Bar Company Won't Return Deposit

TamVilla80

I'm with the op, bit cheeky of them to refuse giving your deposit back just because they think your guests didnt drink enough! I definitly think a letter as already suggessted, but first, have you thought about going to the Citzens Advice Bureau?

Sunshine12

Unfortunately if you dont have a written agreement then I would imagine you wouldnt have any grounds to receive your money back. Didnt the deposit you paid go towards the alcohol that was consumed via the bar? Im assuming if there were 70+ people there that the overall total would have been more than £200 in any case so you havent really lost any money??

Idiophreak

Sunshine12 wrote: »

Unfortunately if you dont have a written agreement then I would imagine you wouldnt have any grounds to receive your money back. Didnt the deposit you paid go towards the alcohol that was consumed via the bar? Im assuming if there were 70+ people there that the overall total would have been more than £200 in any case so you havent really lost any money??

My understanding was that this was a pay bar, not a free bar. So they paid £200 for the thing to turn up, then people paid for their own drinks. They were supposed to get the £200 back if 100 people turned up...

Em88

Sunshine12 wrote: »

Unfortunately if you dont have a written agreement then I would imagine you wouldnt have any grounds to receive your money back. Didnt the deposit you paid go towards the alcohol that was consumed via the bar? Im assuming if there were 70+ people there that the overall total would have been more than £200 in any case so you havent really lost any money??

It is not a requirement to have a written agreement for a contract to have been formed. Once the contract is formed you can claim for a breach of that contract. It does not matter in the slightest if it is a written contract or not. The only difference is it is easier to reply on a written contract as it is hard evidence.

Idiophreak

Em88 wrote: »

It is not a requirement to have a written agreement for a contract to have been formed. Once the contract is formed you can claim for a breach of that contract. It does not matter in the slightest if it is a written contract or not. The only difference is it is easier to reply on a written contract as it is hard evidence.

...and it sounds like the OP's got at least some emails to prove the terms of their agreement...

Sunshine12

Idiophreak wrote: »

My understanding was that this was a pay bar, not a free bar. So they paid £200 for the thing to turn up, then people paid for their own drinks. They were supposed to get the £200 back if 100 people turned up...

Oh sorry, I didnt read it properly.

Em88 wrote: »

It is not a requirement to have a written agreement for a contract to have been formed. Once the contract is formed you can claim for a breach of that contract. It does not matter in the slightest if it is a written contract or not. The only difference is it is easier to reply on a written contract as it is hard evidence.

Im a bit confused as the OP has says that the contract doesnt say anything about the 100 guest minimum thing so either it says that the bar cost will be refunded or doesnt refer to it at all. If it doesnt refer to it at all then it doesnt form part of any contract, signed or not so whilst there may be an e-mail referring to it they could quite easily say that this did not form part of the final agreement (also think it would be very difficult for the OP to prove that there were 100 guests there in any case.)

I do hope you get your money back OP but I wouldnt hold my breath if I were you.

Em88

An unsigned written agreement is not necessarily the contract. And even if it were signed it does not automatically mean it represents the whole of an agreement. A contract is made up of all the terms that have been agreed regardless of whether or not they were (some, none or all) written down.