Contract not signed- refund??

Fosterdog

The contract would still be binding whether signed or not as she had the contract in her possession and by paying the deposit/holding fee she agreed to the terms regardless.

What you will have problems with if it goes to court is that you can only retain provable losses. It doesn't matter that you "could" earn ££££ for the day, you have to limit the loss and go to reasonable effort to rebook the day to cover your own losses. The only things you could deduct would be the cost's of advertising for that day specifically, costs for your time already used on the original booking, costs of phone calls etc. It all has to be provable and anything additional would have to be refunded.

You have to decide whether it is worth any more of your time or if it is easier to just refund and get a new booking for the day.

I_Love_Shoes

They are threatening a small claims court but need my address to send a summons, which they dont have and I dont plan on giving to them!

shaun_from_Africa

If you are running a business then you are legally required to give your trading address to your customers and by refusing to do this you will just be giving them more of a chance of winning a court case against you.

At the moment you don't appear to have done anything wrong with regards to the deposit and booking and you will have a good chance of winning if it goes to court, but if it can be shown that you have not abided by your legal obligations then this may well go against you.

halibut2209

Until you know your losses, you cannot refund. And you won't know that til the day. If you don't get another booking, you could in theory sue THEM for the remainder.

I_Love_Shoes

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If you are running a business then you are legally required to give your trading address to your customers and by refusing to do this you will just be giving them more of a chance of winning a court case against you.

At the moment you don't appear to have done anything wrong with regards to the deposit and booking and you will have a good chance of winning if it goes to court, but if it can be shown that you have not abided by your legal obligations then this may well go against you.

Ahhh thanks for that, I didnt realise I would be breaking the law by not giving them a trading address.
Even if it does go to court I'm not too sure how much they would side with me because I am running as a business, dont they normally protect the consumer?
The woman is half illiterate (a chav) and most of her messages take about half an hour to understand as there isnt any grammar, hopefully this wont go against me due to the court not being able to understand the confirmation message!
Worse case scenario, how much may I have to pay if they win the case?

shaun_from_Africa

Worse case scenario, how much may I have to pay if they win the case?

Probably the amount of the deposit minus any provable losses that you incurred.

It might be worth writing to the woman concerned (do this by recorded delivery and keep a copy), telling her that you have readvertised the property for the dates she originally booked, and if a new booking is made for these dates then you will be more than happy to refund her deposit.
However, if no new booking is made, then you will be keeping the deposit in order to cover some of the loss you have made due to her breech of contract.

If it does get to court then this letter will help to show that you understand your rights and obligations and that you made a good attempt to re-let the property and hence mitigate any losses to your original customer.

Slowhand

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Probably the amount of the deposit minus any provable losses that you incurred.

It might be worth writing to the woman concerned (do this by recorded delivery and keep a copy), telling her that you have readvertised the property for the dates she originally booked, and if a new booking is made for these dates then you will be more than happy to refund her deposit.
However, if no new booking is made, then you will be keeping the deposit in order to cover some of the loss you have made due to her breech of contract.

If it does get to court then this letter will help to show that you understand your rights and obligations and that you made a good attempt to re-let the property and hence mitigate any losses to your original customer.

What property?

shaun_from_Africa

Sorry, my error.
I somehow got it into my mind that it was for a rental and not a photo shoot!

Anyway, the rest of my post was still correct in that the service should re readvertised with the date concerned showing as still available for new bookings so it can be shown that an attempt was made to minimise any potential losses to the original customer.

I_Love_Shoes

Is this enough evidence in the contract:
The full amount is agreed upon by signing this agreement, unless otherwise stated, to be received at least 14 days before the day of the wedding. The £100 non refundable booking fee will be required on return of this contract in order to confirm the date of the wedding, nothing will be confirmed until the fee is received and cleared (if in the form of a cheque).
They are taking that as 'no booking will be regarded as confirmed until you are in receipt of a contract and deposit' and are saying by booking off that date I should have contacted them if any more enquiries came through (which havent yet, but thats not the point!)

Slowhand

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Sorry, my error.
I somehow got it into my mind that it was for a rental and not a photo shoot!

Anyway, the rest of my post was still correct in that the service should re readvertised with the date concerned showing as still available for new bookings so it can be shown that an attempt was made to minimise any potential losses to the original customer.

So if the OP should readvertise how much should they spend to mitigate their loss? £10 a week for say 30 weeks? Who pays for that?