I would like your honest opinion please?

[mel29]

We recently hired a narrowboat Sat till Wed at the cost of £950 which was £750 plus £250 refundable deposit.
Our party was ladies 50+ and a small dog.
We spent one night on the boat and the following afternoon one of us fell up the steps of the boat bruising knees and generally shaking her up. At that point we knew that we could not continue our narrowboat journey as it wasn't physically possible for 1 of us alone to do the locks. At this point we had travelled between 4.5 and 5 miles via canal. We got help and moored up safely
I telephoned the owner who agreed to come and fetch us to take us back to our car, she checked the boat over and locked it up.
My question is this if you were the owner what would you have done, would you have come to help, would you be taking back possession at that point? Would you offer any sort of refund as the owner? Would you return the refundable deposit?
I wouls appreciate your input

 

[john_morris_uk]

We recently hired a narrowboat Sat till Wed at the cost of £950 which was £750 plus £250 refundable deposit.
Our party was ladies 50+ and a small dog.
We spent one night on the boat and the following afternoon one of us fell up the steps of the boat bruising knees and generally shaking her up. At that point we knew that we could not continue our narrowboat journey as it wasn't physically possible for 1 of us alone to do the locks. At this point we had travelled between 4.5 and 5 miles via canal. We got help and moored up safely
I telephoned the owner who agreed to come and fetch us to take us back to our car, she checked the boat over and locked it up.
My question is this if you were the owner what would you have done, would you have come to help, would you be taking back possession at that point? Would you offer any sort of refund as the owner? Would you return the refundable deposit?
I wouls appreciate your input

Hello Mel and welcome to the forums.
£750 + £250 is £1000 not £950 so that’s slightly confusing?

Was your hire contract to return the boat to the starting place? It was you who decided to cut short your hire so I don’t see any reason why the owner should give a refund for the unused hire period. Was there any insurance?

The owner had to go to the trouble of bringing the boat back to its home so they might reasonably deduct a fee for this from the deposit. I’m not sure that charging the whole £250 is reasonable though…

I hope the injuries have all healed up.

PS. It is just about possible to manage locks single handed but it’s hard work.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I would not expect a refund from the hire fee as you had taken the boat and the owner was left having to recover it as you were not able to return it to the base. He may also have a charter after yours in which case he is also under time pressure to recover the boat.

He may deduct a charge for the recovery (especially if he has to pay someone to do it), but if you are lucky he'll just recover it and return your deposit.

Hope the injuries were not serious and your friend is recovering well.

If you are insured, or if you paid with a credit card, then investigate the possibility of an insurance claim to recover costs.

 

[dankilb]

Refund? What refund?! The owner can hardly rent it out again in that period. Why should they incur a loss of income because someone else fell over? It wouldn’t happen with most hotels (either non-refundable @ booking or from so many days/hours prior to arrival - I don’t know any where you can change your mind, get some money back, and go home!).

You should get the deposit back unless the fall damaged the boat and/or the 5 mile distance incurs costs for the owner retrieving the boat (for instance who will drive them there to pick it up?).

You could’ve taken travel insurance for your holiday, no? Then nobody is out of pocket.

 

[MoodySabre]

I might have offered a partial refund if I had been able to relet the boat for those days.
Deposit - what John Morris said.
My initial move would to phoned a few friends and found another helper.

 

[Irish Rover]

If I was the owner I'd refund the deposit, retain the hire fee and feel I'd demonstrated my good will and customer service by coming to collect you and taking responsibility for returning the boat to base.

 

[KevinV]

If I was the owner I'd refund the deposit, retain the hire fee and feel I'd demonstrated my good will and customer service by coming to collect you and taking responsibility for returning the boat to base.

I'd like to think I'd do that too - but the reality of the bank balance right now might alter my thinking - it's not been a good season for UK tourism.

 

[fredrussell]

I suppose one factor might have been getting the boat to a point where it could be turned around for the journey back to base. It may be that reversing a canal boat for 5 miles was not a viable option.

