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Wedding venue problems - want to cancel.
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Hi Bex - sorry you have not gotten any further. You can complete the small claims application yourself as the court will be sympathetic to the fact that you are not a legal genius and will understand and try to help you. The person that you need to sue is the one that you have the contract with. Do you have any written kind of contract at all? What about the letterheads on the letters that you have - are they by the private individual or under the name of the venue? If name of the venue, you need to sue them. According to the website (if you look under the contact us page, they have a full company name with a number that you can use). I checked Companies House and the company is incorporated at an address in Canterbury so I am not sure how large they are.
PM me if you need any further help.
PS - if you win, you are likely to be awarded your court costs i.e. the cost to file the claim etc but not an amount for legal fees but that is also an advantage because if you loose (and of course I sincerely hope that you do not) it means that he will also not be able to claim his solicitors costs back from you IYSWIM. This means that he either has to deal with the claim himself or pay a solicitor to deal with it and end up out of pocket. Thereby providing more of an incentive to settle the claim quickly
Total for 2009: L'Oreal Lip Duo, Diary, Motability Guide
Thanks to everyone who post comps - you are all :cool2:0 -
Hi (reposting as I think I posted in the wrong place previously - sorry!)
Newbie to these boards to please bear with me!!
My fiance and I booked a wedding venue in May this year, we paid £5000 upfront - at the time I loved the venue and the owners were very pushy at getting us to enter into an agreement. We are due to get married in July next year and although, I know this is a long way off, I wanted to start getting things organised. We had no receipt and we have never signed anything as we paid by card over the phone. However, the money has been taken out our account as it is shown on card statements (not credit card unfortunately).
Anyway, I have spent 2 months trying to get hold of them (by phone and email) as we had no receipt of the money paid and finally have and they have turned round and told me that they have no record of us and have no paper work etc etc. I am fuming and I have had it and dont want to get married there. Their attitude has been very rude and no aplogies have been made for this - just an email telling me to supply them with full names, addresses, date of wedding and what was agreed with the manager.
Since being unable to contact them I have read some horrendous reviews and I really dont want to get married there, I am so scared that my wedding will be ruined. I am fuming but we have paid an extortionate amount of money and I have no idea whether we could get it back. We cannot afford to lose that money but I dont wish to pay it to incompetent people who have no record of us, I could not rely on them to get the rest of the day right.
Has anyone got any advice, I am already totally wrecked with this and dont know where to start.
Hi Sorry I haven't read the whole thread so I appologise if I repeat things, or miss anything.
I'd suggest the following:
1. Print off/photocopy the bit of your bank statement that shows the transaction, send a letter to the venue enclosing a copy of this and explaining that you understand that they have no record of your booking but you have proof of payment. Say that you accept that they have probably booked up by now and do not expect them to honour the booking and would accept a full refund. Hopefully they will do exactly that and you get your money back and no need to deal with the venue at all. Send the letter recorded/special so that you have proof of postage and delivery and keep a copy of what you send.
2. If they refuse to refund the money and maintain that you do not have a booking raise this with your bank, whilst you don't have the same protection as with a credit card there is a possibility that this is somesort of fraud that your bank might be interested in.
3. If you have wedding insurance contact them. If you don't take some out, you probably won't be covered for this incident but it will be worth it for the rest of the wedding and only costs about £30.
4. Contact trading standards, report the incident to them.
Further action really depends upon the response you get to the letter.
As I see it they will either deny all knowledge that you ever booked or paid anything. However if your bank can show a transaction to them then this will get difficult for them, working with your bank you can probably prove that you made a payment and they received it. They may suddenly "find" your booking when they realise you won't go away, and try to honour the booking, or they may just refund the money, or partially refund and say that you have forfeitted the deposit, or they may offer some other explanation.
If you can't get this dealt with then you may need to threaten them with court proceedings, and you may even need to issue court proceedings. You *MAY* be able to get legal representation for this, or you may have to do it yourself. If you don't have wedding insurance check with your home cover as you may have legal cover with them that can offer you representation.
