Please Help Wedding Cancellation

06109181

Hi guys,
bit of a long winded one but here goes.
Around 6 months ago me and my partner booked our wedding date for April 2019. It was a £250 to "save the date" and they required the payments staggered over the 2 years to complete the cost. We were told that another £500 was due in 5 days so as we had no intention of losing the wedding ew put down £750 on the day.
Anyhow around 3 weeks ago I was offered a job teaching in the US which would mean we would have to cancel our wedding. I contacted the venue to say we would need to cancel and that we knew we would loose the initial £250 but to my amazement they said they would be keeping the full £750!.
We have had no extra meetings, un answered emails and we did sign a contract on the day that was promised to be mailed over but never was. We have also questions about our wedding that were never answered.
As we leave for the US in 8 weeks I am desperate to sort this out. They have an open day on the 30 July which I am sure that they will now sell our date for even more profit.
I know you guys know your stuff. What can I do about these guys?

Thank you all in advance
Craig

Malthusian

If £250 was due six months ago and another £500 was due 5 months and three weeks ago, and there was nothing in the agreement that says either of those payments is refundable in the event of cancellation, then they don't owe you anything.

If you can prove that under the terms of the contract the £500 should be refundable, then you can take them to small claims court, but it doesn't sound like it from what you've posted.

If they've not violated the contract then you are reduced to arguing that the contract is unfair, and after 6 months they can easily argue that they've completed £500 worth of work behind the scenes.

I sympathise, as it does sound like you've been on the end of some hard sell sales tactics. It seems rather bizarre to ask for £250 now and £500 in five days, oh but you might lose your wedding date if you don't pay up now - what difference is 5 days going to make? What was the £250 for if it didn't save the date? But you told us the £500 was due five days after six months ago anyway so it hardly makes much difference. Unless the contract says that the £500 is refundable in the event of cancellation then I can't see that you have any claim against them.

I'd ask if sticking to your original wedding plan is an option but as it's a teaching job I'm guessing you're not free to fly back to the UK in April. And probably not worth it for the sake of £500 anyway.

Kayalana99

Malthusian wrote: »

If £250 was due six months ago and another £500 was due 5 months and three weeks ago, and there was nothing in the agreement that says either of those payments is refundable in the event of cancellation, then they don't owe you anything.

If you can prove that under the terms of the contract the £500 should be refundable, then you can take them to small claims court, but it doesn't sound like it from what you've posted.

If they've not violated the contract then you are reduced to arguing that the contract is unfair, and after 6 months they can easily argue that they've completed £500 worth of work behind the scenes.

I sympathise, as it does sound like you've been on the end of some hard sell sales tactics. It seems rather bizarre to ask for £250 now and £500 in five days, oh but you might lose your wedding date if you don't pay up now - what difference is 5 days going to make? What was the £250 for if it didn't save the date? But you told us the £500 was due five days after six months ago anyway so it hardly makes much difference. Unless the contract says that the £500 is refundable in the event of cancellation then I can't see that you have any claim against them.

I'd ask if sticking to your original wedding plan is an option but as it's a teaching job I'm guessing you're not free to fly back to the UK in April. And probably not worth it for the sake of £500 anyway.

No offence but the rules in this kind of situation are quite complicated, it can be the difference of winning a case because they took a 'deposit' on the contract instead of a retainer. Infact, they don't have to say it's refundable in the contract - they do have to say what is not refundable for it to apply.

You need to get a copy of that contract that you signed, I'd start with an e-mail asking for the contract and pointing out you feel that withholding the £750 is unfair as they still have plenty of time to re-book the date.

I think something along lines of;

Dear X,

Thank you for taking my call earlier but we were shocked to hear you would be keeping the full £750 in the event of cancellation. I would like to formally request that a copy of the contract is sent over to us as promised within 10 days of receipt of this e-mail. (See here: http://www.wikihow.com/Request-a-Copy-of-a-Contract)

Futher, if no agreement can be made and/or the contract is not recieved we will have to take matters futher and will be sending a letter before action as we feel that not giving a part refund in this case is unfair terms.

We would prefer to work with you to resolve this matter however,

Kind Regards,

X

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/changed-your-mind/cancelling-a-service-youve-arranged/#cancelling_sale_made_on_business_premises

unholyangel

This works on a few basic principles of contract law.

Namely, if you breach a contract after it has been agreed (and therefore, becomes legally binding) then you are liable for the other parties losses as a result of that breach. Wrongful cancellation is one type of breach of contract - where you cancel without justification or legal entitlement to do so.

However, the other party have a duty to try and mitigate their losses. This does not mean they need to take the cheapest route - just that they must take reasonable steps to avoid/minimise losses where possible & must not take unreasonable steps to increase/add losses.

In practice this means the venue would have to try and resell the date. How far away the wedding is can obviously impact on this. But April 2019 is still far enough away that theres a good chance they'd resell it quickly at full cost. Which would leave you liable for not more than an administration charge and potentially advertising costs if they had to take out advertising specially to sell it (if it was a generic advertisement promoting the company rather than that specific date, I wouldn't expect the cost of that to be claimable).

Realistically, if you're leaving in 8 weeks then you can certainly ask them, but your hands are pretty much tied because despite what the law says should happen, 8 weeks isn't enough time to enforce it if they don't want to cooperate.

06109181

Thank you guys for your help. Thankfully we got a refund of £500 as in the contract that we finally got from them it says if it was 12 months or later we were entitled to a full refund. This made me happy
Cheers all

7roland8

Looks like you had a lucky escape as not a great venue to deal with - good luck with the new job.