I slipped in the bathroom halfway through my holiday in France and was so badly bruised the rest of the trip was a write-off. In hindsight I’m not surprised I slipped – the bathroom had no grab rails, the floor tiles had no grip and there was no shower tray so the water covered the bathroom floor. What are my rights?
J.G., by email.
Dean Dunham replies: The hotel had a basic legal requirement (often referred to as a duty of care) to provide a safe environment for guests and it appears that it has failed to do this.
Your first step is to make sure you have sufficient evidence to prove this, so hopefully you took photographs and perhaps video footage of the bathroom.
It is also always advisable to raise a complaint at the hotel when you are unhappy about the accommodation and/or service and to record this. Your next step is to consider your loss. Here, your bruising is unlikely to have any long-term effects, so you should concentrate on the diminution in the enjoyment of your holiday and what a reasonable reduction/refund amount would be to compensate for this. The sum will rarely be a full refund when you have stayed at the hotel for the booked period.
If this was a package holiday (meaning you booked the travel and accommodation together), you can complain under the Package Travel Regulations to ABTA, if your provider is a member.
The reader writes that the bathroom had no grab rails, the floor tiles had no grip and there was no shower tray so the water covered the bathroom floor (picture posed by model)
ABTA will pass your complaint on to the hotel and encourage a settlement. If this does not resolve your complaint you will have the option of using ABTA’s arbitration scheme and make a binding decision on whether you are entitled to compensation.
When you complain, include all the information and evidence you have gathered. If this was not a package holiday you will have to complain again to the hotel and if it rejects your claim or ignores you, the next step would be to go to court. This would mean going through the French courts.
I moved into a new property in March and signed up for broadband. The telecom provider said there would be a short wait for installation, so I was sent a ‘mini-hub’ in the interim. The internet speeds were poor. Several engineers have visited but have been unable to fully connect me. I’m being charged £50 a month and still don’t have a proper connection. I’ve signed a contract, but can I cancel and get my money back?
S.A, London.
Dean Dunham replies: Gather evidence of the speed issue so that you can prove that you are not receiving the full service you have been sold.
Find an internet speed checker online and record the internet speeds at several times during the day over several days. Make sure you screenshot the results. Then, check what your contract says about terms and conditions. They will likely state that the advertised broadband speed is not guaranteed and is the ‘maximum speed’ you can expect.
If so, you need to look to see if you were promised a ‘minimum guaranteed speed’ as this will be the important benchmark. There has potentially been a breach of contract if the speeds you have been recording are lower than the minimum guaranteed speed.
There is one final step to take. Check that there are no other factors causing the issue that are outside of the provider’s control, such as local temporary issues.
If there are none, approach your provider in writing, requesting that the contract be immediately terminated and they provide a full refund on the basis that you are not receiving the minimum guaranteed speeds and provide your evidence to substantiate this. You should also point out you were led to believe that you’d have the higher speed on a regular or permanent basis.
There is also another route. Regulator Ofcom introduced a voluntary code that most big providers are signed up to. It states that participating providers must give you the expected range of maximum speeds for your line at the point of sale and if your speed is below your minimum guaranteed speed you must be allowed to exit your contract penalty-free. You can find out more about this here: https://ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/codes-of-practice
