Wedding Reception venue asking for additional deposit to postpone.

dcp360

Our Wedding is due to take place on the 29th May 2020. Due to Coronavirus we have had to postpone the wedding. 

All of our suppliers have agreed to postpone their services indefinitely and we are happy for them to keep our initial deposit. However, the wedding reception venue has asked for additional £1500 to postpone the event to a future date. This is not specified in their Terms and Condition and was not explained to us in the beginning. It is more than our initial "non-refundable" deposit of £1250. 

I feel they are trying to leave it as late as possible so that Government restrictions are lifted, so we would have to cancel and therefore pay much of the total cost. 

We feel this is unfair and excessive. If they are unwilling to postpone for free are we entitled to our initial deposit back? We have wedding insurance but would prefer the venue to postpone to a future date for free or return our initial deposit. 

Thank you. 

Jeremy535897

If your initial deposit was non-refundable, I guess you won't get it back. I assume the wedding insurance doesn't cover this? Really your choice is whether to forfeit the deposit, or pay the extra. You could then be throwing good money after bad.

Waxy666

You say you have had to postpone due to C-19, but none of us know what restrictions or situation we will be in two months from now.  Under current guidance the venue has every right to expect events to restate by late May and has no obligation to postpone or refund you at this point as whilst Boris was explicit that all weddings were to stop, this only binds for 3 weeks (until mid-April) and then will be further reviewed.  So if you choose to cancel or postpone then legally the venue has every right to follow the letter of the T&C you signed up to and either retain your deposit (which is generally specified as being used to hold a set date) or ask for a new deposit to secure a new date.  It's a pretty aggressive move and not very customer service friendly but legally sounds above board.

What you could try (after you've exhausted all avenues of reasonable discussion with them) is start suggesting that you will post extensively on facebook, twitter etc about the venue and what they are doing to you.  Wedding venues live or die on their reputation so having reviews about gross profiteering from their brides & grooms in the face of a national disaster isn't the kind of thing which will do their business any good.  But be careful with this as not only will you be burning your bridges with a venue which I'm guessing you spent a long time choosing, but the venue also hasn't actually done anything wrong.

Undervalued

Waxy666 said:

You say you have had to postpone due to C-19, but none of us know what restrictions or situation we will be in two months from now.  Under current guidance the venue has every right to expect events to restate by late May and has no obligation to postpone or refund you at this point as whilst Boris was explicit that all weddings were to stop, this only binds for 3 weeks (until mid-April) and then will be further reviewed.  So if you choose to cancel or postpone then legally the venue has every right to follow the letter of the T&C you signed up to and either retain your deposit (which is generally specified as being used to hold a set date) or ask for a new deposit to secure a new date.  It's a pretty aggressive move and not very customer service friendly but legally sounds above board.

What you could try (after you've exhausted all avenues of reasonable discussion with them) is start suggesting that you will post extensively on facebook, twitter etc about the venue and what they are doing to you.  Wedding venues live or die on their reputation so having reviews about gross profiteering from their brides & grooms in the face of a national disaster isn't the kind of thing which will do their business any good.  But be careful with this as not only will you be burning your bridges with a venue which I'm guessing you spent a long time choosing, but the venue also hasn't actually done anything wrong.

I agree the venue have not done anything wrong so I am rather surprised you are suggesting that the OP posts reviews "about gross profiteering from their brides & grooms in the face of a national disaster isn't the kind of thing which will do their business any good".
Hardly a very ethical thing to do about a company that "hasn't actually done anything wrong."

HornetSaver

How much was the total agreed cost of hiring the venue? £1250 and £1500 are big sums of money, but I'm trying to understand how they fit into the overall scheme of things. Them telling you to pay the full cost twice, is a significantly different situation to them deducting a non-refundable deposit of 10-20% and saying if you pay their current deposit rate they'll let you book a future date. Not suggesting that either is nice, nor necessarily arguing that either is definitely within their rights, but it would impact my view on this.

Undervalued

HornetSaver said:

How much was the total agreed cost of hiring the venue? £1250 and £1500 are big sums of money, but I'm trying to understand how they fit into the overall scheme of things. Them telling you to pay the full cost twice, is a significantly different situation to them deducting a non-refundable deposit of 10-20% and saying if you pay their current deposit rate they'll let you book a future date. Not suggesting that either is nice, nor necessarily arguing that either is definitely within their rights, but it would impact my view on this.

At the moment there is a (slight) possibility the wedding could go ahead on the original date. So, presently, the OP is choosing to cancel rather than being forced to do so. If they do that the venue is withing their rights insist on different terms for next year.

I sympathise with both parties. Most likely if the OP does nothing the venue will end up having to cancel the May date, in which case they will have to give a refund, but their is a slight "risk" they will be open. 

HornetSaver

Undervalued said:

HornetSaver said:

How much was the total agreed cost of hiring the venue? £1250 and £1500 are big sums of money, but I'm trying to understand how they fit into the overall scheme of things. Them telling you to pay the full cost twice, is a significantly different situation to them deducting a non-refundable deposit of 10-20% and saying if you pay their current deposit rate they'll let you book a future date. Not suggesting that either is nice, nor necessarily arguing that either is definitely within their rights, but it would impact my view on this.

At the moment there is a (slight) possibility the wedding could go ahead on the original date. So, presently, the OP is choosing to cancel rather than being forced to do so. If they do that the venue is withing their rights insist on different terms for next year.

