Non-refundable wedding deposit?

Csimpson1

Hey

My partner and I booked our wedding in May, to be married in summer 2019. We paid a £800 non-refundable deposit for the venue, of a potential total cost of about 9,500.

Unfortunately our circumstances have changed and we can no longer afford a wedding that expensive. The venue have told us we can’t have our deposit back which we understand, but I’ve been doing some research that suggests that businesses can only refuse to refund a deposit if they can demonstrate that they have incurred some form of loss, i.e. the money they’d lose by us not going ahead with the booking. The suggestion is that, if they are able to sell that date to another couple (which they should be able to, given that the date is almost two years away), they haven’t actually incurred any loss (or, at least not £800 worth) and therefore we should be entitled to our deposit back.

Does anybody have any experience with this? If so, do you know the relevant piece of legislation this falls under please?

Many thanks in advance!
C

foxtrotoscar_2

From memory this type of thing has been discussed regularly on this very forum. It may be worth your while doing a search to see people's views.

pinkshoes

Ask them to quantify their losses.

They can charge any admin fees for work done so far, readvertising that date etc... but should refund the rest.

stuartJo1989

I find it weird how both of your circumstances have changed so quickly as to render you in a position where you can't pay! Not least because between May and now was roughly 4 months, whereas you've got OVER 1 YEAR to find that £8,700 balance!!

I can sort of get if you've both lost your source of income, but its a bit pessimistic to assume that you couldn't muster up that sort of balance in the time frame. After all, only in May were you seemingly confident that you could pay for it.

For the sake of making the day special and memorable, I'd re-consider your options with regards to making payment at this stage. Ultimately, though, I am in no position to delve into your life and as such I would recommend that you alternatively follow other advice in relation to cancellation rights.

bris

pinkshoes wrote: »

Ask them to quantify their losses.

They can charge any admin fees for work done so far, readvertising that date etc... but should refund the rest.

Not quite true, almost but it doesn't work like that.


They need to mitigate their losses, they do this by reselling the date in question if they can. They can deduct the cost of this such as advertising from the deposit and then if they rebook for the same price the rest of the deposit must be returned.


At this stage you are in breach of contract and with that breach they are entitled to their losses, this would, in this case be loss of profit from the night in question.


If they manage to resell but have to accept less for the night than you paid, the difference is also a loss but they must demonstrate that they tried to get the correct price, this is mitigating their losses.


I wouldn't expect anything back from them yet but in a few months have someone phone them and ask if the date in question is available, when they say it's booked up then you can legally fight them on your deposit.

Csimpson1

Hi all

Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond – much appreciated.

StuartJo1989 - I understand your comments, but the £9000 was only a minimum spend number dictated by the venue – in reality it would cost us more than £12,000 for the venue due to the amount of guests we feel like we would have to invite for one reason or another. Please note that we’ve not committed to this amount at this point – numbers would need to be confirmed much closer to the time. Then there’s the additional costs on top – stationary, cake, dress, entertainment, bridesmaid dresses etc etc, by my estimations we’re looking at least £20,000 in total, not including a honeymoon. We’ve realised that it very much feels like we are going to be in a position where we are struggling financially (since my fianc! recently lost his job very unexpectedly) for the sake of keeping up with the Jones’ and, in the process, losing sight of what this is supposed to be about – i.e. the two of us making a lifelong commitment to one another, which we’ve now decided to do on a very small scale with close family only and use the money that we’d already saved towards the wedding to allow my fianc! to re-train in another profession.

I absolutely understand that the venue has a business to run and therefore would never expect that we’d get the whole amount back, but thought that trying to get some of it back might be worth a try, particularly given our current financial situation.

Apologies for the long-winded post - just felt like I should explain myself further.

Many thanks again for the advice!
C

Undervalued

Csimpson1 wrote: »

Hi all

Thanks a lot for taking the time to respond – much appreciated.

StuartJo1989 - I understand your comments, but the £9000 was only a minimum spend number dictated by the venue – in reality it would cost us more than £12,000 for the venue due to the amount of guests we feel like we would have to invite for one reason or another. Please note that we’ve not committed to this amount at this point – numbers would need to be confirmed much closer to the time. Then there’s the additional costs on top – stationary, cake, dress, entertainment, bridesmaid dresses etc etc, by my estimations we’re looking at least £20,000 in total, not including a honeymoon. We’ve realised that it very much feels like we are going to be in a position where we are struggling financially (since my fianc! recently lost his job very unexpectedly) for the sake of keeping up with the Jones’ and, in the process, losing sight of what this is supposed to be about – i.e. the two of us making a lifelong commitment to one another, which we’ve now decided to do on a very small scale with close family only and use the money that we’d already saved towards the wedding to allow my fianc! to re-train in another profession.

I absolutely understand that the venue has a business to run and therefore would never expect that we’d get the whole amount back, but thought that trying to get some of it back might be worth a try, particularly given our current financial situation.

Apologies for the long-winded post - just felt like I should explain myself further.

Many thanks again for the advice!
C

You are right that that they need to demonstrate a loss in in order to withhold some or all of your deposit. A court would expect them to have made reasonable efforts to minimise any losses. If they had to spend say £500 on advertising in order to re-sell the date they could deduct that from your £800 deposit. Equally if, despite reasonable efforts, they could only re-sell the date at a discounted price that too could be deducted.

However, it works both ways. If despite reasonable efforts they could not re-sell the date at all and their costs were greater than your deposit you could, in theory, be liable for the extra.