Rights concerning event that has had to be cancelled

hedgyhowie

Hi I am treasurer for school PTA in Guildford, Surrey so we are a non profit making organisation.  We booked a mobile cinema company to do an outdoor event for us in early July 2020 but because of lockdown we have been unable to progress with it and as it is for  a secondary school and very unlikely that the kids will be back until September.  The event is costing £1600 and we were required to pay £800 deposit which we have done.  We have asked the company if we can roll the deposit over to 2021 because it is a fundraising event and July is not going to happen now.  They have come back to us to say that they will roll over to 2021 but they want full payment for the event now!  We are happy for them to keep the deposit and don’t want a refund but we are worried that if we pay up front for the whole event and the company goes bust in the meantime we will have lost everything.  Does anyone know our legal rights on this one or what we should do.  If we cancel we lose our £800 which is understandable so we are in a difficult position.  I can’t believe am company would do this.

Thanks in advance Sarah 

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davidmcn

Firstly you're posting in the Consumer Rights forum (which is fair enough as there isn't really a non-consumer alternative on this site) but bear in mind the PTA isn't a consumer so you don't have all the same statutory rights.

It really comes down to what your contract says - but even if that's sketchy, I presume it's for a specific date. If the cinema company can fulfil their side of the contract (do you know?) then the risk of you choosing to cancel the event is yours. So the money is due (whenever the contract says it is), though there may be an argument that if you're giving them notice of cancellation then they can mitigate some of their costs (as they don't need to actually turn up, pay staff etc).