Can council charge full fee for cancelling unconfirmed booking?

hollydays

stuartJo1989 wrote: »

Very insightful!

But I just really wanted a yes/no!

Seems like, had this whole situation not arisen, OP would have turned up on the correct day and fully expected the service. Sounds like the venue would have been legally allowed to turn round to OP on the day and tell them it was cancelled by virtue of the same Ts and Cs they are using here.

If so, I would caution OP on being a bit more careful with future bookings so as to avoid the possibility of an "unconfirmed" booking being cancelled without notification.

How rude! :eek:

EugeneB

unholyangel wrote: »

When discussing elements of a legally binding contract, its often whittled down to offer + acceptance = contract but theres actually more to it than that.

Offer, acceptance, terms of the acceptance need to exactly match that of the offer, acceptance needs to be communicated to the offeror, agreement must be certain, intent to be legally bound, they must have capacity to contract etc.

If any of those requirements are missing, you do not have a legally binding contract.

Having a term which says they can resell the date and your booking wont be confirmed until payment is made means they do not intend to be bound until payment is made. In which case, no payment = no contract. Obviously if there is no contract then technically there would be nothing to cancel.

I'm now curious about different scenario:
Imagine that instead of booking this on their premises, I booked over the phone today for next Thursday and paid full fee during the call. Now the contract is legally binding to both parties, right?
But what if I call tomorrow and ask for a cancellation - do their cancellation policy apply or Distant Selling Regulations in which case I can have full refund?

hollydays

It’s now called Consumer Contract regulations and doesn’t include the likes of hotel bookings at a distance.

EugeneB

hollydays wrote: »

It’s now called Consumer Contract regulations and doesn’t include the likes of hotel bookings at a distance.

Does this falls into 28.1(h) "the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance."?

unholyangel

stuartJo1989 wrote: »

Very insightful!

But I just really wanted a yes/no!

Seems like, had this whole situation not arisen, OP would have turned up on the correct day and fully expected the service. Sounds like the venue would have been legally allowed to turn round to OP on the day and tell them it was cancelled by virtue of the same Ts and Cs they are using here.

If so, I would caution OP on being a bit more careful with future bookings so as to avoid the possibility of an "unconfirmed" booking being cancelled without notification.

Then perhaps you should have asked a question that could be accurately answered with yes/no.

ETA: Very few questions in law are ever a yes/no answer. Its always more of a if x, y & z conditions are satisfied, then B applies.

EugeneB wrote: »

Does this falls into 28.1(h) "the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance."?

Yes - but note that its only exempt from the right to cancel and as the regulations say, its only where the services are to be provided on a specific date/period. They still need to comply with the other parts of the regulations (for example providing certain information before you are bound by the contract).

So a hotel booking for 24th september for 2 weeks would be exempt from the right to cancel. But a voucher for a hotel that can be redeemed for a 2 week stay any time in the next 6 months would not be exempt.

stuartJo1989

unholyangel wrote: »

Then perhaps you should have asked a question that could be accurately answered with yes/no.

ETA: Very few questions in law are ever a yes/no answer. Its always more of a if x, y & z conditions are satisfied, then B applies.

Yea I guess, but I just wanted to know whether by virtue of this booking being "unconfirmed" that the council could have "cancelled" the booking themselves.

Would have been quite disappointing for OP had they turned up to the venue and found that their booking was in fact "unconfirmed"/cancelled.

EugeneB

stuartJo1989 wrote: »

Yea I guess, but I just wanted to know whether by virtue of this booking being "unconfirmed" that the council could have "cancelled" the booking themselves.

Would have been quite disappointing for OP had they turned up to the venue and found that their booking was in fact "unconfirmed"/cancelled.

Well, in my particular case, I would have to pay the fee a few weeks before the event, and after the payment they won't be able to cancel it.