Local Hall Refusing To Return Deposit

Jed_Exodus

That's the only one I can find at the moment, they're all in my wife's email account. There is another one where my wife asks "do we just leave at midnight if we opt for this service" the response was "yes just leave at midnight and he caretaker will come in and clean up"

Jed_Exodus

hollydays wrote: »

Some confusion there.
Was this sent to you after the party?

No that's was sent before. My wife was querying an invoice which showed £100 for the service when she had been quoted £80 before.

Lingua

Jed_Exodus wrote: »

Hello ######,

Yes, you are absolutely right, I did quote £80.00 for the cleaning service.
We have started offering this service only back in May and have found, after first piloting this service, that the caretaker spends quite a lot of time when he doesn't just clean, but tidy up as well and dispose of all waste. We therefore decided to increase the fee to £100.00.
However, I'm sorry I forgot that you were quoted £80.00 back then and your quote will obviously stand. I have amended the invoice again and attached above. I'm sorry about causing any confusion!
Best regards,

This would suggest that the caretaker tidies up the room (removing food / bottles etc.) and then does a clean, so I can't see any reason to charge you extra when a complete service was offered for the £80.

All seems a bit silly really. Small claims is probably the only route.

As for checking if the time/date data on the photos have been changed: it's unlikely they have the technical knowledge to do this. You can check the 'info' of a photo quite easily, and it should show the date it was created. This can be done on a computer by right-clicking and then clicking properties (on Windows). On phones, the process varies.

Lingua

hollydays

Sounds like the “ charity” workers are making a killing.

waamo

I don't see any point in playing email ping pong with them any more. You gave them 2 weeks to pay over a month ago. It now looks like you aren't being serious.

If you issue a claim it doesn't stop both parties negotiating. It may focus minds a little if there is a serious deadline.

Jed_Exodus

waamo wrote: »

I don't see any point in playing email ping pong with them any more. You gave them 2 weeks to pay over a month ago. It now looks like you aren't being serious.

If you issue a claim it doesn't stop both parties negotiating. It may focus minds a little if there is a serious deadline.

I did give them two weeks but Citizens Advice told me to put it in a letter and send by recorded delivery. I did that and so should wait until next Saturday to file the claim.

waamo

If you need to send any more letters don't use signed for post. It is a waste of money and if you don't get a signature then it is useless. First class post is, in law, deemed delivered unless they can demonstrate it wasn't and that is a very hard thing to do.

unholyangel

waamo wrote: »

I don't see any point in playing email ping pong with them any more. You gave them 2 weeks to pay over a month ago. It now looks like you aren't being serious.

If you issue a claim it doesn't stop both parties negotiating. It may focus minds a little if there is a serious deadline.

I agree on not playing email tennis or ping pong with them but afaik, OP hasn't sent a LBA yet with is a requirement to comply with pre-action protocol.

They are quite clearly taking the !!!! though if they're billing cleaning at £20 per hour per person. Cleaner is typically a minimum wage job (and £80 for 2 people for 5 hours each would be £8 an hour which is more realistic for a cleaner imo). Although as others have said, they agreed a price of £80 for these services, they can't change the price once its been agreed. If they weren't willing to do certain things then they should have specified the restrictions in the contract.

Plus the £60 to remove the marks....I'm assuming they're claiming thats for materials/equipment used to remove them. If so, I'd be telling them that the sum appears to be an arbitrary amount rather than a genuine reflection of costs involved given its a nice round figure. Even if they'd said £54 I might not have questioned it, but £60 right on the nose? I'd bet my life savings thats arbitrary.

Jed_Exodus

Yes I would agree with that. Also the marks appear to have come from younger kids running around, not sure if they expected us to have the kids remove their shoes.They have a youth club at the hall every Friday which my kids used to attend, I'm sure they're more than used to clearing up marks left by kids shoes.

To answer your question I have sent a LBA which they recieved last Saturday. I spoke to my home insurance company and they will not supply a solicitor for anything under £500 but are able to offer advice and pay my court fees. They've given me access to a site called My Lawyer to fill out the claim form and they check it over before its sent.

waamo

unholyangel wrote: »

I agree on not playing email tennis or ping pong with them but afaik, OP hasn't sent a LBA yet with is a requirement to comply with pre-action protocol.

I took this

I've told them if they don't return the remainder in two weeks them I'm taking it to the small claims court.

to be an LBA which on second reading it doesn't look like it was.