been a slightly underwhelming but generally pleasant New Year experience in each other’s company, and we all retired to our beds.

After a bit of a lie-in the next morning, we cleaned the kitchen and lounge, tidied the beds and packed up our stuff in the car, did a final check to make sure everything was in good order and we hadn't left anything behind, then walked round the corner at about 10.30am to go for brunch in the local hostelry.

At about 1pm, my cousin got a train back to her house. We walked back to pick up the car. We’d already put the door keys back in the key box so we didn't re-enter the property. We just drove away and got on with our afternoon.

The next day, my cousin forwarded me a message from the property owner. It said that when their cleaner had gone into the house at 12.30pm on New Years Day, they’d found the tap in the downstairs toilet had been left running on full, and that this had caused a significant amount of water damage to the laminate flooring in the kitchen, hallway and lounge. They were disappointed at our negligence. And they were demanding £900 from us for repairs.

I don't know about you, but my first reaction was disbelief, and then my second reaction after that was a puzzled, “But DID we leave the tap on?” But we knew we hadn't. We'd checked all the rooms before we left. The owner then sent video footage he said his cleaner had taken of the tap running fully. He said it was time and date stamped. So maybe we DID leave the tap running! But we couldn't see the time and date stamp. And also, who on earth takes video footage of a tap you’ve discovered running in a property you’ve entered? Surely your first instinct would be to turn it off? This really did feel like a scam.

My husband remembered that, when he’d used the taps upstairs, the water pressure was very dodgy and nothing had come out at first when he’d turned it on. So maybe we didn't turn the tap off properly even though it looked like it was, and then later, after we’d left, it started running? But there was no plug in the basin. So how could it have caused damage to the floor, unless there were also drainage problems? In which case it wasn't our fault - but what if it was?

My cousin had booked the house on her card, so technically she would be the one liable. We talked it through, looked at the (Byzantine and opaque) terms and conditions, and decided that we would go back to the company and say that, in effect, we didn't do it. The problem was, we had no evidence on our side. No photos or videos, despite my husband’s suggestion (oh, how we kicked ourselves). Only my cousin’s unblemished 5 star review rating as a customer, and the fact that we’d left the rest of the property in good order - we weren't middle age rock stars out to trash the place - stood in our favour. If we were found liable, we decided we’d split the costs three ways. My cousin sent over our “evidence”, such as it was, to the company. And then we just had to wait, feeling aggrieved and frustrated and weirdly guilty, even though we knew we weren’t.

The company took 3 weeks to consider all the evidence. And on my birthday, 22nd January, they sent my cousin a message to say, having looked it through, they’d decided we were indeed liable, and needed to pay £845, the first chunk of which would be taken directly out of my cousin’s account (you can't withdraw or cancel your card details with them if there’s an active complaint or dispute) unless we appealed within the next week. If we didn't pay up or our appeal was unsuccessful, the matter could end up in court.

My cousin was desperate to get the whole thing over and done, and not have it hanging over her any more. She didn't want her credit rating to be affected, and she certainly wouldn't have the money to pay court costs if we were unsuccessful. She was all for paying up and chalking it up to experience.

But several of our friends, including one who had been a host with the company for 5 years and several with legal training, told us to appeal. “Don’t panic and don't pay,” my friend Stuart advised us. “They are trying to scare you. Damage like this is covered by accidental damage insurance anyway, so it looks like they are double-claiming.” Others pointed out that, in a court of law, although we couldn't prove that we didn't cause the damage, the company couldn't prove beyond reasonable doubt that we did. It could just as easily been caused by faulty pressure, faulty plumbing, or a deliberate act by another party. “No company will want to take this to court, as they know they can't win,” another friend told me. “You’ve got absolutely nothing to lose by holding out and appealing again.”

“But we have no new evidence,” my cousin pointed out.

“Just stay strong,” we were advised. “Make it clear that they can't prove you did it.”

It felt like being in a Kafka-esque nightmare. My cousin said she’d put the appeal in only on the understanding that if it came to court, she wouldn't be liable for any court costs. My husband and I bit our lips and agreed. And then we waited again. Keeping a tight hold on the purse strings in my birthday week, just in case we had to fork out a third of £845 each.

Four days ago, another missive arrived which my cousin forwarded, with a note saying “Hahahahahahaha! Strange but true!”

. However, it also said this:

We have taken advice on the above, and my cousin has contacted the company to make sure we have it in writing that the matter is closed and we will not be charged anything. But for now, the nightmare is over. That hot, sweaty feeling every time the phone pings. The memory that catches in the back of the throat. The incipient financial gloom that sucks the joy out of paying for a birthday meal. All that is gone now.

So, the moral of the story is this. If you holiday in a rented property, ALWAYS take photos and videos before you leave, and possibly also when you arrive, in the same way people need to for hire cars. And, if you find yourself charged for something that you know is not your fault or for which you shouldn't be charged - stay strong, don't panic and don't pay!

Or, I don't know, just use a Premier Inn…

Have you ever had an experience like this? Let me know in the comments!