OKVacationer
New Member
On April 7th, I arranged to rent a condo in a resort town and paid in full online via debit/credit card (a debit with the Visa logo).
On 06/19/2010 we checked in to our unit. We were there until the morning of 06/23/2010, at which time we checked out and came home.
Five days later I received an e-mail from the rental management company that was titled "damage to unit." Inside the e-mail was a statement that the company had tried to bill our credit card for damage to the unit in the form of a shattered shower door in the bathroom, the charges had been denied, how did we want to pay the $225.30 owed. It was literally a 2-sentence e-mail.
I immediately responded and enclosed photos of the unit that we had taken upon our departure. I told the person that there was no damage to the unit when we left, we don't know how the damage occurred, but we didn't do it, and please do not contact us any further.
I then contacted my attorney to ask his advice. He advised me to cancel the card they attempted to charge, which I did, and to cancel any other cards that would be associated with the rental, which we did. He e-mailed a colleague from the state in which this occurred (Colorado) to ask for advice regarding that state's laws; however, with it being a holiday weekend, he's not heard anything back regarding what we should do.
Now, the rental company has filed a complaint with the police in their town. A police officer has called twice; however, my attorney has advised me to not answer the call or return it until he hears from his colleague. Ironically, it has now gotten to an almost harassing nature with the phone calls from the police department. Our attorney says he is puzzled why the police are involved because this should be a civil matter, not a criminal one.
The facts are:
1. When we left the rental unit, it was in perfect condition. We even went so far as to clean the kitchen and vacuum before we left. There was no damage to anything. The dishes were washed. The used towels were folded and placed on the floor by the bathroom door. The garbage had been taken out, and all the rest of the checkout list for the unit followed.
2. We did not hear anything from the rental company after that. We were not notified of any damage by phone, regular mail, or e-mail.
3. Only when our credit card denied the charges were we notified. Had there not been an insufficient balance, I doubt we would have even known about the charge until the dollar amount showed up on our statement. Then we would have had to try to fight it.
4. The photo enclosed as "proof" is a blurry photograph with an ambiguous name to it. Since there was no indication from the e-mail as to when the damage had occurred or when the photo was taken, I hoped to find out more information by viewing the photo's file properties. I was stunned to see that the photo is dated 10/01/2003.
5. I had taken photos of our unit prior to leaving. We had a spectacular time. The year previous, we had rented a unit that was awful, so we were very pleasantly surprised with this one. By a fluke (God's grace?), I also photographed the shower because of the unusual setup. We also photographed the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms because each room had a fabulous view.
From our point of view, this is a nice little scam they have going: Wait until renters are gone and probably out of state, then attempt to charge their credit card for 'damages' without notifying the renters first. If and when the card is declined, they send ambiguous photos as proof, assuming that the person would not know how to check a digital date stamp (EXIF data), and demand payment. Without any type of proof of their own, no way to verify whether there is even damage or not, and being states away, renters would be bullied into paying for this "damage." How many times have they recycled those blurred, ambiguous, and outdated photos?
On my end, I have contacted my bank and credit card companies and put fraud alerts on my accounts for unauthorized charges. At first, I was willing to "let sleeping dogs lie" as long as they let the situation go. However, since they have stepped things up a notch, and on the advice of my attorney, I have since filed complaints with that state's Attorney General's Consumer Fraud division, who may forward it to the Better Business Bureau, so I did not file with them to avoid duplicate complaints. I filed a complaint with the US Postal Service Inspector General for email fraud. I have also filed a complaint with the FBI's IC3 site related to internet and credit card fraud, since this all took place via email and website. In each case, I provided copies of our original rental agreement, e-mails, and tried (hopefully) to upload photos, both theirs and ours. I do have case numbers for those complaints.
What are our rights here? Have I done everything I can since I am out of state? And most importantly: We did NOT damage the unit whatsoever and yet it seems to be our word against theirs. Where do we go from here? Is my name now sullied because of the police complaint?
