Advice please

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AP
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:04 pm

Advice please

Post by AP »

Hello all

I wonder if I can ask advice of all you GOOD rental home owners, in regard to the following situation?

My 18 year old son and some friends are in a villa on Costa Brava booked with an agent, via a very reputable listing site, WITH full licence details given; prior to booking, as much checking as possible was done and we felt confident all was kosher.

The boys arrived on Saturday afternoon, and the villa is very close the agents office. When they collected keys (no meet and greet as the agent has "too many properties " to offer this) and they went to the villa, they immediately saw the pool was empty. This was apparently due to the previous week's rowdy group, throwing beer in it, meaning it had to be drained.

It took until 7.30 pm on Monday before a water truck was sent to refill it, but in the meantime, the handy man had tried to fill it from 3 x hoses from various taps around the property. This resulted in all the water shutting down (taps, showers, toilets) for about 12 hours. It has gone off again since, for several hours at a time.

The electricity then went off, just after they'd filled the fridge with food. As no electricity, they tried to use the barbecue- it was filthy, having not been cleaned after the previous guests, so had to scrub that before using.

One dishwasher is infested with ants, the other still overflowing with the previous guests dishes (the property is in two apartments, let as one unit, hence 2 x kitchen areas)

The laundry room is full of last weeks linen/towels

The cleaners did arrive on Sunday but only long enough to swear at my son and his friends calling them 'dirty pigs' and another expletive I can't repeat, in Spanish - one of the boys lived in Spain as a child and is all but fluent, so knew what they were saying. It would appear they thought it was the same troublesome group as last week, but regardless, they didn't apologise or make good the mess left.

The manager has not visited the villa; he has "declined" my calls, cutting me off when noting my number; he hasn't replied to emails, texts or WhatsApps other than a few lines on Monday evening saying he was discussing with the owner.........

Given all of this, can anyone suggest where we can go from here please? The listing site have responded to my contact and they too, are struggling to get hold of the manager.

The holiday is effectively ruined as the group have spent each day fighting fires and trying to get things done - some attempts have been made by the handyman but it seems he is tied by both the owner and the manager. The cost of the villa was in excess of 3000 euros for the week, so not a low-cost option

Your input welcome and appreciated

Many thanks
costa-brava
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Post by costa-brava »

Absolutely understand. Easy-peasy solution. All of us, be we owners, agents or whatever are required by law to have "fulles de reclamacio" claims documents. There is a penalty for not having them available.
Here is the link: http://consum.gencat.cat/doc/doc_41866759_2.pdf
There is a phone number on the form to call for advice.
But in any case you can try the following offices to present it; Town Hall, Tourist Office, Judjat de Pau (justice of the peace). The office of the Comarca. You haven't said where the villa is but most of Costa Brava is Baix Emporda, Alt Emporda or La Selva.
You MUST get a copy stamped with a "numero de entrada". You will not get an immediate reply but this is the official way to process a complaint.
If the villa is in the area around Palamos/ Calonge I may be able to give more advice on the agency.
Finally you need to have the registration number that starts HUTG- then six digits. If it doesn't have this it is not a legal holiday let. I would be able to help you more with this number.
AP
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:04 pm

Post by AP »

Thank you so much

The villa is in Lloret de Mar (or 2km out according to the listing; it is actually 2km from the edge of town 5km from the centre, we now know....) and i DO have the HUTG number.

Can this be done from the UK so we can start the process, or must they try to do it whilst still in Spain?

I am grateful to you for your help
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CSE
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Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

The requirements have been discussed before on this forum.
If you look for the address in this website than you can see if or if not this property is really genuine.
https://empresa.extranet.gencat.cat/rtc ... /index.jsp
If not then you have even more to add to the list of complaints.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
costa-brava
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Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:57 am
Location: costa brava spain
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Post by costa-brava »

Hi
Back again. I took a look at some of your issues thinking of practical solutions etc.
For the "meet and greet" you don't have an issue. It is not normal with agents and even with owners there is often a local shop or somewhere that you pick up a key. But the law requires the owner or administrator to have a 24 hour phone and a 24 hour emergency response.
For the empty swimming pool it depends on the water source. With the public supply there is a huge surcharge if we go over normal average consumption. NOBODY ever empties a pool around here except in exceptional circumstances. To refill in August is a big ask. Also they may not be on public supply but instead using a well (quite common out in villa-land) and if so it refills tanks via an electric pump.
The electricity (surprise, surprise) is just like back home. You find the fuse box which is full of kick switches. You then need to track down which appliance is kicking off the power, isolate it and put the main switch back on. However most places now have smart meters. If you overload you disconnect totally and there is a process to get back on. You can google for it. It's not difficult.
ANTS are our neighbours. They are like midges in Scotland. You wouldn't dream of going to Loch Ness and expect any recompense for the midges. Actually they are much nicer than midges they don't bite and they eat up your smelly food-bits.
I mentioned in my last post that you need the HUTG number. Reading again I see that your "Villa" is in fact two apartments. Sounds dodgy. If it is divided into two legal apartments there will be two HUTG numbers. Sometimes the agents are not averse to giving you a bogus number.
Your main complaint is that you received it dirty and unprepared and that seems to have been compounded by an uncommunicative agent. Best if you have some photos of how the boys found it.
AP
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:04 pm

Post by AP »

Thank you both - the lack of meet and greet isn't an issue, but they are lucky the office is where it is in relation to the house as it was only made clear in the few days before arrival, that they had to collect keys rather than get them at the house

There may well be a 24 hour contact but there is minimal response - only the handyman has made any attempt to assist them. The manager ignores my or the boys messages ( We can see when they have been read) and there is far from emergency responses

We only became aware of the two apartment arrangement, on arrival - the HUTG number is on the listing and has again been quoted to me by the listing site today, who HAVE now been able to reach the manager who says he is aware of the many issues and needs time to formulate a response, so asks for patience .......it is now Wednesday and we've been trying to get things fixed since Saturday- they leave at 0630 on Saturday morning so I don't think we can be very much more patient as the holiday is pretty much a write-off.

The electricity wasn't being actively used at the point it went off so not a case of being overloaded I think - they became aware when trying to plug something in.

I'll go back now to the listing site (not OD/HA/TA so not part of that group of poor sites) to get clarification on the HUTG numbers

Thanks again - all very helpful
costa-brava
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Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:57 am
Location: costa brava spain
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Post by costa-brava »

Casa wrote:
"The requirements have been discussed before on this forum.
If you look for the address in this website than you can see if or if not this property is really genuine.
https://empresa.extranet.gencat.cat/rtc ... /index.jsp
If not then you have even more to add to the list of complaints."

That's the place to look but it's a fairly messy site. You have to troll through hundreds of HUTs or be a wee bit Catalan-savvy to use the advanced function. And the poster is the parent of a renter not an owner trying to sort it all out from back in the UK.
Anyway the poster contacted me privately with the HUTG number and I managed to dig out a few scraps of info. It does appear to be an authentic license number. Still didn't say who they booked through. Hoping it was Spain-hol in which case they will help them sort it out. They are the only listing I could find.
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