The day after we returned from this rental, we received an email, with confirmation the next day, that this owner was deducting several hundred dollars from our security deposit to cover the "excessive cleaning expenses incurred on Saturday afternoon following your departure." The excessive cleaning was due to six points: "Trash not taken out, Dishwasher and sink loaded with dirty dishes, coffee pot left on, cup marks on leather couch, evidence of food in the living room.

The last point, "plunger and bucket in the powder room" was there because the toilet backed up and we fixed it rather than call you late in the evening.

There was no breakage, no theft and no stains.

Really? Emptying waste baskets and loading, unloading a dishwasher and other small tasks made the service hours excessive?

We had already paid a several hundred dollar nonrefundable fee for this service. Now we paid double.That is one expensive cleaning service. I have NEVER heard of fees like this one.

We were more than willing to not mention any negative experiences we had because people are trying to run a rental business and small things happen, but this decision to charge us so much for cleaning made us realize that we should let people know what was NOT offered and how the owner changed his:

1. There is NO bathroom door on the master bedroom bathroom. We were NOT told about situation. It made for awkward and uncomfortable moments. We were told to squeegee the shower stall after each use, which we did.

2. There were SIX beach chairs in the locker. TWO were broken and could not be used. We were NOT told about this situation. We had six members of our family with us.

3. There were no beach umbrellas. We were NOT told about this situation either. I called the owner about the lack of umbrellas and he told me that a previous renter had stolen them. In the email this week, the owner wrote, " "We removed the beach umbrella from the locker for safety reasons." Which statement is the truth?

Yes, I should have read the rental agreement, Section 14B about leaving the house in pristine condition and Section 17B about taking out the trash with more care. I will not make that mistake again.

This was our third year renting VRBO in Spring Lake. The first two years were delightful and it was a pleasure working with the owners.

Not this time.

Elizabeth Norman

Michael Norman