Thank you in advance to anyone who responds.
On 06/19/2010 we checked in to our unit. We were there until the morning of 06/23/2010, at which time we checked out and came home.
Five days later I received an e-mail from the rental management company that was titled "damage to unit." Inside the e-mail was a statement that the company had tried to bill our credit card for damage to the unit in the form of a shattered shower door in the bathroom, the charges had been denied, how did we want to pay the $225.30 owed. It was literally a 2-sentence e-mail.
I immediately responded and enclosed photos of the unit that we had taken upon our departure. I told the person that there was no damage to the unit when we left, we don't know how the damage occurred, but we didn't do it, and please do not contact us any further.
I then contacted my attorney to ask his advice. He advised me to cancel the card they attempted to charge, which I did, and to cancel any other cards that would be associated with the rental, which we did. He e-mailed a colleague from the state in which this occurred (Colorado) to ask for advice regarding that state's laws; however, with it being a holiday weekend, he's not heard anything back regarding what we should do.
Now, the rental company has filed a complaint with the police in their town. A police officer has called twice; however, my attorney has advised me to not answer the call or return it until he hears from his colleague. Ironically, it has now gotten to an almost harassing nature with the phone calls from the police department. Our attorney says he is puzzled why the police are involved because this should be a civil matter, not a criminal one.
The facts are:
1. When we left the rental unit, it was in perfect condition. We even went so far as to clean the kitchen and vacuum before we left. There was no damage to anything. The dishes were washed. The used towels were folded and placed on the floor by the bathroom door. The garbage had been taken out, and all the rest of the checkout list for the unit followed.
2. We did not hear anything from the rental company after that. We were not notified of any damage by phone, regular mail, or e-mail.
3. Only when our credit card denied the charges were we notified. Had there not been an insufficient balance, I doubt we would have even known about the charge until the dollar amount showed up on our statement. Then we would have had to try to fight it.
4. The photo enclosed as "proof" is a blurry photograph with an ambiguous name to it. Since there was no indication from the e-mail as to when the damage had occurred or when the photo was taken, I hoped to find out more information by viewing the photo's file properties. I was stunned to see that the photo is dated 10/01/2003.
5. I had taken photos of our unit prior to leaving. We had a spectacular time. The year previous, we had rented a unit that was awful, so we were very pleasantly surprised with this one. By a fluke (God's grace?), I also photographed the shower because of the unusual setup. We also photographed the kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedrooms because each room had a fabulous view.
From our point of view, this is a nice little scam they have going: Wait until renters are gone and probably out of state, then attempt to charge their credit card for 'damages' without notifying the renters first. If and when the card is declined, they send ambiguous photos as proof, assuming that the person would not know how to check a digital date stamp (EXIF data), and demand payment. Without any type of proof of their own, no way to verify whether there is even damage or not, and being states away, renters would be bullied into paying for this "damage." How many times have they recycled those blurred, ambiguous, and outdated photos?
On my end, I have contacted my bank and credit card companies and put fraud alerts on my accounts for unauthorized charges. At first, I was willing to "let sleeping dogs lie" as long as they let the situation go. However, since they have stepped things up a notch, and on the advice of my attorney, I have since filed complaints with that state's Attorney General's Consumer Fraud division, who may forward it to the Better Business Bureau, so I did not file with them to avoid duplicate complaints. I filed a complaint with the US Postal Service Inspector General for email fraud. I have also filed a complaint with the FBI's IC3 site related to internet and credit card fraud, since this all took place via email and website. In each case, I provided copies of our original rental agreement, e-mails, and tried (hopefully) to upload photos, both theirs and ours. I do have case numbers for those complaints.
What are our rights here? Have I done everything I can since I am out of state? And most importantly: We did NOT damage the unit whatsoever and yet it seems to be our word against theirs. Where do we go from here? Is my name now sullied because of the police complaint?
Thank you in advance to anyone who responds.
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