Venue refusing to refund monies paid under ‘Force Majeure’ clause

LandS85 · 31 July 2020 at 8:56PM

My other half and I live in England but our wedding was due to take place on 30th August in Scotland. We have made the difficult decision to ask our venue for a refund of monies paid as opposed to accepting a new date for next year as they had very few dates to choose from, none of which we were happy with and the venue were also not willing to refund us any venue hire charge for choosing a cheaper date next year than the one we had paid for this year (minimum of £1,500 difference in cost).

The contract says that if they have to cancel due to a ‘force majeure’ then they will refund all monies paid, however they have come back today to say they are not cancelling our wedding and can still host it, albeit it with restrictions on numbers and therefore if we choose to cancel we will lose all £7,500 we have paid to them.

My query is that our wedding has 90 guests and therefore surely with the restrictions in place in Scotland for wedding ceremonies and social gatherings for the reception part, the venue cannot reasonably say that they can host the wedding we have planned and paid for can they? Surely they do have to admit that they cannot fulfil their contractual obligations and give us our refund?

Does anyone know where we stand on this please? Also any advice with regards to what area of law I need to find a solicitor in who can best help me with this?

Thank you,