Wedding deposit lose

Stephb1986_2

Olliaura what are you short on love? I'm getting married in just over 4 weeks and might be able to donate some stuff to you after my day?

Pop over to the wedding board and we'll have a natter over there

Steph xx

Pollycat

Interesting reading for the OP.

Unfortunately once the company has your deposit trying to get it back is easier said than done. They may have terms in the contract that state a deposit is not refundable and may point to this if you ask for it back. It may mean you need to go to court to challenge the retention of your deposit if this is the case. It would be down to the company to justify that the retention of the deposit is reasonable. It may be easier to come to some sort of agreement after making allowances for genuine losses the company suffered as a result of your order. If they refuse to play ball then you may need to issue court proceedings via the small claims court (assuming the claim is for less than £5k via MCOL:

I wonder if she's willing to go to court if the venue won't refund the deposit?
From the first post, it seems that the venue is being pretty bullish about keeping the £1K plus pushing for the payment of the other amount.

somethingcorporate

Pollycat wrote: »

Interesting reading for the OP.


I wonder if she's willing to go to court if the venue won't refund the deposit?
From the first post, it seems that the venue is being pretty bullish about keeping the £1K plus pushing for the payment of the other amount.

Agreed, it's not easy or straight forward but for the sake of losing £1k I'd certainly look into it for a couple of hours. Most places that arbitrarily keep deposits assume they are dealing with people like those that are posting in this thread saying that they have no right to it back, when clearly, it is not so black and white.

trinity_enigma

Pollycat wrote: »

Interesting reading for the OP.


I wonder if she's willing to go to court if the venue won't refund the deposit?
From the first post, it seems that the venue is being pretty bullish about keeping the £1K plus pushing for the payment of the other amount.

I think the company will genuinely be losing out here- they have £1000 so far out of what should be a £4000 payment - not to mention bar takings and if a hotel likely room bookings and there is only 12 weeks until the wedding.

Very few people will want to book a wedding with only 12 weeks to go and to actually get a booking the venue will likely have to reduce the price to entice someone else to book it (again they will be losing money on the original booking). Therefore I think most courts will find them keeping the deposit entirely reasonable- it's not as if they are cancelling with over a year to go or cancelling a really popular date (valentines day etc) which would make it easier to get a rebooking.

duchy

I think that's true a court will be asked to consider if keeping the deposit is reasonable..... all they need to do is back that up with -it was too short notice to resell, we lost room revenue, drinks revenue, etc all of which can be quantified and the OP will most likely lose. Of course *some* companies would rather pay up than waste time and money in court but the OP has no way of knowing which type this company is without spending more money on legal fees. It's a risk and not one I'd care to take.

maman

Olliaura wrote: »

Hi can anyone help me ? I paid £1000 deposit on my Visa card for my wedding venue. We was supposed to pay £1280 , we could no longer afford to get married due to boiler breaking, school club going bust & taking 300 of our childcare money, tv breaking , work dying down basically no money . I phoned up today to cancel and the wedding venue has said we will lose our £1000 deposit and we owe them another £280 . I feel sick to the stomach with worry . The wedding was supposed to be on the 24th may we signed a contract please anyone got any advice ????

maman wrote: »

While I might feel sympathetic to your situation, the venue is running a business. With just three weeks to go they are very unlikely to fill that slot so stand potentially to lose a lot more money than the deposit. That's their insurance to help compensate them for cancellations at very short notice such as yours.


I think asking for time to pay is probably the best advice.

I must admit that when I first read it the 24th jumped out at me but didn't notice that it was 24th May. Obviously the case for the venue finding another booking won't be quite as strong as if it was the 24th March I'd originally assumed but still the majority of people don't book weddings at 10 weeks notice.

somethingcorporate

duchy wrote: »

I think that's true a court will be asked to consider if keeping the deposit is reasonable..... all they need to do is back that up with -it was too short notice to resell, we lost room revenue, drinks revenue, etc all of which can be quantified and the OP will most likely lose. Of course *some* companies would rather pay up than waste time and money in court but the OP has no way of knowing which type this company is without spending more money on legal fees. It's a risk and not one I'd care to take.

It's a valid point but the only risk is the cost to file a claim, which for £1k is about £35 iirc.

I didn't quite join the dots on that it was only a handful of weeks away which does make the case much weaker but still doesn't mean I wouldn't wager £35 if the chance of the upside was £1k. It's a cheaper option than pressing on and committing another £3k of money they do not have.

fivetide

I'd be interested to know if you did get a proper list of terms and conditions. You said no reciept OP as you paid over the phone but a bit hard for them to hold you to a contract you ahven't actually seen if that is the case...

Aside from that, what is up with the boiler? Who condemed it? Sometimes the big firm isn't a bad one - The boiler cover from British/Scottish Gas isn't bad at all. They'll even do a fixed price one off fix if needs be. It is quite cheap. My brother in law works for them and told us that the part they'd fitted for a few hundred quid was £500 alone, not to mention the labour.

Worth a look.

InsideInsurance

andygb wrote: »

What I cannot understand, is why the church costs anything at all, because when I got married (nearly 22 years ago) the church didn't charge us.

The world changes in 22 years:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1492218/fees%20table%202014%20short%20summary.pdf

There is a minimum fee that all CoE churches charge but this is just for the basic service and doesnt include the organist or anything else. Some will also expect a "donation" to be made on top of the statutory fee.


As to the OP - as others have subsequently pointed out, any contract can only withhold monies that represent the true or average loss they have sustained by you wanting to break the contract. In theory you could help them secure an alternative client for the date and thus get your deposit back but that really depends on if you know anyone that is likely to want a venue for something (obv wouldnt have to be a wedding)

Gloomendoom

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The world changes in 22 years:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1492218/fees%20table%202014%20short%20summary.pdf

The C of E have been charging fees for weddings for a lot longer than 22 years. For example, the Parochial Fees Order 1990 set the fees at £6 for the banns, £3 for a banns certificate and £47 for the marriage service itself.

In cases of genuine hardship the fees can be waived.