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The Decorium - Wedding venue refusing to give me a refund despite frustrated contract


FARM12
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To give you a brief overview of the matter:
 
I had booked my wedding at the venue for 19th July 2020.
I had several correspondence with them during March, April and May to find out what options would be available to me if my wedding can still not go ahead with the 400 scheduled guests
 
. In May they finally emailed me with an option of either rebooking my wedding to the following year; with several restrictions as to when I could rebook e.g. only on a sunday and only into a peak season month, or I would cancel and be subject to their cancellation fees which according to their contract: if cancelled within 9 months would be 50% of total costs or if cancelled within 6 months (as would have been my case) I would have to pay 95% of the total venue cost.
 
Naturally under pressure I chose to rebook to the following year of 25th July 2021. I had to sign the variation agreement of the date which states if I wish to cancel my new date then I will be subject to cancellation fees based on my original date which is an unfair term.
 
I  emailed them in November to inform them that it was unfair that I was not offered the option of a refund for my cancelled wedding in July 2020 and as per CMA guidelines I should have been offered a full refund
 
. It is also unlikely that my wedding will be allowed to go ahead with 400 people in July 2021. I informed them several times how many people will be attending the venue but they stated that my booking was not for number of guests, but for a room hire only, despite them asking me the number of guests they need to accommodate on the initial enquiry form. 
 
They are refusing to give me a full refund and are demanding I pay another instalment despite me informing them I can no longer go ahead with this booking. 
 
Can anybody advise me in this matter I would greatly appreciate it, I am not sure whether to take this to a small claims court.
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Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

They really wont toe the line and comply with government legislation......small claims court time...then they will listen.

 

 

Andy

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You need to read some more and then some.......costs are restricted in Small Claims Track....have a read of the above thread...same scenario...and its getting close to a hearing now....squeaky bum time for them.

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHER

 

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Why don't you name the wedding venue that you are dealing with?

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The name of the venue is the decorium they forced me to reschedule by given me an option of rebooking or potentially face cancellation charges.

 

Naturally under pressure I thought I should rebook however they did not give me an option or a refund which I should’ve been given

 

. I want to claim back the money I have paid but I’m afraid that they will come to me for more instalments as I have signed a variation agreement for the date. 

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16 minutes ago, honeybee13 said:

Hi.

 

You're in good hands with BF and Andy. :)

 

Is it these people?

 

http://www.decorium.co.uk/

 

HB

Yes it is them.

I have heard rumours from other professionals in the industry that they were very sneakily trying to claim bankruptcy last year around september/october time and to me makes sense since they also changed directors of their company. If they do this I will lose the money I have already paid. 

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  • BankFodder changed the title to The Decorium - Wedding venue refusing to give me a refund despite frustrated contract

I think that @Andyorch is most likely to deal with this because he has been dealing with the Goosedale case which is heading towards the courts as we speak.

However, you really haven't given much of a detailed story – not even any idea of the sums involved.

Maybe you should lay out in a bullet pointed chronology including dates, and how much money we are talking about

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  • January 2020 - Paid a deposit of £1K and signed contract for wedding which was scheduled to be July 2020
  • March 2020 - They asked me to pay another £2K despite me emailing them my concern about the wedding not going ahead but they threatened me that I would be in breach of their contract. So I had to pay. 
  • May 2020 we received an email from them telling us we can either rebook or face cancellation charges as per contract - these are 50% of total venue hire if cancelled within 9 months or 95% of total venue hire if cancelled within 6 months. the total venue hire cost was £6700.
  • Under pressure, I chose to rebook because I did not want to lose 95% and they did not give me an option of a refund. They gave me very specific restrictions in which I could rebook the new date e.g in peak season between April 2021 to October 2021 and only on a sunday. Additionally they increased the price to book for the year 2021 by £200 bringing the total cost to £6900
  • June 2020 they send me a variation agreement for the change of date which they forced me to sign otherwise I would lose the new date I had agreed which was July 2021. 
  • November 2020 I sent an email that I should be offered a refund as opposed to reschedule. They declined and I sent a solicitor letter giving them 7 days to return the money. They then responded with another solicitor letter refusing and told me that I owe them another 2k as part of the next instalment otherwise I would be in breach of their contract
  • I wrote back to the solicitor that I was seeking legal advice but I have made it clear that I can no longer go ahead with wedding and do not owe further payments. 

I should add that when I stated that my contract was frustrated they told me I only made a room hire and this does not include number of guests despite it stating on their contract "up to 500 guests".

I wanted to claim back the 3K that I have given them and I am also afraid they will ask for more money as they will claim I am in breach of their contract. 

Edited by FARM12
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Okay ..before you can sue them you need to look and comply with  pre action protocol before proceeding with litigation.

This will involve sending them a Letter before claim laying out your grievance and what you require as a refund and set them a deadline to which you expect a response and a last chance to settle this matter. 

 

Have a read of the following.

 

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/pdf/protocols/debt-pap.pdf

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHER

 

Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group - The National Consumer Service

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Ah I see, I did kind of give them a notice to pay up in 7 days before taking things further but they refused and instead asked for the next instalments through a solicitor letter. I was thinking whether it would be better and more cost saving if I instead take this to a small claims court as oppose to the big courts, I know that is what you suggested at the begining. I was just not sure if I had a case since I unfortunately signed the new variation agreement. 

 

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Hi again.....

 

You cant kinda give them a Letter Before Claim....it must be the correct format and headed same to comply with the Pre Action Protocol guidance.

 

It would be helpful if you could scan redact and upload a copy of this last letter/email  you sent with their response.

 

With regards to your last post its obvious that you don't know the process..which is understandable as most never want to get involved in this process. There is no such thing as Big Court as opposed to Small Claims Court ...should you decide to litigate you will be issuing your claim through the Small Claims Court...which can be done on line.

 

Have a look at MCOL and get a feel of the web portal

 

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

 

Embarking on this action is not for everyone...but you will be surprised how simple it is without any legal knowledge.

 

Have a good read of the link I provided above re our other User facing the same dilemma as yourself and see how it runs step by step..in particular look at her Letter Before Claim...that will be your starting point should you wish to challenge this unfair and unjust consumer treatment.

 

.  

We could do with some help from you.

PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHER

 

Have we helped you ...?         Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group - The National Consumer Service

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To the the Poster here, please follow the advices given on this forum, they are very professional and know the law fully, do not allow the venue to bully you, they are disgraceful and want to keep money which you have saved for your wedding, despite the fact they have not provided you any services, this is illegal

 

Look at the CMA guidelines posted up in my thread, you cant be forced to use a Venue when the contract has been frustrated,  they can not make variations to contracts, as they have already agreed that they wanted to postpone due to Covid, they technically bullied and lied to make you change the contract.

 

If they can not provide the service for 400 people which you employed them for, your entitled to your money back in full, with costs if they are unreasonable, informing you via a solicitor that they intend to sue you just shows the leech firm of solicitors, who they employ, to defend them, they are just as bad as each other.

 

ITS YOUR MONEY, FIGHT FOR IT, they do not deserve a penny issue a Court claim get you facts right and post up all their letters minus your ID, then fight and take the advice here, you cant afford to lose your money if they can afford to fight for it and give you nothing, why?

 

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