whats my rights after putting deposite down for the wedding

kimmie1988

Hi,

Need some advice, basically I went to look at a venue last year in November to hold my whole wedding day. I put the deposit down which they have asked for to hold my place for the day and price, now I am in May and I got told the price went up on the 1st January and now they want more for the hire of the room etc. When I went in in the November they did not tell me this even though knowing while filling all the forms out and going back home and paying the registrar for that day.
They said someone be in touch in the new year to discuss menus etc. No letter sent to say they are putting the prices up neither did I get a phone call or e-mail saying it either.

Where do I stand after putting the deposit down on the fixed price they told me for the hire of the venue.

Many thanks

LEJC

when you put down a deposit you should be given a contract to sign...in the contract it can say one of several things

1 being that you get the venue at the fixed price of £x as detailed when you agree to the venue and give them a deposit

this is what I think you think you should have

or something which is beginning to get common is that you agree to pay the venue the price to include any proposed changes in cost...this is usually to cover the venue if costs suddenly increase and also commonly used now because more people are booking their weddings literally years in advance....the increases should be minimal and probably reflect rises in inflation etc

I think you need to check the contract that you signed to see if something worsed along the lines of my second suggestion is there.

Either way as soon as a price increase is decided then the venue should be contacting you to advise you,and that price increase shouldn't be significant without further clarification or the option to cancel

You also need to clarify if the price increase is imposed by the venue or if it is as a result of registrar fees etc increasing...unfortunately there isnt a lot you can do if the official "bit" of your wedding goes up...you will just have to pay it whether you get married at that venue or any other in your area.

kimmie1988

we signed the contract we read through it as well to double check we understood it, but nothing in the contract saying prices to subject to change every year in January. The only thing to change was if we cancelled within the six months we would not get a refund which is fine and understandable.

now they are saying basically we were given the wrong brochure three months before the wedding and the asking price of the deposit has been made, even though the all contracts and deposits were all signed for in the November 2012.

kimmie1988

it has gone up by £100 from £550 to £650 for the hire of the function room. I know £100 is not a lot of money to find, but when you are paying for the whole wedding In one go it is a lot to find.

RainbowDrops

If you contract has no mention of price guarantees, then I'm afraid you don't have much to argue.
This was a clause we specifically asked our venue to express in the contract to make sure we didn't have any nasty surprises.

Stephb1986_2

I asked at the time of booking that the price sticks even if they go up and they agreed they've now put the price up by £1000 luckily I checked

Steph xx

gadgeteer_2

Does the contract itself state a price on it? If so then they are obliged to honour the original price. It doesn't matter who/what/why you were given an older brochure.

If the contract doesn't give a price then I'd certainly be talking to the manager about honouring the original price as a gesture of goodwill given you did put the deposit down based on the old prices and it's not your fault they gave you the wrong brochures and arguably should admit responsibility for that error.