Wedding venue cancellation

seb76

Posted in wedding forum too ......Booked a venue February 2012 and paid £1400 deposit - the venue is on a science/research park and holds a lot of events and conferences. We were due to visit last Saturday (9th February) to go through some bits and pieces. I emailed our wedding coordinator last Monday (4th) checking time of meeting - no reply so sent a follow up message on the Thursday to which I received a reply asking me to call them. After the niceties on the phone, the coordinator then said " I have some bad news". I was expecting a minor issue ! She then said "we have to cancel your wedding". I said "Erm we are getting married in 14 weeks, all the invitations have been sent and everything is booked!" She told me that the research people had applied for a grant for a new building that they expected to get at a later date, but it had arrived earlier than expected, therefore having to cancel, as they would be demolishing the conference centre all together. I spoke to a solicitor on Monday morning for a free 15 minute session who read through the letter I had drafted over the weekend, detailing the expenses we have incurred directly relating to this and said to send it stating that it was a preliminary letter stating costs but a follow up letter would be sent once a new venue had been found. The original venue had 39 bedrooms on site, plus was at a major road junction so everyone could get to it easily, on a major bus route and catered for up to 300 in the evening. We have a large number of guests wanting to stay at the venue and 180 guests for the evening. We have struggled to find anywhere available, that has these two important things and that we can afford. We have found a pub in a village which is available, has 7 rooms available - we will also get some rooms at another B & B for the extra people- the restaurant holds 54 comfortably for the day - we have 64 confirmed guests, therefore we need to book a marquee which will also be used for the evening reception - the pub itself is fine - cheaper than the previous venue, but the marquee is £3500 so about £2500 extra we have to find. We also had to let 150 families know last weekend in case they had booked accomodation somewhere else and now have to book table linen, chair covers and the marquee ourselves when at the previous venue everything was being done for us. My question is ..... where do we stand with my second letter to the first venue regarding asking them to pay the difference as compensation / goodwill gesture ? They plan on starting weddings again soon but have caused us major stress and so much additional running around and panic. The solicitor I saw seemed to think we would be entitled to some form of compensation but I really don't know how it works :-( Any help gratefully received! As of yet no refund received but bouquet of flowers sent?!

SuperHan

Paragraphs, pleeeeaaaaaase!

Lavendyr

seb76 wrote: »

Posted in wedding forum too ......Booked a venue February 2012 and paid £1400 deposit - the venue is on a science/research park and holds a lot of events and conferences. We were due to visit last Saturday (9th February) to go through some bits and pieces.

I emailed our wedding coordinator last Monday (4th) checking time of meeting - no reply so sent a follow up message on the Thursday to which I received a reply asking me to call them.

After the niceties on the phone, the coordinator then said " I have some bad news". I was expecting a minor issue ! She then said "we have to cancel your wedding". I said "Erm we are getting married in 14 weeks, all the invitations have been sent and everything is booked!" She told me that the research people had applied for a grant for a new building that they expected to get at a later date, but it had arrived earlier than expected, therefore having to cancel, as they would be demolishing the conference centre all together.

I spoke to a solicitor on Monday morning for a free 15 minute session who read through the letter I had drafted over the weekend, detailing the expenses we have incurred directly relating to this and said to send it stating that it was a preliminary letter stating costs but a follow up letter would be sent once a new venue had been found.

The original venue had 39 bedrooms on site, plus was at a major road junction so everyone could get to it easily, on a major bus route and catered for up to 300 in the evening. We have a large number of guests wanting to stay at the venue and 180 guests for the evening.

We have struggled to find anywhere available, that has these two important things and that we can afford. We have found a pub in a village which is available, has 7 rooms available - we will also get some rooms at another B & B for the extra people- the restaurant holds 54 comfortably for the day - we have 64 confirmed guests, therefore we need to book a marquee which will also be used for the evening reception - the pub itself is fine - cheaper than the previous venue, but the marquee is £3500 so about £2500 extra we have to find.

We also had to let 150 families know last weekend in case they had booked accomodation somewhere else and now have to book table linen, chair covers and the marquee ourselves when at the previous venue everything was being done for us.

My question is ..... where do we stand with my second letter to the first venue regarding asking them to pay the difference as compensation / goodwill gesture ? They plan on starting weddings again soon but have caused us major stress and so much additional running around and panic. The solicitor I saw seemed to think we would be entitled to some form of compensation but I really don't know how it works :-( Any help gratefully received! As of yet no refund received but bouquet of flowers sent?!

Paragraphs duly added for ease of reading.

Do you have a contract with the venue? If so, what are you contractually entitled to in the event that they cancel your wedding?

unholyangel

Have you checked the T&C's of the contract with them to see whether they offer any alternative if they are unable to perform their side of the contract? What precisely did you contract them for?

If you have wedding insurance, may also be worth checking to see whether you have any cover for these circumstances. Or do you have legal cover on your home insurance for example? May be worth a call to them and put your premiums to use.

Realistically, you can claim any loss you reasonably incur as a result of their breach. However you do have a statutory duty to try and mitigate your losses.

Are there any other venue choices that would be able to accommodate your party size/provide the services you contracted the original company for? Have you tried any other venues to see if they have had any cancellations themselves?

The reason I ask is because I'm not sure your stipulation of being near a major road would be seen as reasonable if (for example) there was a property that was ideal for your party size, at more or less the same price you paid originally etc. In other words, asking the company to pay out an extra £2500 because you wanted it on a main road may not be seen as mitigation.

seb76

Have checked terms and conditions and they state that they may only cancel if the circumstances are outside their control. No alternative mentioned.

Yes have wedding insurance but they say to approach the venue first

Have contacted 15 local venues and not found any with accommodation or able to cater for our numbers. The venue we have found does but we cannot book without the marquee which then makes it more expensive.

piglet25

I would look for a different marquee company for a start as that seems a tad on the extortionate side to me and they might argue the point that you didn't try to minimize the extra costs if there are cheaper ones out there

unholyangel

seb76 wrote: »

Have checked terms and conditions and they state that they may only cancel if the circumstances are outside their control. No alternative mentioned.

Yes have wedding insurance but they say to approach the venue first

Have contacted 15 local venues and not found any with accommodation or able to cater for our numbers. The venue we have found does but we cannot book without the marquee which then makes it more expensive.

So are they being forced to demolish early or have they just decided to since it was approved early? The first is outside their control, the 2nd isnt imo.

seb76

From what she said its a company decision to demolish early - I asked if any other weddings were affected. She said yes but they were later in the year

skateykatey

When are they actually demolishing it??? Is there any chance of having the wedding brought forward. I realise that invitations have already gone out but for the sake of a couple of weeks (if that's the case) then you may as well keep it at this venue that sounds likes it ticks all your boxes.

If they, and you, can accommodate this, then you may be able to negotiate some extras for the inconvenience.

unholyangel

seb76 wrote: »

From what she said its a company decision to demolish early - I asked if any other weddings were affected. She said yes but they were later in the year

Have they agreed to cover your consequential losses/offered any compensation at all?

seb76

They are demolishing this month - literally immediately moving staff etc. We have relatives flying over from Australia with flights booked for early May, time booked off work etc - it's a total nightmare!!