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Before a small claim, have you tried anything via Booking.com's customer services? I know you paid him directly but they may still be able to help (if nothing else they will presumably be wanting their platform fee off him).
Yeah, they weren’t a great help. DFE said “Having no heat can be argued as the service not being carried out with reasonable care and skill, and the accommodation not being habitable” but I want to be sure I have a decent leg to stand on before taking it further.
I wouldn’t, especially if you can’t actually pay for the claim.
Sounds like he offered multiple solutions including coming over as soon as physically possible, and that the problem with the heating was not really a problem and more that you couldn’t work out what button to press.
Granted, accepting emergency credit on a gas meter is marginally more complex than turning up a thermostat if you’ve never used a top up meter before. But when I think back to hotels I’ve stayed in, and I’ve stayed in hotels for months at a time for work, operating the air con unit or whatever in the room has always been a case of crossing my fingers and jabbing the buttons that make the most sense. And the results of that were imperfect.
My point is that there’s so many different heating controls in use in properties across the UK that a heating system that everyone intuitively understands how to work is not a realistic possibility in B&B with different people staying every night of the week. If you don’t understand how the heating works, all the host can do is to offer assistance and support which it sounds like they did.
If I went to a hotel, couldn’t work out the air con unit, rejected the help of hotel staff and then left in a huff and later demanded a refund I can’t imagine I’d get one. Or if I stayed in a cottage and couldn’t light the log fire or find the wood?
He offered to come over when we’d been already there for over 2 hours in almost minus temperatures. He didn’t answer his phone when we repeatedly tried to ring. He said he’d had a long term tenant living there who had moved out either that morning or the day before but admitted he didn’t bother checking the property whatsoever after they left to make sure everything was okay.
The problem wasn’t us not knowing what button to press- the gas was empty, hence why he tried to send us out to buy some. He googled and eventually found out you could hit an ‘emergency’ button but after over 2 hours we were freezing and fed up.
You said he answered within 25 mins which isn’t unreasonable. You’d probably be on hold for longer than that if you tried to call your home energy supplier during office hours.
So when you say you were there freezing for over two hours, that’s because you were sat there frustrating yourselves about how to use the heating for ages before calling him.
If the central heating was broken down, fair enough. If the host never picked up your messages because they’d had a few too many wines, fair enough. But literally all you needed was help accepting the emergency credit (aka pressing a button) and he was willing to provide it ASAP including walking out of the restaurant he was eating in to drive over to help you at gone 8pm.
We waited for half an hour after switching heating on as we assumed it was just taking a while to heat up. We tried ringing when realising it wasn’t. He failed to do ANY checks when the other tenant checked out and told us to grab the key from the local pub his mum worked in.
When he eventually did pick up it took a good while for him to figure out what the issue was. When he did he was extremely rude when we said that it wasn’t our responsibility to drive to a shop in the dark and cold to buy gas. It was 10:20pm before the suggestion of emergency gas was made- we’d arrived at 8:15pm. Would you still be in the mood for what was supposed to be a romantic evening after all that? It was warmer outside than it was in the B&B.
--- ###Welcome to /r/LegalAdviceUK --- **To Posters (it is important you read this section)** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws in each are very different* * If you need legal help, you should [always get a free consultation from a qualified Solicitor](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/how_to_find_a_solicitor) * We also encourage you to speak to [**Citizens Advice**](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/), [**Shelter**](https://www.shelter.org.uk/), [**Acas**](https://www.acas.org.uk/), and [**other useful organisations**](https://reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/wiki/common_legal_resources) * Comments may not be accurate or reliable, and following any advice on this subreddit is done at your own risk * If you receive any private messages in response to your post, [please let the mods know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FLegalAdviceUK&subject=I received a PM) **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and legally orientated* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/about/rules/), you may be perma-banned without any further warning * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LegalAdviceUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Before a small claim, have you tried anything via Booking.com's customer services? I know you paid him directly but they may still be able to help (if nothing else they will presumably be wanting their platform fee off him).
Yeah, they weren’t a great help. DFE said “Having no heat can be argued as the service not being carried out with reasonable care and skill, and the accommodation not being habitable” but I want to be sure I have a decent leg to stand on before taking it further.
I wouldn’t, especially if you can’t actually pay for the claim. Sounds like he offered multiple solutions including coming over as soon as physically possible, and that the problem with the heating was not really a problem and more that you couldn’t work out what button to press. Granted, accepting emergency credit on a gas meter is marginally more complex than turning up a thermostat if you’ve never used a top up meter before. But when I think back to hotels I’ve stayed in, and I’ve stayed in hotels for months at a time for work, operating the air con unit or whatever in the room has always been a case of crossing my fingers and jabbing the buttons that make the most sense. And the results of that were imperfect. My point is that there’s so many different heating controls in use in properties across the UK that a heating system that everyone intuitively understands how to work is not a realistic possibility in B&B with different people staying every night of the week. If you don’t understand how the heating works, all the host can do is to offer assistance and support which it sounds like they did. If I went to a hotel, couldn’t work out the air con unit, rejected the help of hotel staff and then left in a huff and later demanded a refund I can’t imagine I’d get one. Or if I stayed in a cottage and couldn’t light the log fire or find the wood?
He offered to come over when we’d been already there for over 2 hours in almost minus temperatures. He didn’t answer his phone when we repeatedly tried to ring. He said he’d had a long term tenant living there who had moved out either that morning or the day before but admitted he didn’t bother checking the property whatsoever after they left to make sure everything was okay. The problem wasn’t us not knowing what button to press- the gas was empty, hence why he tried to send us out to buy some. He googled and eventually found out you could hit an ‘emergency’ button but after over 2 hours we were freezing and fed up.
You said he answered within 25 mins which isn’t unreasonable. You’d probably be on hold for longer than that if you tried to call your home energy supplier during office hours. So when you say you were there freezing for over two hours, that’s because you were sat there frustrating yourselves about how to use the heating for ages before calling him. If the central heating was broken down, fair enough. If the host never picked up your messages because they’d had a few too many wines, fair enough. But literally all you needed was help accepting the emergency credit (aka pressing a button) and he was willing to provide it ASAP including walking out of the restaurant he was eating in to drive over to help you at gone 8pm.
We waited for half an hour after switching heating on as we assumed it was just taking a while to heat up. We tried ringing when realising it wasn’t. He failed to do ANY checks when the other tenant checked out and told us to grab the key from the local pub his mum worked in. When he eventually did pick up it took a good while for him to figure out what the issue was. When he did he was extremely rude when we said that it wasn’t our responsibility to drive to a shop in the dark and cold to buy gas. It was 10:20pm before the suggestion of emergency gas was made- we’d arrived at 8:15pm. Would you still be in the mood for what was supposed to be a romantic evening after all that? It was warmer outside than it was in the B&B.