Wedding venue non-refundable deposit

differentview

Hi All,

Looking for advice if anyone has been through anything similar.

I will try to keep it brief in the initial thread but happy to give more detail if needed!

We booked our wedding venue on 1st April 2019 for September 2020. It is an outdoor venue, not a fixed structure (it is a seasonal marquee) and the date we went to see it not every element of the site was up and running yet (i.e. some of the additional non-permanent structures that are included in the price)

In the 6 months that has followed since our booking, we have basically completely lost faith that the venue will be able to organise the wedding efficiently and professionally. Examples would include giving us the wrong bank details for payments, discrepancies in information we have been provided, no floor plans being provided to show how we can get our number of guests to fit into this space (despite being asked multiple times), and the list goes on. Along with this, at another site visit in August we noticed that some of the structures that we weren't able to see at our initial visit were in very poor condition (dangerous flooring, dirty, torn, marked etc) and not what you would expect for a venue costing in excess of £6000 (for the venue itself, no food etc!).

We paid a deposit of 20% (£1250) back in April, and have recently written to them to explain the reasons we don't feel we can hold our wedding there anymore and how disappointed we feel in their service. We requested our deposit back, but did offer them £250 as a good will gesture to cover their time (not that they have actually done anything in that time!)

The T&Cs state the deposit is non-refundable, but I do believe constitutes as an unfair contract term for a variety of reasons. Luckily I have a little knowledge of law as I completed a law degree a few years back, but am absolutely not an expert!! I have quoted the reasons we believe this term to be unfair and the relevant sections of the Act.

They have come back and said they would refund us £1000 if they could re-sell the date, but nearly a month after cancelling the date is still blocked off on their website, they haven't to our knowledge advertised the date as available and are saying that they probably can't re-sell the date until March/April next year because its now the middle of Winter and "difficult to sell their venue in the Winter".

Any advice on where we go from here welcome! I will happily pursue this after our date has passed and we know if they have held another wedding there, but I would really rather get this sorted and out of the way if possible!

Thanks

DoaM

How did you pay them? Bank transfer? (That's never a good sign, if they only accept bank transfer as the method of payment).

differentview

Yes was invoiced and then BACS (only payment option available on their invoice)

It didn't concern me too much at the time as I have a business where I routinely pay invoices by BACS, but obviously have never booked a wedding venue so wouldn't know if this was unusual!

We received a letter from the bank about a week after payment (had had no confirmation from venue at this point of receipt) stating that the business had closed that bank account some time ago, and had set up a different one. The bank thankfully had transferred the money into this new account and it took some chasing to the venue to confirm that they had actually received the money at all!

Undervalued

differentview wrote: »

They have come back and said they would refund us £1000 if they could re-sell the date, but nearly a month after cancelling the date is still blocked off on their website, they haven't to our knowledge advertised the date as available and are saying that they probably can't re-sell the date until March/April next year because its now the middle of Winter and "difficult to sell their venue in the Winter".

Any advice on where we go from here welcome! I will happily pursue this after our date has passed and we know if they have held another wedding there, but I would really rather get this sorted and out of the way if possible!

Thanks

The difficulty will be establishing, if they don't re-sell the date, whether they made reasonable efforts to do so and / or mitigated their potential losses. If they have to spend extra on advertising (say) in over to get another booking they could deduct that from your deposit.

Keep in mind that you could potentially be liable for more than just the deposit if they could show a bigger loss despite reasonable efforts.

You may of course be able to show that you had good reason to cancel because of their alleged incompetence, in which case you wouldn't owe them anything, but that might not be easy.

Proceed with care!

davidmcn

Undervalued wrote: »

You may of course be able to show that you had good reason to cancel because of their alleged incompetence, in which case you wouldn't owe them anything, but that might not be easy.

It doesn't sound like the venue had actually breached the contract. I doubt losing confidence in the other party is justifiable grounds for terminating the agreement.

Undervalued

davidmcn wrote: »

It doesn't sound like the venue had actually breached the contract. I doubt losing confidence in the other party is justifiable grounds for terminating the agreement.

Yes I agree, that is why I said "it might not be easy"!

differentview

Thanks all!

I think from the above advice it would be best to proceed after the date has passed? They may not re-sell the date, however the site itself isn't solely used for weddings, it is used for corporate away days, glamping etc. Not really any way of knowing what the site gets booked for, but it is unlikely judging by their current online calendar that it would be sitting completely empty for that whole weekend.

It is funny, because when we sent the initial email, we weren't expecting to get the deposit back at all and were happy to accept if it was lost - it was actually the response and tone (and lies!) of their reply that essentially acted like everything we had raised wasn't really that important and untrue that made us want to fight a little to get it back! Having a business myself, I wouldn't speak to my clients like that and a good lesson in how to deal with complaints!

bris

The date is September 20, you are very premature with your claim that they can't provide what's promised.


Reselling the date is your only hope and they will want to re sell it. They make a lot more money with the date sold than without, the venue makes a lot of money in bar and food sales than just the small deposit.


Your little time studying law did you no favours, this is not an unfair term. The law clearly states that losses can be sought for broken contracts, this includes loss of profit which could be a lot more than the deposit.