I sympathise with both parties. Most likely if the OP does nothing the venue will end up having to cancel the May date, in which case they will have to give a refund, but their is a slight "risk" they will be open. 

Oh, I entirely agree, it is on the one hand a legitimate stance from the venue to say "we're not cancelling on our end until we know we have to", and on another somewhat of a game of chicken if you will forgive the highly crass analogy.

My question was a matter of trying to understand the level of risk to the OP and the relative importance of the sums of money involved. If £1250 is the full amount payable, then there would not seem to me to be any incentive to do anything whatsoever at this stage for the reasons you outline. If on the other hand £1250 is the deposit but the contract specifies that for example £10,000 is payable, then it would to me be worth weighing up the value of taking professional advice ASAP on how to best protect their position.

Jeremy535897

Waxy666 said:

You say you have had to postpone due to C-19, but none of us know what restrictions or situation we will be in two months from now.  Under current guidance the venue has every right to expect events to restate by late May and has no obligation to postpone or refund you at this point as whilst Boris was explicit that all weddings were to stop, this only binds for 3 weeks (until mid-April) and then will be further reviewed.  So if you choose to cancel or postpone then legally the venue has every right to follow the letter of the T&C you signed up to and either retain your deposit (which is generally specified as being used to hold a set date) or ask for a new deposit to secure a new date.  It's a pretty aggressive move and not very customer service friendly but legally sounds above board.

What you could try (after you've exhausted all avenues of reasonable discussion with them) is start suggesting that you will post extensively on facebook, twitter etc about the venue and what they are doing to you.  Wedding venues live or die on their reputation so having reviews about gross profiteering from their brides & grooms in the face of a national disaster isn't the kind of thing which will do their business any good.  But be careful with this as not only will you be burning your bridges with a venue which I'm guessing you spent a long time choosing, but the venue also hasn't actually done anything wrong.

I remember from a previous post that a wedding venue refused to do anything at all unless a negative facebook review was removed.

HornetSaver

Jeremy535897 said:

Waxy666 said:

You say you have had to postpone due to C-19, but none of us know what restrictions or situation we will be in two months from now.  Under current guidance the venue has every right to expect events to restate by late May and has no obligation to postpone or refund you at this point as whilst Boris was explicit that all weddings were to stop, this only binds for 3 weeks (until mid-April) and then will be further reviewed.  So if you choose to cancel or postpone then legally the venue has every right to follow the letter of the T&C you signed up to and either retain your deposit (which is generally specified as being used to hold a set date) or ask for a new deposit to secure a new date.  It's a pretty aggressive move and not very customer service friendly but legally sounds above board.

What you could try (after you've exhausted all avenues of reasonable discussion with them) is start suggesting that you will post extensively on facebook, twitter etc about the venue and what they are doing to you.  Wedding venues live or die on their reputation so having reviews about gross profiteering from their brides & grooms in the face of a national disaster isn't the kind of thing which will do their business any good.  But be careful with this as not only will you be burning your bridges with a venue which I'm guessing you spent a long time choosing, but the venue also hasn't actually done anything wrong.

I remember from a previous post that a wedding venue refused to do anything at all unless a negative facebook review was removed.

In normal times I'd respond to that with a Tweet and a YouTube video.

That being said, these are not normal times. Taking the social media route is disproportionately unlikely to work at this moment, and disproportionately likely to backfire. Partly because people have other things on their mind, partly because no-one is booking weddings at the moment so the impact on them of backlash now, amid the chatter, is limited. But mainly, because a lot of businesses are fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, and if they have the slightest of legs to stand on they are going to try and stand on them with a level of determination and vigour that they most likely would not at other times.

All we know right now is that the best steps to take are not yet determined; only Boris Johnson can clear that up for us, and he's unlikely to do so two months in advance. At the risk of sounding flippant, perhaps the OP's best chance of getting that answer early would be if a really big organisation involved in entertainment, for instance the Premier League, pushed the Government hard for clarity on a timetable for gatherings - in such a scenario I imagine weddings would get mentioned.

neelam11

Hi We have a wedding booked at a Local Hotel in Hounslow June 2020. we do have wedding insurance but the Hotel manager is not allowing us to re schedule our date to August - Dec 20. They are hiding behind the Govt guidelines that lock-down is only for  3 weeks, and we have to wait until 23 April for next news. If I am still keeping them as my venue why are they not letting me move my date? I thought the Govt had asked all Hotels to close and only be open for key workers or homeless and this will be long term crisis. What can I do? thanks  

dcp360

Hello all, Thank you for your replies - Really helpful. 

HornetSaver said:

How much was the total agreed cost of hiring the venue? £1250 and £1500 are big sums of money, but I'm trying to understand how they fit into the overall scheme of things. Them telling you to pay the full cost twice, is a significantly different situation to them deducting a non-refundable deposit of 10-20% and saying if you pay their current deposit rate they'll let you book a future date. Not suggesting that either is nice, nor necessarily arguing that either is definitely within their rights, but it would impact my view on this. 

Its about 5k. If we pay the additional deposit we have paid over 50% of the final cost. 

I think we will keep waiting to see if the advice changes or timelines are moved past the 29th May. I understand if the wedding was this week, we would be entitled to a refund as the venue would have to cancel. I don't think writing any negative reviews online will change their mind unfortunately and I'd rather do it the 'professional' way. Worse comes to worst, we have wedding insurance but even that will be difficult. 

Thank you.