 

[MontyMariner]

Very good of the owner to come out and rescue you and NOT charge for his time.

 

[ProDave]

I feel sorry for people so young that are in such poor health and so infirm, perhaps this was not the holiday choice for you?

Could the hurty knee person not still sit on the boat and operate the tiller and throttle and the still able bodied one work the locks?

We do enjoy a narrowboat holiday and at some point we intend to buy one and explore the whole network in our retirement.

 

[Bouba]

Anytime someone injures themselves on your property you would go straight to your insurance company and check if you have any liabilities. I personally would then follow the contract to the letter in case of any claim made against me.
If your wife is able to continue the trip as a passenger without discomfort, I would call all friends and relatives to see if any could help you crew at the last minute

 

[steveeasy]

Shame it did not work out well. Id say give it another try it’s a great way to relax on de water.
Steveeasy

 

[lusitano]

I expect that the £250 deposit is to cover these circumstances precisely, when the owner has to go out and recover the boat, costing time and money.

 

[Sandy]

Hello @mel29

What was written in the hire agreement to cover such circumstances?

For the last 20 years we have rented a small place in France every summer. We know that if we cannot cancel by a number of dates we loose more and more of the rental fee; even though the owner is more like a friend now. They need to put food on the table just like us.

As many above have said look at your insurance cover.

 

[MisterBaxter]

If I was the owner I would have come and helped you out, refunded your deposit and kept the full hire fee - no way to get another booking for the boat.
I might also have talked through the options a bit when I came out - locks aren't hard single handed, and with one on the boat to drive and one on the shore, that's pretty much fully crewed. But I do appreciate that each of those roles requires specific skills and (for the one on the land) a bit of strength and agility, so it's fair enough if someone doesn't feel able to take on one or other role safely.

 

[johnalison]

I insure my foreign trips but I don’t think I would insure a domestic one for that sort of amount. It is bad luck but it’s better think of it as a lost holiday rather than as lost money. I would accept whatever was offered and write it off to bad luck. For that sort of amount you will lose overall by insuring it, to administration fees and covering dodgy claims.

 

[srm]

An unfortunate experience and I hope all are fully recovered.

Only four days left of the hire so owner is unlikely to be able to organise another let in that time. Quite reasonable for them to keep the full hire fee.

Depending on the length of the boat it may not be possible to turn it where you left, in which case return to base may involve continuing to a place where the boat can be turned. I would expect costs of crew to return the boat to base, or wherever you had agreed to leave the boat at the end of the hire, to be deducted from the deposit.

 

[jlavery]

We recently hired a narrowboat Sat till Wed at the cost of £950 which was £750 plus £250 refundable deposit.
Our party was ladies 50+ and a small dog.
We spent one night on the boat and the following afternoon one of us fell up the steps of the boat bruising knees and generally shaking her up. At that point we knew that we could not continue our narrowboat journey as it wasn't physically possible for 1 of us alone to do the locks. At this point we had travelled between 4.5 and 5 miles via canal. We got help and moored up safely
I telephoned the owner who agreed to come and fetch us to take us back to our car, she checked the boat over and locked it up.
My question is this if you were the owner what would you have done, would you have come to help, would you be taking back possession at that point? Would you offer any sort of refund as the owner? Would you return the refundable deposit?
I wouls appreciate your input

Not explicitly clear what the hirer actually did - except by omission (or have I missed a detail?). I assume they kept all fees.

What are you hoping for or expecting? Your question is very open.

If I were the hirer, I'd keep all fees for the hassle of repatriating you and recovering the boat.

 

[LiftyK]

It was good of the lady owner to come out and help. If I was the owner, in these unfortunate circumstances, I would propose to halve the rental fee and split the loss. Yes, it is lost revenue for the owner but it is also a lost holiday for you. A bit of give and take in life is a good thing.

 

[penberth3]

I expect that the £250 deposit is to cover these circumstances precisely, when the owner has to go out and recover the boat, costing time and money.

Not really. Deposit is for loss or damage to the boat and its inventory.