Local Hall Refusing To Return Deposit

Jed_Exodus

Mojisola wrote: »

Just the £80 seems quite expensive - how many hours' cleaning would £228 pay for?

The caretaker and his mate were there for 5 hours allegedly.

Mojisola

Jed_Exodus wrote: »

The caretaker and his mate were there for 5 hours allegedly.

My cleaner goes through our 3-bed house in two hours.

Ten hours work to clean a hall is ridiculous!

Jed_Exodus

I've recieved a reply from the chairman saying that they are sticking to their decision. He claims they have photos which I've asked him to forward to me. He also said that if I take legal action they will bring up in court a report of hoards of youths running riot (teenagers enjoying a party) and an inebriated adult trying to break into the small hall next door. He could have come from the pub 200 yards down the road and in any case it seems to be a matter for the police rather than the small claims court.

Ms_Chocaholic

Their story seems to be changing somewhat from poverty to hoards of youths. Is the poverty line from an email ?

So they're saying it cost £228 to clean the hall on top of the £80, £300 to clean a village hall.

The Chairman will have no photos but I assume you / guests have plenty to show what went on that night.

Jed_Exodus

The poverty line is from an email, it said for us to bare in mind they're a charity and can't afford too much cleaning equipment.

They are charging us £45 for overstaying which we accepted. £200 for cleaning the hall and then an extra £60 which seems to have come from removing a decorative item that was on the floor which had an adhesive. I'm also going to accept this £60 charge, but as for the £200 it just seems to me that the caretaker is pulling a fast one.

Diamandis

Would you be able to post the full responses? Usually better than paraphrasing to understand what they're saying.

arcon5

Jed_Exodus wrote: »

I've recieved a reply from the chairman saying that they are sticking to their decision. He claims they have photos which I've asked him to forward to me. He also said that if I take legal action they will bring up in court a report of hoards of youths running riot (teenagers enjoying a party) and an inebriated adult trying to break into the small hall next door. He could have come from the pub 200 yards down the road and in any case it seems to be a matter for the police rather than the small claims court.

Both irrelevant to a judge.
Unless the latter incident caused damage, both have no monetary value and using that as a defence amounts to an illegal financial penalty. Imposed retrospectively.

A judge isn't there to import penalities for public display either

Jed_Exodus

I've written them the following email.

Dear Mr ******
Thanks for your response. I appreciate you agreeing to send me the photos. I have had a discussion with my wife and have decided the following.

***** broke down the charges as follows in an email last week:

£48.00 - extra time of 30 minutes after booked hours

£200.00 - Total Cleaning time spent immediately after the party (5 hours in total x 2 people cleaning)

£60.00 - additional cleaning needed to remove fixings in main hall and further black streaks in side room

We have already accepted the £48 for overstaying.

We do not accept the £200 as this was already covered in the £80 cleaning charge.

We have decided to accept the charge of £60 relating to excessive cleaning as my wife has admitted that the decorative item she placed on the floor at the entrance had an adhesive on the back which she was not aware of until she placed it there. I'm still none the wiser as to these black marks??

As for the £200, I cannot believe that it took your caretaker and his mate 5 hours to clean immediately after. Some of the tables were already cleaned by guests who were unaware that we had paid for cleaning. We were 25 minutes late leaving the hall because my wife and I were clearing up. If your caretaker claims if took 5 hours and wants to charge you for that then frankly that's your problem.

With that in mind the amount of money I am claiming is as follows.

£400 deposit paid

- £48 for staying over allocated time

- £60 for excessive cleaning

= £292 due back to us

- £172 already paid by cheque today

= £120 outstading



Please note that any claims submitted by us through the small claims court will then be for the cleaning immediately after the party for which we had already paid. I can't imagine the judge in this case will be interested in alleged anti social behaviour or criminal activity by guests at the party, if indeed these people were actually at the party.

I would urge you to pay back the £120 as I feel this is more than fair. If you force us to take this to small claims court you will then be liable to pay our court costs on top of this. I'd really rather not take this action.

I look forward to your response



Regards

Hopefully that will be an end to it, I think I'm being fair.

Shaka_Zulu

Jeez, I had to clean up a hall after an event once single handedly when there was vomit etc all over the loos and that only took 2-3 hours. I was as grumpy as sin by the end of it....lol.

sheramber

how long did it take to remove the decorative item and the adhesive from the floor? Obviously longer than you had time for.

Saying they 'cannot afford too much cleaning equipment' would indicate that they do not have machines for cleaning but have to do it by hand so it will take longer.

Whether there was a cleaning service as such or not they had to pay someone for the hours spent cleaning which was not included in the rent for the hall.

Our local hall has a caretaker but he does not clean it. Everyone who uses the hall cleans it after them or arranges for it to be cleaned.