Thank you for letting me know about selecting the court to attend, at least I will not have to travel 100's of miles.

Panther12 it was simply email enquiries over a period of a four days and they booked the dates out when i provided my preferred dates straight away, how premature. Nothing ticked, no money exchanged and you are right their cancellation policy only refers to a refund so applies to those who have actually made a booking by securing it with payment. I know they are chancing their arm, they had lots of free time on their bookings and to be honest their were so many places available it is clear that people are having difficulty renting their places out, hence the desperation to get me to pay for email enquiries! I have been told as the details have been made by way of email that I do not have to attend court, does anyone know if this is true? It is a few hundred miles from where I live so it is going to be difficult for me, another reason perhaps why they are doing this.

They say i agreed to the terms when i did to the price and dates but said i still had to book flights and would come back to them. Is email negotiations really legally binding contract?

Thank you for the replies. I was making enquiries and negotiating over a period of four days when I decided not to pursue as no contract. They were premature in sending their bank details as I had still not booked dates and in hindsight they were premature in booking out the property dates I was enquiring about. I informed them nine days before that i was not pursuing because of no contract. No money was exchanged and the negotiating and enquiries only took place for the four days before that so it was all very last minute and not even two weeks before the dates we were thinking of booking. Claim states they are pursuing me for the price quoted to rent because i have refused to pay the cancellation fee on their advertisement. The cancellation feel merely states NB Cancelation, we will endeavor to relet the property and will refund the balance if let. No money was ever transferred and I have noticed that they could only have got my home details by going out of their way to research me on the net. I really feel they are chancing their arm and see that I run a business and would not want a CCJ. Any other info appreciated - I intend to defend the claim as even the site they advertise on advises owners to have a clear cancellation policy and contract and I was merely enquiring for four days and chose not to make a payment to someone who does not abide by the recommendations of the site they advertise on. Distance selling Regs interesting, would it apply to this though for a holiday booking, i guess it is a "service"?

Hello again, I had threatening letter from these people at my place of work. I wrote back saying they are responsible for lettings, not me, they have no contract and do not follow any recommendations on the website in which they advertise and that they are harrassing me. Today I have received a County Court Claim for the "cancellation" of villa - Cannot believe they are trying it on. I made several enquiries and asked for a contract three times, they eventually sent one two days after I had not replied further as they had previously told me they never had a contract. They state I am refusing to pay the "cancellation fee" but there is none. Their advert merely states this: NB Cancelation -We will endevour to rebook the property , any outstanding money will be refunded - are emails binding at all?I had expressed a wish to book and talked dates etc until the point I was told they do not have a contract. The enquiries were all done ten days before departure as it was all a very last minute and I told them we were booking another villa that provides contracts and that there sending of a contract two days after confriming they never had one was too late. Please can anyone advise.

Hello, Can anyone please help. Made some enquiries on a holiday letting site and was keen to book a villa direct from owner but when they could not provide a contract and said they never have I told them we would not pursue with booking the villa. This was all about ten days before the date we wanted to go on hols and they emailed back saying that the email conversations were legally binding and if they cannot let their villa they would take me to court. I told them the fact that they could not provide a contract after three requests raise alarm about professionalism and we booked elsewhere. a few days after came back from holiday i got a letter at my place of work from this owner saying that as i had "cancelled" last minute and could not re-let the property?? that they were holding me responsible for the amount and have demanded the £1000 they quoted to be paid in seven days. I am flabbergasted but the tone of the letter is so threatening and to get this at my place of work, got from my email enquiry is pretty low. Do they have a leg to stand on? The site they advertise on recommends that all owners use contracts and even provides this. Please help as I am very stressed about being pursued at my place of work, feel bullied to pay and have noticed there are very few bookings on their villa. Thank yhou