Hi, just returned from Calpe in Spain and we were burgled in our Holiday Villa which was booked through a UK company. On our last but one day we locked all doors, windows and shutters and went out for 45 minutes, returned and all was OK outside, unlocked and went in and after about an hour noticed an iPad, watch, some jewellery was missing, our mobile phones were out on the sofa still there and nothing else was missing, all inside locks were still locked.

Phoned the rep, whist waiting spoke to the one neighbour who said same thing happened last summer to a dutch family who had 600 Euro and an expensive pair of trainers taken but their GoPro was not taken, they reported to the rep and police came etc, we did not have insurance and wondered where we stand in that SOMEONE USED A KEY to get in, we had one and the Owner, Cleaners, Maintenance Etc have access to one, also previous guests, people with a grievance may have copied a key ? This Villa company does have a few mentions with other villas nearby on TripAdviser with similar stories, we used the Safe but it was only big enough for my bum bag containing passports, money and car keys etc The Guardia Police came and we filled out a report, they did not appear to be surpised or concerned. So a previous burglary should they have put NEW LOCKS on ? Are the UK Rental Company liable for lack of security and compensate me ? Any Advice please on where to go with this ? Thanks Milocoon

Nice place Calpe. Unfortunately this type of crime is very common in Spain and there is nothing you can do about it. Anyone who has rented that villa or knows someone who has had access could have gone to a local store to get a copy of the key made. The Police have no way of finding out who did it and the villa owners or their agents cannot be liable.

Best advice to people going to Spain renting villas is never to leave anything of value when going out. I would not even use the safe provided if it has a number you have to enter or a key. The safes you enter a number in, often have the same default emergency number, when you forget the made up number and need to access the safe. And safes provided with a key, mean someone with a spare or key having been copied.

Don't take anything on holiday to these rental villas of any value or never leave unattended. Make sure you have Travel Insurance to cover such losses.

Make sure you enter a review online about what happened. It should hopefully flag it to other people.

Hi Uncle Bulgaria67, thanks for your information and advice, when you say an online review do you mean on here or on the villa company site as I wonder if they would delete it there as it makes their villas bad news ?

I have asked a few people and if this villa had a burglary last summer shouldn`t they have a duty of care to protect future guests by making sure the locks were changed ?

Lastly someone at work had a holiday in Mexico and a few guests were having a drink and it appears that 10 or 20 Dollars was missing from their room safes every 2 days or so but didn`t report it as they weren`t 100% certain if they spent it on an outside trip but thought more of it when they hadn`t been anywhere for 4 days, that emergency code you mentioned would that have allowed someone to gain access, lock it but still leave the guest code working ?

Thanks again for your help I`m getting some free legal advice and then I`m going to put a complaint in to the Villa company on the basis of Inadequate security measures after a previous reported breakin.

I`ve sinced looked at Travel Insurance and standard policies don`t cover gadgets like iPad Pro and Leisure Guard would add £85 on to cover theft and loss but only for items under 18 months old, iPhone 6S would be £65 and both had an excess of £50

In future only a cheap phone and all jewellery and gadgets get locked in at home I Think !

Thanks

Have you put a review on Tripadvisor? It's good to let other people know even if it doesn't solve your immediate problem.

HB

Put a review on the Villa agents site and any site such as Trip Advisor that might have a place for review.

Duty of care is difficult ? How do you know the villa agent was made aware of the previous Summers burglary ? The villas owner might not have told them for obvious reasons. I.e they might not get more bookings or have to pay to change all locks.

Yes the Mexico safe might have been opened with default emergency code and the room occupants would have been none the wiser as their code may still work. There are Youtube videos warning of this i believe. These hotels buy these safes in bulk and they offer only basic security.

Take out Insurance for future holidays. You can get full cover but you have to phone companies to ask fir more cover at extra cost. Obviously too late now.

Edit - And the other thing to be wary of is phones being used to make calls to premium rate numbers, even if they were not taken. If you have not had a bill, check they were not used,