will I get any money back when I cancel my wedding?

Equaliser123

OK first things first. Forget wedding insurance. It would be a serious offence to try and manipulate some cause when you have simply decided not to proceed.

You have a contract with the venue and they can hold you to that contract. In theory, if this is only part payment, they could pursue you for additional losses which they suffer.

You would be well advised to tell them now about the situation and ask them to do their best to 'sell' the date for another function. They are under a legal duty to mitigate their losses so should try and do this anyway.

Provided they are able to find another event (not necessarily a wedding) then they ought to refund to you the money which they are able to recover from the new event. You would be responsible for any shortfall.

You must be going through a hard time but try and be pragmatic with all of this. There probably isn't a quick refund due unless they can find another event quickly.

Uncertain

Equaliser123 wrote: »

OK first things first. Forget wedding insurance. It would be a serious offence to try and manipulate some cause when you have simply decided not to proceed.

You have a contract with the venue and they can hold you to that contract. In theory, if this is only part payment, they could pursue you for additional losses which they suffer.

You would be well advised to tell them now about the situation and ask them to do their best to 'sell' the date for another function. They are under a legal duty to mitigate their losses so should try and do this anyway.

Provided they are able to find another event (not necessarily a wedding) then they ought to refund to you the money which they are able to recover from the new event. You would be responsible for any shortfall.

You must be going through a hard time but try and be pragmatic with all of this. There probably isn't a quick refund due unless they can find another event quickly.

I'm glad to see this excellent post as some of the others are well off the mark.

As in anything the venue has a duty to use reasonable efforts to mitigate their losses. What they can't do is simply cancel staff, food, wine, flowers etc and keep your deposit for doing nothing unless they could demonstrate that this was the cheapest option.

If, for example, they re-book at a lower price (but the best they could reasonably get) then they could look to you to make up the shortfall in PROFIT (not turnover) plus a modest admin fee. If your deposit exceeds this you are entitled to a partial refund.

No "contract" terms can override this.

somethingcorporate

Yes, most of you saying bound by the T&Cs and cancellation policy are wrong.

OP, please see the FAQ post on return of deposits: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=42873192&postcount=16

Any retention that amounts to a financial penalty is not allowable under contract law, regardless of what it says in the contract. They have a duty to mitigate their loss and cannot be arbitrary in their retention, it needs to be a genuine (pre-estimate of) loss.

lovecake

Wow! -most people would never know that (well I wouldn't anyway). This is what it said in my contract and I just assumed that would be the end of it.

Should the Client have to cancel his/her booking, this should be notified in writing to XXXXXXX. The following charges will apply
· Initial deposit is date specific and non refundable
· More than 90 days notice 15% of projected revenue charged.
· 60 -89 days notice 25% of projected revenue charged.
· 30 -59 days notice 50% of projected revenue charged.
· 14 - 29 days notice 75% of projected revenue charged.
· Cancellation received with less than 14 days notice will be charged the total final balance estimated for the event.
Please note cancellation of an event must be provided in writing.

Interesting to know that this might not be the case...The things you learn on MSE

somethingcorporate

Yep, those charges look completely arbitrary to me and if you took the company to court they would have to prove they were genuine losses.

You cannot "charge" someone a penalty under a contract.

Deposits cannot be "non-refundable" unless they are a genuine pre-estimate of loss as a result of you cancelling. Had you paid £10k deposit for a £20k wedding and cancel a year in advance and they re-sell the date for £20k they end up with £30k revenue at your expense - fortunately this is not allowed. Unfortunately most businesses (especially small ones) are clueless when it comes to consumer rights or contract law - not like they govern every single thing they do! grrrr!

Uncertain

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Yep, those charges look completely arbitrary to me and if you took the company to court they would have to prove they were genuine losses.

You cannot "charge" someone a penalty under a contract.

Indeed.

What they tend to rely on is that not many people will take them to court plus that fact that it can be quite difficult to get enough information to argue with their claimed losses.

For example, with a short range cancellation, how many of the staff would have been casual or on zero hour contracts? Can the hotel's food order be cancelled without incurring a penalty? With a longer range cancellation what constitutes a reasonable attempt at re-booking?

somethingcorporate

Uncertain wrote: »

Indeed.

What they tend to rely on is that not many people will take them to court plus that fact that it can be quite difficult to get enough information to argue with their claimed losses.

For example, with a short range cancellation, how many of the staff would have been casual or on zero hour contracts? Can the hotel's food order be cancelled without incurring a penalty? With a longer range cancellation what constitutes a reasonable attempt at re-booking?

All valid points and all very subjective.

However, I assume the process would be as follows:

i) Deposit retained by the company
ii) Customer sues company
iii) Company has to prove retained deposit it reasonable and genuine losses/estimate of loss.

So the onus would not be on the customer to prove those things but for the company to prove to a judge that the retention was genuine.

Having clearly unfair statements such as "deposits are non-refundable" and arbitrary deductions as in post 15 would get them off to a very bad start indeed as are in danger of being completely unfair (which they evidently are).

TheHolly

My SIL had the same problem - the venue were able to 'sell' the date the wedding should've been to another couple and refunded my SIL and her ex the deposit back. They did make it clear though that if they were unable to get another booking for the day they they would be unable to give any of the money back.

Uncertain

TheHolly wrote: »

My SIL had the same problem - the venue were able to 'sell' the date the wedding should've been to another couple and refunded my SIL and her ex the deposit back. They did make it clear though that if they were unable to get another booking for the day they they would be unable to give any of the money back.

They may well have said that but ultimately, as explained in the posts above, they would need to be able to demonstrate that they had made reasonable efforts and that their losses were at least equal to the amount of the deposit. The can't simply apply a penalty regardless of their terms and conditions.

dacouch

clearing_out_my_pockets wrote: »

Sorry I can't help OP, but I'd just like to point out that wedding insurance does not cover you if the parties decide not to get married.

The Insurance technical term is "Disinclination" which is a great word