Cancelled wedding Caterers/decorators won’t refund.

es5595

Surely part of the issue is the caterers and decorators caused the wedding to be cancelled by their failure to provide a covid-19 health and safety form? 

You really need to get to the bottom of this issue to find out who is liable for the cancellation. 

Upsidedownandaround

es5595 said:

Surely part of the issue is the caterers and decorators caused the wedding to be cancelled by their failure to provide a covid-19 health and safety form? 

You really need to get to the bottom of this issue to find out who is liable for the cancellation. 

Maybe, if it was some form they had to complete. If it was a covid risk assessment asked from them then no. To expect them to be able to do a risk assessment in a day or two for a global pandemic is asking a fair bit.

mattyprice4004

Shelling out over £10k and not having insurance? Madness!
Personally I think you’re onto a loser here; just another victim of the pandemic with no one particularly to blame. 

You can’t expect a full refund from the caterers with less than 24 hours notice; they’ll have to pay staff regardless and the food probably went in the bin. 

Pollycat

Upsidedownandaround said:

es5595 said:

Surely part of the issue is the caterers and decorators caused the wedding to be cancelled by their failure to provide a covid-19 health and safety form? 

You really need to get to the bottom of this issue to find out who is liable for the cancellation. 

Maybe, if it was some form they had to complete. If it was a covid risk assessment asked from them then no. To expect them to be able to do a risk assessment in a day or two for a global pandemic is asking a fair bit.

What is/was this "health and safety assessment"? (question for OP)

Was it a national requirement for large gatherings at that time?

Or something dreamed up by the local council?

I remember 20/3/2020 (the date of the cancelled wedding) - it was the day Boris announced that pubs would be closing from that night.

Pollycat said:
What did the Town Hall insurers say?

What did they say?

What was the reason for refusing your claim?

fresh_air_2

Thanks for response, council/town hall never told us what health and safety assessment they were expecting from decorators/caterers. Even they didn’t inform us if they had contacted them for this information. When we asked supplier decorators told us it’s something between council and them however he told that on the day of cancellation council officials had telephone conversations with him and he believes that they were happy with it and event was going as scheduled.
we’ve contacted council insurance about, how to claim and waiting for their response.
National lockdown was starting midnight on 20/03/2020, if I am not wrong and our function was scheduled for 1200-1300 hours same day.
It was something imposed (dreamed up) by council/town hall.

gettingtheresometime

fresh_air_2 said:

Thanks for response, council/town hall never told us what health and safety assessment they were expecting from decorators/caterers. Even they didn’t inform us if they had contacted them for this information. When we asked supplier decorators told us it’s something between council and them however he told that on the day of cancellation council officials had telephone conversations with him and he believes that they were happy with it and event was going as scheduled.
we’ve contacted council insurance about, how to claim and waiting for their response.
National lockdown was starting midnight on 20/03/2020, if I am not wrong and our function was scheduled for 1200-1300 hours same day.
It was something imposed (dreamed up) by council/town hall.

Lockdown was announced on 23/03/20 though Boris did say to stay away from pubs, restuarants etc on 20/03/20

fresh_air_2

gettingtheresometime said:

fresh_air_2 said:

Thanks for response, council/town hall never told us what health and safety assessment they were expecting from decorators/caterers. Even they didn’t inform us if they had contacted them for this information. When we asked supplier decorators told us it’s something between council and them however he told that on the day of cancellation council officials had telephone conversations with him and he believes that they were happy with it and event was going as scheduled.
we’ve contacted council insurance about, how to claim and waiting for their response.
National lockdown was starting midnight on 20/03/2020, if I am not wrong and our function was scheduled for 1200-1300 hours same day.
It was something imposed (dreamed up) by council/town hall.

Lockdown was announced on 23/03/20 though Boris did say to stay away from pubs, restuarants etc on 20/03/20

gettingtheresometime said:

fresh_air_2 said:

Thanks for response, council/town hall never told us what health and safety assessment they were expecting from decorators/caterers. Even they didn’t inform us if they had contacted them for this information. When we asked supplier decorators told us it’s something between council and them however he told that on the day of cancellation council officials had telephone conversations with him and he believes that they were happy with it and event was going as scheduled.
we’ve contacted council insurance about, how to claim and waiting for their response.
National lockdown was starting midnight on 20/03/2020, if I am not wrong and our function was scheduled for 1200-1300 hours same day.
It was something imposed (dreamed up) by council/town hall.

Lockdown was announced on 23/03/20 though Boris did say to stay away from pubs, restuarants etc on 20/03/20

Thanks for correction, I was not sure that’s why I mentioned in my above post “” if I am not wrong “”.

Pollycat

gettingtheresometime said:

Lockdown was announced on 23/03/20 though Boris did say to stay away from pubs, restuarants etc on 20/03/20

Boris closed all the pubs (in England) on 20/3/2020 (Friday).

We were with friends in our local when it was announced. 

