Q: Can I get a refund on a cancelled vacation rental property?
We live in Illinois. We booked a vacation rental property on Captiva Island for Mar 28-Apr 4, 2020. The rental was facilitated VRBO; actual booking was with Dream Vacation Rentals (DVR). We cancelled due to Covid. The Illinois governor issued a "no leisure travel" order on March 20. The Florida governor ordered vacation rentals to be closed starting March 28. Total amount paid to DVR is over $17k. Contract essentially says "no refunds for any reason". DVR offered a 12-month credit, which we declined. As we were not legally supposed to travel, and DVR was not legally supposed to operate the property, we are trying to see if we have any legal recourse to any refund.
A:
This is a great question.
And actually the answer is simple.
Did the seller of the service perform? No.
Did you prevent the seller from performing? No.
Did you pay for a service and not receive it? Yes.
You are entitled to a full refund.
It gets more complicated when you ask for damages beyond the refund. Then the impossibility of legally performing on the part of the seller comes into play.
But for just the refund, there is a clear cut case.
The action probably needs to be brought in Florida as the location of the failure to perform.
Bruce Alexander Minnick agrees with this answer
1 user found this answer helpful
A:
Mr. Zaretsky is correct: There is a viable cause of action under these circumstances and the civil litigation should be brought in the State of Florida.
However, as I have advised my financially injured clients over these past 42+ years here in Florida, before you pay a lawyer to mount up you should do your own due diligence and find out who owns "Dream Vacation Rentals" and then find out (a) whether they went bankrupt and (b) if so, which bankruptcy court they are being crucified in.
1 user found this answer helpful
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