VacationRental #FloodedHouse #HostResponsibility
Hey everyone! 🏠💦 So, imagine this – you book a vacation rental house for a family trip, only to wake up in the middle of the night to find the finished basement flooded due to a busted water valve. Yikes! 😱
Now, the host is shrugging off any responsibility, refusing to cover the damages to your belongings. What do you do in a situation like this? Are you really out of luck?
Here are a few things you can consider doing:
- Review the Rental Agreement: Check if there are any clauses that mention liability in case of damages.
- Document Everything: Take photos of the damages, keep records of your communication with the host.
- Contact Airbnb/VRBO: If you booked through a platform, reach out to them for assistance.
- Consider Legal Action: If all else fails, you might need to seek legal advice to pursue reimbursement for your losses.
Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Any advice or tips on how to handle this kind of host response? Let’s help each other out and share our experiences! 💬🤝
Are you also in South Carolina, or have you returned home to another state?
Do you have homeowners insurance, or renters insurance? Either of those should cover you, and then they could see about subrogating.
So what happens when you reach out to Airbnb?
Something similar happened to my son. Not in a vacation rental but in college. He was a hall director so given a private room. Plumbing in the ceiling was faulty and leaked over top of his desk, ruining his laptop. That had to be handled by our homeowners insurance. Obviously it was just a laptop so no point in filing a claim when replacement fist was less than deductible. The school did not cover his damages.
Just like if your apartment burns down, the landlord isn’t generally responsible for your belongings, you are likely responsible for the loss of your articles in your vacation rental.
Our home owners insurance includes a specific limit for our items on vacation with us. I would take a look at your policy for off premises coverage and if applicable, make a claim against your home owners or renters insurance and let them subrogate to the host and their insurance for the value of your damaged items.
I would also open a claim with the rental platform/company you used to pursue compensation for your out of pocket costs for having to switch accommodations etc, and for a refund for the remaining part of your stay.
What does your rental contract say
You should reach out to your homeowners insurance, you might be covered or they may be able to help. If not you can also file a claim against their insurance yourself.
Otherwise you can sue the host directly.
They do not want to file a claim because it will increase their premium. She may very well owe something, that could be controlled by her insurance, any rental agreement, state law, or by your insurance. It behooves you to reach out to your own insurance to see the limits of coverage. Your insurance company may pay out to you and then sue the LL insurance for negligence.
Check your cc you used to pay. May be able to do breach of contract for reasonable accommodations and do a charge back.
I am not an attorney but I am a host who has dealt with a similar situation multiple times.
As a host we carry special insurance that would cover us for a guests belongings, she might not have that. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t liable.
Since it isn’t clear what coverages she might have, your best plan of action is to start with where you booked and see what protections they offer, next is to file a claim with your own homeowners or renters policy. Those usually have coverage for these situations and they will go after the hosts insurance. Lastly is to see if you have any coverage through the credit card you booked the trip with or any other travel insurance you might have bought through Lodgify.
Also did you actually FIND the rental on lodgify? That is fairly rare. If you actually booked it on [booking.com/airbnb/VRBO](http://booking.com/airbnb/VRBO) etc and the charge on your credit card just said “lodgify xyz host” the rental would still be protected under policies of those sites. As a host if I use a service like lodgify I can have a guest find me on VRBO but I can run their credit card through lodgify as our payment processor. But VRBO policies would still apply to the booking.