Anyone with Banking/Section 75's/ Chargeback knowledge would be massively appreciated!
When original lockdown ended and restrictions were lifted, some friends and I (probably a bit too hasty) booked a house on Anglesey for New Years. 12 of us, it came to around £2500, little over £200 each.
Obviously another lockdown rolled around after and the tiered restrictions came in. Now, because of this, members of the group got cold feet and started to ask could we cancel. AirBnB, who we booked with, have some shitty 'no cancel due to covid unless the host has covid' style small print.
I paid for all this on my credit card and people paid me back. After deliberation, we decided to do a chargeback last week, even though there was still a remote possibility of us going (chance of 12 people, unrelated and from 11 separate households I believe - with only myself and my girlfriend living together - going seemed wildly remote).
The host was unresponsive and it did seem that cancelling via him would lose 50% of our money. So I initiated a chargeback with my credit card, and within 4 days, the £2500 was in my account. I was happy at how easy this had been. I then got an email from AirBnB stating they'd cancelled my holiday and issued a refund (clearly in reference to the chargeback). They then sent an email saying they could see we'd initiated the chargeback and wanted to 'touch base' about this, but asked for no information. I've not responded to this as of yet, unsure what to do.
My bank then this morning send me what looks like a stock email saying they've temporarily given me the funds but may have to take them back. If it stays in my account until 20/02/2021 it can then be assumed the funds can be kept.
Now I've already sent the money back to everyone and am worried that the bank will try and take the money back out of my account - money I can scarcely afford to lose whilst saving for a house. I'm sure my friends will foot their part should it come to that, but it's not a nice situation to have to ask them for it again.
Anyone have any experience of this and can offer advice?
My position is that they would be unable to offer what was advertised so would in essence be in breach of contract - a house sleeping 12 people, unrelated, not from a bubble, not living together prior to the trip and with restrictions on crossing the Welsh border for holidays etc. Both our area and the area of the house are currently Tier 2, but we have some of the group coming from Tier 3. I'm hoping it's seen as cut and dry and it gets sorted with no hassle.