Candy Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 If someone agrees via e-mail to rent your property for next winter and then cancels a month later, can you enforce the cancellation fee? The person who was supposed to be renting is from Canada and the property is here in Mexico. The cancellation fee was outlined in the written e-mail agreement that it would be paid if the place was cancelled and the renter wrote that it was acceptable. No deposit was made so impossible to keep the cancellation fee from that. The renter is now refusing to pay the cancellation fee saying that there's plenty of time between now and the winter to re-rent. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gimpychimp Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 The renter is right, you have plenty of time and you should move on. You have absolutely nothing at the moment which is of any use to you, and why cause yourself aggravation by not accepting that? It just didn't work out and there are plenty of other renters out there. If your place is nice and the price is right you will have no problem attracting someone else to it. "Don't sweat the small stuff." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcscats Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Move on or get out of the rental business here. No money no leverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Berca Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 There are times when I can see how advantageous it is to some posters to be anonymous on this board. Sheesh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pappysmarket Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Simple rule of thumb: never confirm a reservation until you have a deposit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artsnob Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 I know of someone looking for a place long term, PM me with details and will forward to them...K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bontekoe Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Greedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gringal Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 7 hours ago, Candy said: If someone agrees via e-mail to rent your property for next winter and then cancels a month later, can you enforce the cancellation fee? The person who was supposed to be renting is from Canada and the property is here in Mexico. The cancellation fee was outlined in the written e-mail agreement that it would be paid if the place was cancelled and the renter wrote that it was acceptable. No deposit was made so impossible to keep the cancellation fee from that. The renter is now refusing to pay the cancellation fee saying that there's plenty of time between now and the winter to re-rent. Any thoughts? What we have here is an UN-enforceable promise which will not be kept. Chalk this up to experience. If this situation comes up again, Inform the potential renter that you require a non-refundable deposit in order to hold the property. This is not "greedy"; it's just good business. You can't walk into a store and just say "hold that (whaterver) for me until next winter" and expect them to do so without a deposit. Good luck in finding another tenant and this time, "trust, but verify". Get the deposit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pappysmarket Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 As gringal says, until you have a deposit,and the check has cleared, all you really have is an inquiry. Honest potential clients fully understand that. Some folks do take advantage of a rookie landlord. We learned the hard way also. Keep your antenna on at all times. Make perfectly clear that the deposit will not be returned for any reason unless your property is unlivable. You can't begin to imagine the excuses you may get! Smile and politely stand your ground. To a small percentage of people this seems to be a game. Since you make the rules you should win every time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecoons Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 1 hour ago, gringal said: What we have here is an UN-enforceable promise which will not be kept. Chalk this up to experience. If this situation comes up again, Inform the potential renter that you require a non-refundable deposit in order to hold the property. This is not "greedy"; it's just good business. You can't walk into a store and just say "hold that (whaterver) for me until next winter" and expect them to do so without a deposit. Good luck in finding another tenant and this time, "trust, but verify". Get the deposit. This and Pappy's post are great examples of straight, non judgmental answer to the question posed by the OP. No questioning the question, no sideways remarks about "greedy" just to the point answers. Thanks to the both of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gringal Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 32 minutes ago, Mainecoons said: This and Pappy's post are great examples of straight, non judgmental answer to the question posed by the OP. No questioning the question, no sideways remarks about "greedy" just to the point answers. Thanks to the both of you. There is entirely too much snarkiness in the world. No need for it. Naivete in business matters is not a sin. We've probably all been suckered at one time or other. I remember well the tough lesson I learned in my youth when I cleaned up and repainted a horrible apartment till it sparkled, at which time the landlady came to inform me of a rent increase. "Because it's worth more now". Need I say more? Except, lesson learned. 32 minutes ago, Mainecoons said: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lcscats Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 1 hour ago, gringal said: Good luck in finding another tenant and this time, "trust, but verify". Get the deposit. Oh my God Gringal is giving Reagan quotes......LOL LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pappysmarket Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 A little more advice. We always got a 50% deposit at booking with the balance due 60 days from arrival. If they questioned why we responded that almost all of our business came from the internet, not walk ins. A cancellation almost always resulted in an empty room. This policy is quite common for vacation rentals. If the inquiry asks about noise, we usually responded that Mexico is not a quiet country in general and that they could probably expect to hear church bells, dogs, roosters and maybe a neighbor's stereo. A question about beds got the reply that we had a good quality mattress on a box spring. We actually had two comments on the same bed, one saying too soft the other too hard. Same with pillows, we advised we had Walmart style pillows and advised people to bring their own if really important. Amazing how many did. The education in human behavior that we got was priceless but it did not come free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casadelsol Posted June 10, 2016 Report Share Posted June 10, 2016 Pappysmarket........your post reads A little more advice. We always got a 50% deposit at booking with the balance due 60 days from arrival. If they questioned why we responded that almost all of our business came from the internet, not walk ins. A cancellation almost always resulted in an empty room. This policy is quite common for vacation rentals. Does this mean you get the full rent upfront before the person comes in? Or is the other half due 60 days after they arrive? Just wondering.....thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 Plenty of time to re-rent. We still did not even start looking. Maybe by August. June is way too early to commit. One can never know what will happen during the year. So far we were very lucky finding places. And this website was very helpful as well. Candy will have no problem to re-rent. Good policy would be to get a cancellation (refundable) payment up front for holding it and than, as Pappy said, more money 60 days(or so) before, because after that it will be more difficult to have it rented and write an agreement if it will fill then the monies will be returned. Good luck with that though. There are sad cases on both sides of the equation. It would be wonderful if there is more trust and honesty among humans. And by the way I always bring my pillows. LOL. Cannot sleep on "Walmart" type. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gringal Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 2 hours ago, lcscats said: Oh my God Gringal is giving Reagan quotes......LOL LOL Yeah, yeah...........but it was a good piece of advice, no matter where it came from. 2 hours ago, lcscats said: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pappysmarket Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 2 hours ago, Casadelsol said: Pappysmarket........your post reads A little more advice. We always got a 50% deposit at booking with the balance due 60 days from arrival. If they questioned why we responded that almost all of our business came from the internet, not walk ins. A cancellation almost always resulted in an empty room. This policy is quite common for vacation rentals. Does this mean you get the full rent upfront before the person comes in? Or is the other half due 60 days after they arrive? Just wondering.....thank you! Jaja Before! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pappysmarket Posted June 11, 2016 Report Share Posted June 11, 2016 1 hour ago, Islander said: Plenty of time to re-rent. We still did not even start looking. Maybe by August. June is way too early to commit. One can never know what will happen during the year. So far we were very lucky finding places. And this website was very helpful as well. Candy will have no problem to re-rent. Good policy would be to get a cancellation (refundable) payment up front for holding it and than, as Pappy said, more money 60 days(or so) before, because after that it will be more difficult to have it rented and write an agreement if it will fill then the monies will be returned. Good luck with that though. There are sad cases on both sides of the equation. It would be wonderful if there is more trust and honesty among humans. And by the way I always bring my pillows. LOL. Cannot sleep on "Walmart" type. You hit the nail on the head. Don't make a commitment before you can afford to lose your deposit. We had several cases where people had to cancel after making their final payment. Our policy in those cases was to drastically reduce the rate and hope to get a renter so we could refund at least some money to the folks. You would never believe some excuses people try to use. Your best chance of a refund is to apologize and maybe ask if you would be welcome in the future. Anyone who claimed that they were being treated unfairly didn't stand a chance. Our policy was clearly spelled out. We surely lost some reservations but it made our lives more predictable. It was not how we started out but it didn't take too long to adapt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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