Deposit back from wedding venue?

craigplatt100

I recently paid a £500 deposit via credit card for my daughter's wedding next year; unfortunately, her fiance left her and the wedding has now been called off.

We rang the venue asking for £400 back and were happy to pay the other £100 as an 'admin fee', the venue however refused to give ANY of the deposit back. The wedding is over 12 months away and we were never given or signed a contract.

Considering no contract was signed and we paid by credit card, could we claim any back via small claims after trying (unsuccessfully) to reason with him?

paulsad

A deposit is a deposit - what if he's turned away other people for this date?

PasturesNew

Sue the runaway bf. Breach of contract.

mountainofdebt

paulsad wrote: »

A deposit is a deposit - what if he's turned away other people for this date?

Whilst I agree with what you say the argument to that is what if the hotel resell the venue for that date?

OP- it may be worth you asking them this question and then keeping an eye out to see if they do rebook the venue.

SmuggleswithStruggles

Hi

Well really you shouldn't have paid any money without having a signed contract with terms but I don't suppose that's much help now. Try citizens advice maybe? I would have thought that if the wedding is still some way off they wouldn't have had any issue with paying you back.

Sometimes when a fee is paid by credit card you may have some success in getting it back from the bank, worth a try. If the venue (hotel?) is part of a group/chain then write to the complaints/customer service dept. and keep writing until they refund you.

Hope you have some success

Smuggles

MrSmartprice

paulsad wrote: »

A deposit is a deposit - what if he's turned away other people for this date?

Absolute rubbish!

The situation is that you are entitled to a refund of your deposit. The venue can deduct an amount for expenses that they have reasonably and unavoidably incurred as a result of the cancellation. What they cannot do is simply withhold all of it because then it becomes a 'penalty charge' which is contrary to common law. A business has an obligation to mitigate such losses and a refund is not dependent on the venue being re-let.

This applies even if there was a contract, since the term under which they are relying is almost certainly an unfair contract term. This is supported by the "Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999".

The OP should Google these regulations, and especially the OFT Guidance Notes, where all is explained in parts 4 & 5. If the business refuses to refund, you may need to take them to the Small Claims Court.

It seems that most people are unaware of this legislation and just write off large sums of money as lost deposits. Don't let them get away with it!

jinky9

It may be the lack of a signed contract will help you in this instance and they had not advised you of loss of deposit in writing. As suggested above the best thing to do is to write to head office if a bigger chain or suggest that whilst willing to pay something to cover booking expenses you would like some kind of refund or will take legal action. I have known venues with contracts successfully argue for retention of the whole deposit though so success is not guaranteed. Worth a small claims court action I would guess. As a photographer I take a booking fee of 20% and would react differently in differing scenarios. If a wedding was cancelled /postponed I`d move to cover the new date or hold the fee against a future revised booking happily but if just cancelled would retain that fee whether the date was eventually filled or not. I am assured by insurers that this is enforcable and it is their wording which I am required to have to get the insurance. never happened to me yet but my insurers / my own responses show it is not straightforward either way and initially contacting the hotel in writing again to negotiate would be wisest move before any legal action was taken.

MrSmartprice

jinky9 wrote: »

It may be the lack of a signed contract will help you in this instance and they had not advised you of loss of deposit in writing. As suggested above the best thing to do is to write to head office if a bigger chain or suggest that whilst willing to pay something to cover booking expenses you would like some kind of refund or will take legal action. I have known venues with contracts successfully argue for retention of the whole deposit though so success is not guaranteed. Worth a small claims court action I would guess. As a photographer I take a booking fee of 20% and would react differently in differing scenarios. If a wedding was cancelled /postponed I`d move to cover the new date or hold the fee against a future revised booking happily but if just cancelled would retain that fee whether the date was eventually filled or not. I am assured by insurers that this is enforcable and it is their wording which I am required to have to get the insurance. never happened to me yet but my insurers / my own responses show it is not straightforward either way and initially contacting the hotel in writing again to negotiate would be wisest move before any legal action was taken.

Whatever your insurers say, you would still be in breach of the UTCC Regs, even with a signed contract. The reason is that you are not quantifying your actual loss, which is just expenditure you have necessarily made in connection with the contract. This does not allow for loss of profit or the fact that you cannot rebook the date.

The reason such contract terms are deemed unfair is that, because you are applying an arbitrary amount, in your case 20%, it becomes a penalty charge which is unlawful. I would not hesitate to take you to the Small Claims Court in those circumstances as I know I would win.

What is more worrying is the poor advice being given to you by professional bodies who simply don't know their civil law.