Threatened with small claims case over holiday..Please help!!

[vicky26]

Hi, I booked a holiday for myself and my family and invited a good friend to come along. She accepted and paid her share of £311. Then my sons school informed me that he could not have the time off school due to it clashing with his Sats exams. I informed my friend and advised that she could claim off her travel insurance.

Then today her sister came round to my house ramming on the door and my windows. I couldn't answer as I was in the bath and my children were downstairs watching television. I only realised who it was when she posted a note through my door saying 'the next step is the small claims court'.

Please could anyone advise me on how to proceed and where I stand. I do not want to go to court and get a bad name but my hands are tied as I have not got any money to pay her as I paid it off the holiday.

Am I liable to pay her the money? Would she succeed in her claim as I have not actually kept the money??

Please help me as I am worried sick about this. Thanks.

[Conniff]

When you receive you reclaim from your insurance, pay her back with that.

[Bookworm]

Sorry, but your friend can not claim off the insurance. NO chance in hell. Cancellation gets accepted on grounds of medical emergency, death, illness, that kind of things. A refusal by the school will not be covered.

 

As for the friend, she would have little prospect of success in court, as there is nothing stopping her from going on holiday even if you can't, is there? It's her choice not to go, whether reasonable or not, and she must have known you were taking your son during school times so should have been aware of the risks the school would say no as well, so she took her chances as well, unless of course you never mentioned any of it.

 

She's losing out, so are you. She can still go, you can't. As for the sister, it has nothing to do with her. Have you spoken to your friend directly and explained the situation? You need to tell her about the insurance, because that won't help when she realises that she can't actually claim.

[ErikaPNP]

What does she expect to get out of the small claims court exactly? Did a fully and legally executed contract exist between the two of you? Probably not. Did she pay money via traceable means to you? Probably not. She took the same risk as you and there was nothing to stop her from going as bookie has pointed out.

 

Tell her to get lost and accept that you have lost out financially as well as her. She chose to give you that money, whether or not in good faith, she should have had the sense to know before parting with it if things went wrong there was no come back.

[butty_a]

Also depends how good a friend she really was? If the friendship is worth it offer to pay her back in installments, sounds to me that if you can't afford to pay her back then you probably couldn't afford the holiday anyway. As for the sister, phone the police if she carries on.