We had a couple of lovely weeks in Normandy, in an area we love, but there were problems and the owner, Patrick, wasn’t around to deal with anything.
Things didn’t start well: we arrived at the house at around 1030pm. We were tired and very grubby! having travelled for a day-and-a-half from the USA. We found the house, which really is in the middle of nowhere, there were no lights on, the TV didn’t work and there was no hot water.
We spoke to Patrick who apologized and told us that the woman who prepares the house had been diagnosed with a serious condition, so he didn’t like to press her too much!
We went to bed that night, having had cold showers. The beds were very uncomfortable! I think whoever had washed the sheets had used too much detergent; the sheets were scratchy and uncomfortable.
The next day it became clear that the door on the fridge freezer compartment was broken and needed careful handling. We read a note in the guest folder, from former renters, apologizing for breaking the door and telling Patrick that they’d left him 50 Euros hoping that this would cover the cost of the repair. Obviously, Patrick had taken the money and had clearly not done the repair. This was the “damage” that he told us he was withholding our £40 to get repaired!
There were a number of other problems: Patrick’s listing says that the house has Wi-Fi. We had Wi-Fi for the first week. It stopped working one day and never came back. We spoke to Patrick on another occasion, to ask where the BBQ was. He told me that it was behind the shed and that it was filthy (his word). He admitted that he’d seen it before he left, but he “hadn’t had time to clean it”. We cleaned it - it was in a disgusting state. We used it and then cleaned it again and left it ready for the next renters.
Because Patrick was away in the UK - and he had no one in the village who could come and sort out any issues, like the power going off (only at the house,) we were on our own when problems did occur. The house is very isolated - the nearest town/restaurant/shop/bar is a 15-20 minutes drive away. You really have to love the peace and quiet to stay here.
We sent Patrick an email a week ago, pointing out that the freezer door was broken when we arrived and quoting the written message in HIS welcome folder. So far, he’s ignored all attempts to get the balance of our deposit paid.
We've written both to the owner and VRBO but not had even the courtesy of a response!
