Deposit paid with paypal on renting a flat query

IrishHomer

Two weeks ago i agreed to receive €500 deposit on renting out my Villa in Spain to an Englich girl.

We agreed over the phone and emails a annual rental and i booked flights over and i organised to take a few days off work to sign the contract and give the lady the keys.

When her paypal deposit arrived €20 was taken out in a fee from paypal so i received €480.

Anyway the lady changed her mind and she backed out and never met me in Spain and she has now opened a dispute via paypal and paypal have already refunded her the money from my paypal account.

I am not a happy camper as i had also turned away 3 other tenants in favour of her and she had been aware three other people wanted to rent also.

I am back in Ireland now minus any tenant , minus the €500 deposit and minus my three days missed work.

I have about 7days to respond ot paypal on the dispute otherwise all the money stays back with the lady from England.

Has anyone out there got any tips or advice on my rights?

Max Power1

Is it an "item not recieved" dispute or a "significantly not as described" dispute they opened? In either of the above cases, paypal do not cover intangible items such as deposits. I'd wager that the money is just held when the dispute opened rather than refunded to the buyer.

IrishHomer

It's an "item not received" dispute.

IrishHomer

So do you think i have any chance should i tell paypal my side of the story?

jor el

This is a private transaction between two individuals, so you have no rights. Whatever Paypal decides is what will happen. Put your case across and see what happens.

MunsterCycling

OP WTF are you using <removed> PAYPAL for taking deposits for? It offers you no protection (you prob know this now) and are a nightmare to deal with when something goes wrong. Only winner in this will be PAYPAL.

dudara

Taking Paypal was a big mistake here, I'm afraid. The deposit was meant to cover you in case anything happened. However, with Paypal, they can always pull it back, as happened here.

I'm going to move this thread to Online Buying & Auctions as they have a lot of Paypal experience over there.

dudara

Max Power1

IrishHomer wrote: »

So do you think i have any chance should i tell paypal my side of the story?

If its an "item not recieved" dispute, then it should not be awarded in the buyer's favour. A deposit is an intangible item by nature and is not covered by paypal. When responding to the claim put in as many references to "deposit", "intangible item", "holding deposit", "deposit for renting" etc, so its blatently clear what is in dispute.

Has the buyer escalated the dispute to a claim?

IrishHomer

Yes they have escalated it to a claim, I haven't responded in any way yet still have 9 days left.

IrishHomer

I just called Paypal and they closed the case and refunded me with the money

They helped me fill out the application online and previous poster was correct i had to label the case with "intangible" item.

Thanks i am delighted as i was assured by Paypal rep case is closed.