Hope that helps a bit.
Kat0 -
Beks - are you in a union? I know that it sounds like a strange question but if you are you can have free legal advice from them (I know that Unison offers this service as long as what you contact them about isnt work related). Also if you have household insurance - you may have legal help attached to that.
You need to find out if the venue is owned by the owner (ie. the chap that has been messing you about) or whether or not he is a tenant (if its a pub-like venue). I would actually sue him if he is the owner. £213 per hour is steep for a solicitor - I would expect to pay that fee for a barrister - contact the Law Society and ask them for details of solicitors in your area who deal with civil cases, who are reasonably priced. Also what has happened with trading standards - are they taking this case further?
The legal 500 is an excellent place to find a good local solicitor. £213 an hour is pretty extortionate so shop around!0 -
like everyone said check your house insurance and your car insurance.
The legal cover on my car insurance was what I used to get advice from when I got made redundant - they gave me my own solicitor and it was all part of what I had covered with the car insurance which was ace. Didnt affect premiums or anything and they seemed more than happy to go to court 
"I know that Prince Charming doesn’t come save me, we save each other and fight back to back against all comers that’s what marriage is to me. Nothing passive, no being carried off on a white steed, give me my own damn horse and lets ride into the sunset side by side." - Laurell K. Hamilton.0 -
Yep I can see that now, sorry someone sent me a pm about this thread.
OP have you posted on you and your wedding to see if anyone on there has experience of the venue?
Also a firm of solicitors who are already suing the venue could act for you, they do not have a conflict, it is the ones who act for the venue who can't act.
If you want someone to look at your claim form before you send it off PM me, I work in civil litigation, although not in quite this branch. As a newly wed myself I'd be happy to help where I can.
Personally I'd reply to his letter to you formally rejecting his offer and pointing out his inaccuracies then saying that you will accept the full amount within 14 days or you will start court proceedings. Tell him that if you have to start court proceedings you will claim for the full amount paid plus associated expenses and interest from the date the payment was made.
You are entitled to do that and also bear in mind that if you can think of some associated expenses that total more than £50 your claim will no longer be a small claim and you would be able to recover costs and therefore maybe able to get no win no fee representation.
Associated expenses will include:
Cost of postage for each letter (including special delivery costs)
Cost of phone calls
Cancellation costs for anything else you booked for that date
Mileage for any extra visits to the venue
Loss of earnings for any time off work incurred as a result
bank charges incurred
interest incurred on a credit card/loan/overdraft as a result of being out of pocket.
I would suggest making up a draft schedule of loss. This is a document that sets out the total amount you want to claim for every category, it is just a simple list, then seeing if you can get legal advice, if not this document will be helpful with your claim.
I suspect that if this guy is dodgy and actually never intends to honour the booking he probably sets the amount just below £5000 because it comes into the small claims track and it is difficult to get legal representation and you can't make binding part 36 offers with penalties.
Once you have your draft schedule of loss post it on here or pm me a copy, I will then tell you how to go about making him a part 36 offer before starting the financial claim. This puts him on risk of having to pay more costs and will hopefully put the frighteners on him! 0 -
Thanks everyone for your advice, sorry for the late reply, I have now caught my daughters lurgy and both ill in bed lol!!!Yep I can see that now, sorry someone sent me a pm about this thread.
OP have you posted on you and your wedding to see if anyone on there has experience of the venue? I haven't no, as I was a bit worried about publishing the name of the venue incase of legal problems
Also a firm of solicitors who are already suing the venue could act for you, they do not have a conflict, it is the ones who act for the venue who can't act. Ok, so that means the solicitor we contacted is the venues solicitor already I guess! Good job I didnt give them too much info!
