Venue Hire

EleanorHF

I’ve booked a venue for 4 hours for a video shoot at £1200 (exc VAT) for next month. I’ve received an invoice through today (as payment is to be made upfront), and they’re charging us for ‘use of electricity’ at £80 - despite us only needing to power 2 small LED lights. Is this allowed? I know electric have rides but £80 for 4 hours of use!

ThumbRemote

What do the terms and conditions you signed up to say? 

EleanorHF

ThumbRemote said:

What do the terms and conditions you signed up to say? 

We haven’t signed any yet as we only decided to make the booking yesterday.

Manxman_in_exile

Well go back to the venue and tell them that when agreeing the price (£1200) nobody at their end mentioned an additional £80 charge for electricity.  You reasonably expected the agreed price to be inclusive of all their charges and you don't expect to be paying them more than was agreed.

Then it depends whether they're willing to drop the charge and - if not - how much you want the venue.

Aylesbury_Duck

Yes, it's allowed because they're being upfront about it before you sign the agreement.  If you don't like it, query it and be prepared to find another venue if they don't remove it.

user1977

EleanorHF said:

ThumbRemote said:

What do the terms and conditions you signed up to say? 

We haven’t signed any yet as we only decided to make the booking yesterday.

Just to clarify, have you seen their terms and conditions? (whether or not you've literally signed them needn't be relevant)

But if this is a surprise, no, I would expect it to be implicit that the charge includes something as basic as using the power.

(also, you've posted this in consumer rights, but it doesn't sound like a consumer contract - I'm not sure that makes much difference at this stage, but bear in mind there is less implied protection for commercial contracts)