Wedding Refund

smallzoo2

Not sure if anyone can help. I have already paid £500 deposit and also a £750 initial payment towards an evening wedding do ( just the evening reception, the wedding is taking place on another day..covid.. ).  Due to personal reasons my daughter cannot face an evening do so we asked the venue about returning some or all of the money. They claim that they dont need to. The reception is in November 2020 and I cant see from the contract we signed ( see attached ) how they legally can withhold the initial payment ( I understand we may have lost the deposit ). I'm no expert but based on this one and only contract we signed which is their terms and conditions are they correct ?

Aylesbury_Duck

smallzoo2 said:

Not sure if anyone can help. I have already paid £500 deposit and also a £750 initial payment towards an evening wedding do ( just the evening reception, the wedding is taking place on another day..covid.. ).  Due to personal reasons my daughter cannot face an evening do so we asked the venue about returning some or all of the money. They claim that they dont need to. The reception is in November 2020 and I cant see from the contract we signed ( see attached ) how they legally can withhold the initial payment ( I understand we may have lost the deposit ). I'm no expert but based on this one and only contract we signed which is their terms and conditions are they correct ?

Which year is it in? 2021 or 2022?

belinea2010

I would seek legal advice if I were you. The clause "The management reserve the right to use their discretion in all circumstances" seems pretty clear and they could argue that you or your daughter signed the contract knowing that this clause was part of it. they may also argue that they are simply using their discretion (which the signee agreed they could) but you may be able to challange it through the small claims process.

Sandtree

Based on the contractual terms, or at least my reading of what they are trying to imply:

12 months+ - lose deposit only
3-12 months - lose all monies paid to date
>3 months - lose all monies paid to date + have outstanding bill to pay if amounts paid so far are less than £XXX

However, under english law a true penalty clauses are not enforceable and for a breach of contract the wronged party is only entitled to claim their actual losses not losses plus punitive amount.  So if your daughter cancels now and wants to fight the terms then how much it will cost will depend if the venue manage to secure another booking for that date or not (plus any additional marketing costs incurred to readvertise the date).

So if they spent £200 on advertising and managed to secure a new booking at a higher fee then its likely she owes nothing more than a token administration fee and all but this should be returned to her. If they do the same but don't find a new booking then it'd be total booking plus £200 plus £50 admin minus amount saved through not buying the supplies (eg food, temp staff etc).

The practicalities of potentially having to wait until the original event date itself to know if a new booking can be found isnt always convenient and hence most attempt to have middle ground blanket clauses which may not really be enforceable. 

Depending on how much is involved you may want to seek professional legal advice. 

smallzoo2

Thanks for the replies. The wedding is in Nov 21.  Looks like the only option is to pay for legal advice or take it on the chin