If you want someone to look at your claim form before you send it off PM me, I work in civil litigation, although not in quite this branch. As a newly wed myself I'd be happy to help where I can. Thank you
Personally I'd reply to his letter to you formally rejecting his offer and pointing out his inaccuracies then saying that you will accept the full amount within 14 days or you will start court proceedings. Tell him that if you have to start court proceedings you will claim for the full amount paid plus associated expenses and interest from the date the payment was made. We sent a letter on 8th October similar to what you have suggested (although did not mention expenses and interest), he hasnt responded
You are entitled to do that and also bear in mind that if you can think of some associated expenses that total more than £50 your claim will no longer be a small claim and you would be able to recover costs and therefore maybe able to get no win no fee representation.
Associated expenses will include:
Cost of postage for each letter (including special delivery costs) (total £3.42)
Cost of phone calls (included in our phone bill charges so no extra cost)
Cancellation costs for anything else you booked for that date (nothing booked as we never got a confirmation and wanted this before we booked. Made lots of enquires and provisional bookings but no payment)
Mileage for any extra visits to the venue (about 15 miles round trip x2)
Loss of earnings for any time off work incurred as a result (none as gone to CAB, venue on days off - would have been a good excuse for day off work though lol!)
bank charges incurred (paid out of bank account from OHs compensation so had money and in no debt because of it)!
interest incurred on a credit card/loan/overdraft as a result of being out of pocket. (as above)
I would suggest making up a draft schedule of loss. This is a document that sets out the total amount you want to claim for every category, it is just a simple list, then seeing if you can get legal advice, if not this document will be helpful with your claim.
I suspect that if this guy is dodgy and actually never intends to honour the booking he probably sets the amount just below £5000 because it comes into the small claims track and it is difficult to get legal representation and you can't make binding part 36 offers with penalties.
Once you have your draft schedule of loss post it on here or pm me a copy, I will then tell you how to go about making him a part 36 offer before starting the financial claim. This puts him on risk of having to pay more costs and will hopefully put the frighteners on him!
Still looks like we are quite a way off the £5000 mark and I cannot think of any other way we can claim financially against him, it is literally just the disappointment and frustration of it all. Plus the £4950!!!
I think I have been trying to complete the forms from the heart and have rambled on and not got to the point, I need to use my head a bit more and forget the heartache this is causing.0 -
Hi Bex - sorry you have not gotten any further. You can complete the small claims application yourself as the court will be sympathetic to the fact that you are not a legal genius and will understand and try to help you. The person that you need to sue is the one that you have the contract with. Do you have any written kind of contract at all? What about the letterheads on the letters that you have - are they by the private individual or under the name of the venue? If name of the venue, you need to sue them. According to the website (if you look under the contact us page, they have a full company name with a number that you can use). I checked Companies House and the company is incorporated at an address in Canterbury so I am not sure how large they are.
PM me if you need any further help.
PS - if you win, you are likely to be awarded your court costs i.e. the cost to file the claim etc but not an amount for legal fees but that is also an advantage because if you loose (and of course I sincerely hope that you do not) it means that he will also not be able to claim his solicitors costs back from you IYSWIM. This means that he either has to deal with the claim himself or pay a solicitor to deal with it and end up out of pocket. Thereby providing more of an incentive to settle the claim quickly
No written contracts and no letters (haven't received one iota of information from the venue since payment except one email to say they didnt have our information and one email from the owner after our 3rd letter of complaint). I dont think anything we send seems to give him an incentive to settle this with us. I am just wondering what he will say in court!!0 -
I sat and read this thread the other day but didn't comment as I couldn't offer any advice. I still can't just want to send you some love and ((((HUGS)))). I know it will be a long hard slog but please fight the waster as he can't carry on doing things like this to people. Really wish you and your partner the best and hope you manage to find a suitable venue and have a fantastic day and very happy life together x0
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rachfriar78 wrote: »I sat and read this thread the other day but didn't comment as I couldn't offer any advice. I still can't just want to send you some love and ((((HUGS)))). I know it will be a long hard slog but please fight the waster as he can't carry on doing things like this to people. Really wish you and your partner the best and hope you manage to find a suitable venue and have a fantastic day and very happy life together x
Thank you - everyone on here has been so kind and helpful and posts like yours mean a lot to me so thank you. I truly don't know what I would do if I didnt have the help of MSE members. xxxx 0
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