Wedding venue holding onto refund & possible unfair term in contract

GeordieRob

Hi everyone
I'm hoping for some advice. I was due to get married in November 2021 but due to a loss of income because of COVID, we've decided to cancel the wedding we booked and have a much more intimate event in a different venue. The contract we signed with our original venue stated that if we cancel up to a year before the wedding date, we will be due a full refund. We cancelled before this date and the venue confirmed that they would process the refund. After chasing them and having numerous emails back and forth, they've said that we could have to wait up to 6 months to receive our refund because of the "extraordinary circumstances" around COVID and because they "hadn't budgeted" for our refund. Is this legal? There is nothing in the contract stating how long a refund should take but there is also nothing relating to the circumstances they're using as an excuse. 
The venue has offered to repay half of our money by the end of this week but has just said that it is their intention to repay the rest asap within 6 months. My partner has lost her job and funds are tight at the moment so this is obviously causing us a huge amount of stress. 

On top of this, the venue is stating that our booking fee was non-refundable and that they will not be returning it. I've asked them for a breakdown of costs so they can show me the justification for keeping a £1000 booking fee when they've provided nothing and have 12 months to resell the date. They aren't engaging with that at all. 
I'd be really grateful for any advice.

Thanks!
Rob

Aylesbury_Duck

Good that the contract provides for a full refund.  What does it specifically say about the booking fee and the terms of that full refund, i.e. timescales?

When it comes to the booking fee, you've done the right thing in asking them to breakdown costs they've incurred to date.  They can't keep an unreasonable sum, but although they have 12 months to re-sell the date, many people (including you) book more than a year ahead, so there's no guarantee they'll be able to re-sell that date.

Ultimately, on the refund you can accept their proposal or get tough with court action, but court action is likely to take several months (so not much quicker than their proposal) and if they don't have the cash to pay, what then?

GeordieRob

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Good that the contract provides for a full refund.  What does it specifically say about the booking fee and the terms of that full refund, i.e. timescales?

When it comes to the booking fee, you've done the right thing in asking them to breakdown costs they've incurred to date.  They can't keep an unreasonable sum, but although they have 12 months to re-sell the date, many people (including you) book more than a year ahead, so there's no guarantee they'll be able to re-sell that date.

Ultimately, on the refund you can accept their proposal or get tough with court action, but court action is likely to take several months (so not much quicker than their proposal) and if they don't have the cash to pay, what then?

Unfortunately, it doesn't give any timescales for the refund in the contract. Although, the contract would've required us to have paid 50% of the total cost of the wedding in the next 6 months - the same amount of time they think is reasonable to return half that amount! 
On the booking fee side of things, it simply states that it's non-refundable. It's almost 7% of the total cost of the wedding. I requested a breakdown of their costs and justification for keeping the full amount and they refuse to get into it. They just keep repeating that it's in the contract and won't even acknowledge the numerous times I've referred to unfair terms. 
It's all such a mess. And it's totally ruined a place that had been special to us until now. 
They've separately refunded me the money to attend a fireworks display that got cancelled though. When I questioned how they could refund that but not refund the wedding which was cancelled before the lockdown was announced, they said it's because they could refund those amounts through an online payment service that only needs one click and because all of their staff are currently furloughed, refunding our money is more difficult. It's excuse after excuse though - first there's no staff to deal with it, then it's the method of refunding us that isn't straightforward, then they haven't budgeted for it... It's hard to see what's truth and what isn't.

The fact that their Facebook page is full of posts about activities and things coming up at the venue really rubs salt in the wound. 
 

Were_Doomed

How did you pay?

GeordieRob

Were_Doomed said:

How did you pay?

I hate to admit it... Bank transfer 🤦🏼‍♂️

mattyprice4004

At the end of the day the courts have a huge backlog so any action would take far longer - I'd just wait it out.
There's realistically no way to force them to do it any quicker, and if they've got no cash then you can't get blood out of a stone.

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm afraid your only leverage is a letter before action with the threat of small claims court, but as previously advised, if they don't respond to the LBA, the court timescale is likely to be no faster than their proposed six month timescale anyway.

I'm no lawyer but I suspect you might have trouble with getting the entire £1,000 booking fee back.  I reckon they could fairly easily demonstrate a chunk of that as cost incurred, more if they don't secure a booking of at least equal value for the date concerned.  You may have to wait a while to determine how much of that you're entitled to.

sheramber

They repaid the cancelled fireworks because they cancelled it. They have not cancelled your wedding booking, you have, so different terms.

GeordieRob

sheramber said:

They repaid the cancelled fireworks because they cancelled it. They have not cancelled your wedding booking, you have, so different terms.

It's still a refund that's due though, so it shouldn't make a difference? They confirmed the refund for the wedding booking prior to the knowledge that the fireworks were being cancelled. 

Aylesbury_Duck

GeordieRob said:

sheramber said:

They repaid the cancelled fireworks because they cancelled it. They have not cancelled your wedding booking, you have, so different terms.

It's still a refund that's due though, so it shouldn't make a difference? They confirmed the refund for the wedding booking prior to the knowledge that the fireworks were being cancelled. 

There is a fundamental difference between them cancelling the contract (in the case of the fireworks) and you doing so (your wedding).  You are the one cancelling the contract in this instance, so it's less straightforward.  

Were_Doomed

If the T&Cs say a refund is due then they are contractually-obliged to give said refund. If the T&Cs are silent on the time frame for payment then (I believe) 30 days would be a reasonable time frame based on "contract law". (There's no specific law of contract, rather there are guiding principles that come together to provide "rules" around contracts).