Wedding reception venue disaster

phil_just_phil

Hello
First post on here to get some badly needed advice on a wedding-related saga.

My fianc!e and I are due to be married on 26th June (less than 8 weeks away), and discovered to our horror yesterday evening via a local source that the owners of the small, idyllic country pub we had arranged to host our reception has been placed into administration! We were told by a local resident - and NOT the pub owners or administrators - and held a crisis meeting late last night with the Manager in a vain attempt to work out what happens next.

Despite being retained by the newly appointed administrators, the Manager is completely in the dark about what happens next, but her understanding is that a buyer has been found. The administrator has apparently given this buyer an 8 week deadline within which to settle the deal, and given that the pub has been operating at considerable loss for the last 7 years, this will be subject to the usual legal shenanigans. Even if the deal completes, there are no guarantees that our existing contract with the previous owners will be honoured, and of course there remains a very real risk that the venue itself may close before the 8 weeks is up.

Clearly, we cannot afford the uncertainty, so have decided to begin to look elsewhere. However, due to the rural location and short notice, we are looking at a significant extra cost to facilitate the evening. I believe our insurance company will cover some of this cost, but only as far as 50% of the total cost of our original contract (£2000), and we should regain our deposit too (£800). However, our additional costs are likely to exceed this by at least double, and I am trying to explore the grounds (if any) I might have under consumer or contract law to recover this loss from the previous owners of the pub. A very basic contract was drawn up which consisted of eleven lines of text, and no provision was made for this scenario. Furthermore, it now transpires that the company was placed in administration on 1st April (!), and that the Manager was told to withhold this crucial information from us!

We have already been drop kicked into touch by a separate evening venue who decided to sell their pub from under our noses, and now this. We are exhausted with stress and struggling to finance an alternative - any help would be greatly appreciated, if only to stem the bride's tears.

Floss

Have you spoken to the administrators to determine exactly what is happening? What you have been told by the manager may not be the entire truth (sour grapes, loss of job when pub sold etc.) Also, you may find that you need to get things in writing before you can claim on your insurance, as just cancelling without any discussion may make you liable for the whole cost...

Ruby_Roo

Given that the previous owners of the pub are in administration, even if you have a claim do you think you will get anything from them? Also, if the business is in administration, then it was presumably a company you were dealing with, and in these circumstances I don't think you can pierce the corporate veil and pursue the owners personally.

I would focus your efforts on ironing out with the administrators what is happening and/or looking at another venue.