Wedding venue deposit after calling it off

investme · 17 April 2019 at 1:09AM

I’ll give the short version, for now, while I wait for feedback but of course I can provide specific dates and costs etc.

So I was due to get married in August 2018. We called off the wedding in June 2017 after having already paid the deposit for the venue. The deposit was roughly £4500 and the total venue cost with catering was somewhere between £12-16k (will have to check)

I never really thought much of it and took it as a loss. The venue did say they would refund me if anyone else booked the date but either no one did, or they did and and I was none the wiser.

Anyway. I stumbled across a BBC news article on unfair wedding venue deposits which led me to a which? article on the same subject

From what I can gather, deposits should be a small percentage and refundable minus any costs incurred (which would be negligible so far in advance) if cancelled any reason

Do I have a leg to stand on trying to escalate this?

macman · 17 April 2019 at 2:56AM

What did your contract say about cancellation and refunds?

Smellyonion · 17 April 2019 at 6:41AM

If someone is having a wedding on that date, it seems unfair. They have unduly benefited.

investme · 17 April 2019 at 9:23AM

Thanks for the replies both

If someone is having a wedding on that date, it seems unfair. They have unduly benefited.

As far as I know no, no one did, but I was 300 miles away when the date it was meant to be came round, so i didn't get a chance to check. I doubt I was lied to, but, I don't know. Is there any way to check wedding listings?

what did your contract say about cancellation and refunds?

No idea, I will need to try and find it, if I even still have it! I can assume with some certainty it said non-refundable, but from some reading i've been doing (https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/i-need-to-cancel-my-wedding-venue-can-i-get-my-deposit-back - at a basic level) just because it's in the contract doesn't make it fair and therefore enforceable.

Aylesbury_Duck · 17 April 2019 at 9:40AM

If you don’t have a copy of your contract and have no way of checking whether they had a wedding that day, I can’t see you getting very far.

Has the venue got a social media account? Might they have posted something about the wedding they may have held on that day? Otherwise, a crafty way of doing it would be to ring and say you attended a wedding on that date and think you misplaced something there. Has it been handed in? Their response might give away something.

spadoosh · 17 April 2019 at 9:54AM

A wedding venue has to be registered and marriages are registered showing the registered venue. If you know which area covers the registration for the wedding start speaking with them. Sorry i dont know the technical terms but we got married out of area. We had to put up a notice in our location (as in county/area) and a notice up int he location of where the wedding was going to get married (in case of objections).

investme · 17 April 2019 at 10:12AM

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

If you don’t have a copy of your contract and have no way of checking whether they had a wedding that day, I can’t see you getting very far.

Has the venue got a social media account? Might they have posted something about the wedding they may have held on that day? Otherwise, a crafty way of doing it would be to ring and say you attended a wedding on that date and think you misplaced something there. Has it been handed in? Their response might give away something.

I'm sure I can find it, or at the very least if i do challenge them i am sure they will have a copy to throw in my face stating "non-refundable"

I did look at their social media and had considered the other idea but it's now about 7 months ago so might be a bit tricky to pull off!

A wedding venue has to be registered and marriages are registered showing the registered venue. If you know which area covers the registration for the wedding start speaking with them. Sorry i dont know the technical terms but we got married out of area. We had to put up a notice in our location (as in county/area) and a notice up int he location of where the wedding was going to get married (in case of objections).

Yup i was thinking similar but not sure where or how to do this. I assume, somewhere, is a publicised list of registered weddings. I doubt I can call up and just ask who got married when - i'd love to be proved wrong!

spadoosh · 17 April 2019 at 10:18AM

Start by ringing the registry office of where the venue is located.

If you put the postcode of the venue on here (link to gov site) it should give the local registry office, i think (emphasis on think) that it has to be registered at its location.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head · 17 April 2019 at 10:18AM

Send them a letter before action (templates available online) asking for a refund of the £4500 minus any costs they had.

The letter alone might see something come back to you.

spadoosh · 17 April 2019 at 10:20AM

spadoosh wrote: »

Start by ringing the registry office of where the venue is located.

If you put the postcode of the venue on here (link to gov site) it should give the local registry office, i think (emphasis on think) that it has to be registered at its location.

Youre not asking for much detail, just 'did you have a registrar working at x location on x date'.

Wedding venue deposit after calling it off

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