Wedding Venue Deposit - Non-refundable?

Dinah93

Might I suggest that if you fell out so severely as to actually break up, you need to focus on working on your relationship, not jumping into a wedding for the time being.

octoman

Craftyscholar wrote: »

I am confused.
You know that your cancellation must be made in writing, but you did not write to them.
Presumably they could have waited and then claimed the full amount from you as you had not cancelled in writing as per the T&Cs.
Instead they wrote to you, possibly in order to confirm that the person who phoned had authorisation to cancel the arrangements.
You have studied the T&Cs in order to find a fault on their side, but you did not comply with them yourselves.

where you say:

You have studied the T&Cs in order to find a fault on their side, but you did not comply with them yourselves

do you mean that we did not comply as we did not confirm cancellation in writing?

If so, the initial phone call was made in the heat of the moment and not to actually cancel, but to investigate the possibility that if we cancelled would we get a refund if venue was rebooked (obviously the T&C stated not).

It is good that cancellation must be done in writing to prevent phone calls like this.

The letter was just a rather abrupt and unexpected letter to then receive, we had concluded that we would lose deposit if we cancelled, but as their letter stated that the booking had been cancelled without written confirmation I was wondering whether this added a new element to my thread.

octoman

Dinah93 wrote: »

Might I suggest that if you fell out so severely as to actually break up, you need to focus on working on your relationship, not jumping into a wedding for the time being.

yep, you are correct - hence another reason to cancel .... I guess the money is irrelevant as for me saving our relationship is most important, but am just annoyed with the venue's responses.

then again.......perhaps getting married will make us stronger....lol, life is complex!

Dinah93

Getting married is a very stressful event, please, please do not count on it patching up the cracks as more often than not it will cause them, you need to have a stable, complete relationship before getting married, not hoping it will be a result of getting married. Its a lot less serious to call time on dating/living with someone than going through the whole legal faff of a divorce. Plus a wedding is a huge expense. I do think you need to be putting your effort into quality time with one another, and mending the issues you have, rather than focussing on a wedding and having no time to devote to whatever caused you to break up. You do sound very practical and level headed from your posts, and I'm sure you'll consider it fully before making a decision.

JCS1

Sounds like the venue is just covering themselves with the letter. If they had a phone call regarding a cancellation before 13th August and not had it confirmed in writing, then they have put sent letter so everything is formally recorded.

brownbabygirl

octoman wrote: »

then again.......perhaps getting married will make us stronger....

No, it will not. See Dinah93's post. Hope it all works out either way.

octoman

brownbabygirl wrote: »

No, it will not. See Dinah93's post. Hope it all works out either way.

cheers...

have taken advice on board and lets hope everything works out :-)

tara747

OMG, definitely do not get married to make your relationship stranger! I've heard of a band-aid baby but never a band-aid wedding!

Seriously though, you probably already realise this and I wish you all the best xo

muffintop

I'm more interested in this "cancellation charge." Do the Ts and Cs say anything about a cancellation charge? In what circumstances can they retain the deposit as a "cancellation charge." Do you want to let them know that you have not formally cancelled?

octoman

muffintop wrote: »

I'm more interested in this "cancellation charge." Do the Ts and Cs say anything about a cancellation charge? In what circumstances can they retain the deposit as a "cancellation charge." Do you want to let them know that you have not formally cancelled?

hi muffin,

T&C states that 'In the event of cancellation of a wedding by the client, the deposit is non-refundable and non-transferable in any case'.

I rang them to tell them that we had not officially cancelled, to which they replied that they send threatening letters like that to provoke a response!

The way they have spoken to us has been very rude and they do come across that even in the event of my death they would keep the deposit!

as the wedding is 50/50 we thought we'd just have a look elsewhere and have found Bickley Manor (anyone been there?) which will work out thousands of pounds cheaper (even with losing deposit), but the people there are a thousand times more friendly.

Weddings are pretty much their sole business, whereas the other place from what I understand is primarily an investment company which hire out their landscaped grounds.

Funnily enough, Bickley Manor although a lot cheaper has a lot more going for it such as it is also a hotel - so perhaps the last few 'testing' weeks are telling us something!

The annoyment is that although we did start this whole episode, the way we have been treated by the 1st place is in my view quite disgusting, as I have said many times in this thread they are a business, but a heartless one!