Advice on cancellation, please

[merbel]

I had a recent cancellation. They cancelled before any oil (June 12-19) and 13 days before arrival. I had assured them a full refund if beaches impacted. I refunded them the balance, but kept the deposit and told them if I could rent, would refund. I did rent, but (of course) at a significantly reduced rate. However, the total was more than the original rent,so I emailed them to tell them I was refunding appx 500 to them (the amount over the original combining the two after re-renting). I thought they would be pleased, but they are demanding the entire deposit be returned since in my contract, I state refund if rented-(I will now amend that to state, based on differential). (However, I also specify full payment 14 days prior and bent on that, trying to do the right thing)
I want to work with people, but this seems a bit out of line to me, but would love to have some feedback as to how to handle.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Mango]

Personally, if I was working with an owner outside of agency involvement, and you called me and said you re-rented and would be refunding me, I would be ecstatic, since how could I prove that the house was re-rented without court proceedings? and would I want to expend the cost to prove it?

However, having said that, if the contract said full refund if re-rented and did not stipulate there would be a cost differential, then morally and professionally, you have an obligation to refund the full amount. That's just my opinion and what I would do if it was my rental. Personally, I wouldn't have expected the whole amount back if the owner took a loss.

Get an email from them that they canceled due to oil and save all your paperwork so you can seek the difference from BP for loss of rental income. That is if they canceled due to oil.