And the lockdown was announced in a speech by Boris on 23/3/2020.

I do think - regardless of the restrictions covid has put on us all - that the OP has left it late to progress this.

I would have been on to the council to ask about this health and safety assessment as soon as I'd heard about it (19/3/2020).

And I'd have on to the decorators too. And chasing the caterers by email & phone.

Remembering what happened and what was said 10 months down the line is hard.

fresh_air_2

Pollycat said:

gettingtheresometime said:

Lockdown was announced on 23/03/20 though Boris did say to stay away from pubs, restuarants etc on 20/03/20

Boris closed all the pubs (in England) on 20/3/2020 (Friday).

We were with friends in our local when it was announced. 

And the lockdown was announced in a speech by Boris on 23/3/2020.

I do think - regardless of the restrictions covid has put on us all - that the OP has left it late to progress this.

I would have been on to the council to ask about this health and safety assessment as soon as I'd heard about it (19/3/2020).

And I'd have on to the decorators too. And chasing the caterers by email & phone.

Remembering what happened and what was said 10 months down the line is hard.

This is the copy of one of the emails sent to council by my daughter, 

“”””I hope you are well. I am emailing regarding the cancellation of my wedding reception at the ***** town hall (20 March 2020). We had an email exchange following the cancellation in March; please see our email exchange below for reference.

 

As mentioned in my previous emails to you, by cancelling the event less than 24hrs before the event, the town hall has caused us to lose a lot more money than we would have if they had taken the decision quicker. Between me being told that the event shall go ahead as planned (S**and Su**from the ***** town hall) to the cancellation of the event, there were no changes in the official guidelines by the government, or the circumstances of my wedding reception. If anything, I had less than half of the guests expected at the reception the day before the event, with the most vulnerable (60+ or underlying health conditions) having backed out from attending the event, as I mentioned to S**/Sh**.

 

By delaying the decision to cancel our event until a day before the event, the town hall committee made the matters worse as:

 

  - we had no time to rearrange/book alternative venue

  - we made the final payments to our suppliers (the major payment was made just two days before the event), which the suppliers are refusing to refund now

  - the suppliers had (according to them) already ordered our supplies (food, chairs etc) and done final arrangements for our event

 

In addition, the suppliers were contacted to update their risk assessment to include COVID19 too late. They were contacted about two days before the event and given no real indication of what was expected of them to ensure their assessment and the steps to minimise risks were sufficient. Regarding minimising the risk of spreading infection, as I mentioned to S** when she called on Thursday morning, we would have spread out the seating, as our numbers were less than half of what we had planned for. Given the circumstances, I think the town hall seriously mismanaged our event.

 

I myself also contacted town hall two days before the event, but was given no indication that there is a possibility of the event being cancelled by the town hall. I was contacted by S** on Thursday morning, just a day before the event to indicate that there is a possibility of cancellation, as the committee is only meeting on that day to discuss. This meeting and getting an updated risk assessment from the suppliers could have been done much earlier to avoid us having such a late cancellation, with all suppliers ready to deliver. The only thing I could have done by then is postpone the wedding, but given how many of the close family and friends traveled just for the wedding, that was definitely not an option for us.

 

We will be putting forward a claim for the loss of our payments to Z******, as you advised, as well as taking this up with the suppliers. I would be grateful if you could please provide me the following details, including the date of when these were done:

 

- the initial risk assessment request made to all the suppliers & their acceptance by the **** town hall

- the request to all the suppliers for an update for risk assessment to include COVID19, it's rejection & reasons for it.

- the outcome of the committee meeting on the 19th March regarding my wedding reception.

 

I look forward to hearing back from you.

 

Many thanks,

 

fresh_air_2

This is the response from town hall for above email dated 9/06/2020.

”””” Dear M****

 

Thanks for your emails and apologies for the late response.

 

I will review you email in full over the next week and respond in full by Friday 19thJune 2020.

 

Regards”””

And then this after one week on 18/06/2020,

“””” Dear M*****

 

Thanks for your patience whilst I reviewed your email to make this response.

 

We regret that the decision to cancel the event was made so close to the event but it was made on safety grounds, we do understand the position this put you in. The government guidelines were unclear on permitted numbers and your event was for around 100 people including those travelling from overseas. With the Covid 19 pandemic and the high risks of transmission, it is vital risk assessments would include this. We did make requests for the risks assessments from your suppliers to include, the last requests being via email on the 18th March 2020. The issue is the risk assessments did not even state Covid 19 and under health and safety law with the risks involved this has to be included with mitigating actions. We never received any risk assessments in writing for us to reviewfollowing these requests, you will need to take this up with suppliers for more information.

 

As a result of not being able to see how the event would be managed ensuring the safety of our staff, suppliers and your event attendees we were left in no position to cancel the event.

 

If you wish to continue to pursue a claim for compensation for the other charges detail in your email, then we regret that the matter has to be placed in the hands of our insurer. “”””