Wedding Venue Cancellation and expected refund - Contradiction of contract

[Arfurski]

We have recently had to cancel our wedding with a venue, of which we have paid almost £5000 towards. The wedding was planned and signed for, 12 months ago and I've been making payments towards it. The wedding was booked for September 2025. Since then we have found out we are having another baby. We visited the venue and asked if we could push it back a year, which they agreed to and pushed the price up, per head, as expected.

When we sat and thought about it, it was just going to be too expensive to keep on top of the regular payments to the wedding fund, with two kids and my mrs going down to maternity pay. The new wedding contract was due to be sent out to be signed and sent back with the new details but nothing had come through, I had to ask for it.

By the time we got it, the decision was made to cancel. I sent an email to cancel it but it took three days to get a response. When I did get a response, I was told I would receive £1050 of a refund from the £4800.

On the contract, the original one, it states that if you cancel, up to a year before, you lose the initial £500 deposit but elsewhere, amongst a load of other information, it states that if the event is cancelled, all deposits and payments will be non refundable. Surely a contradiction within the same contract? The £3750 difference, is the amount of the first block payment.

Now my other question is,

if ALL deposits and payments are non refundable, why are they giving me £1050? Surely if its ALL payments then the full amount would be taken.

Another thing to note is that the wedding planner herself is on my side.

The hotel was recently bought out and the new owners appear to be dictating what they do and don't want, from the original contract.

The wedding planner has stated that in the past, any cancellations, similar to my position, got all their moneys back minus the £500 if it was cancelled up to a year before the event date. My event date is two and a half years away, to which the wedding planner says they would fill the date no problem.

I'm at a bit of a loss and need some advice please.

Its a lot of money to throw away for nothing.

Thank you for your time.

[lolerz]

Typically, a business has no entitlement to any money that can be recouped or saved by finding another customer. The point of a deposit is to mitigate this loss.

You've given them plenty of notice, legally I would say you're entitled to your payments minus your deposit. Which in your case is £4300.

I would wait for other site regulars/admins to confirm this position, but it's likely you'll need to start drafting a letter of claim and start preparing to take court action.

It would be beneficial if we could get a scanned (and redacted) copy of the contract, also don't be afraid to name the company as this is a public forum.

[Nicky Boy]

Hello and welcome to CAG,

17 minutes ago, Arfurski said:

On the contract, the original one, it states that if you cancel, up to a year before, you lose the initial £500 deposit but elsewhere, amongst a load of other information, it states that if the event is cancelled, all deposits and payments will be non refundable. Surely a contradiction within the same contract?

I think this may well be your ace in the hole.

Wait for comments from other team members.

[Arfurski]

Thank you for the reply.

It's new owners picking and choosing what they want to implement from the original owners contract. I will absolutely upload a copy of the contract.

[dx100uk]

they can't vary the contract.

 

[Arfurski]

the letter of claim only gives advice for England and Wales sadly. I'm in Scotland.

[dx100uk]

there no need for PAPLOC in Scotland .

is the venue scottish too?
dx

 

[Arfurski]

Sorry no idea what poploc means. Yes it's in scotland.

[dx100uk]

pre action protocol letter of claim.

have you sent them a formal letter of complaint regarding what you demand happens and its figures via royal mail?

dx

 

 

[dx100uk]

have you sent them a formal letter of complaint regarding what you demand happens and its figures via royal mail?

[Arfurski]

No I haven't done any of that yet.

It's taken all day to finally speak to someone after receiving the initial email this morning, from the wedding planner.

She has notified the Director, who is supposed to call me about it all.

Not heard anything from the director at all. 

Struggling to figure out how to get a copy of the contract on here. Hoped it would allow standard pics. I'm not great with tech  

[dx100uk]

read upload

convert to PDF.

you'll need to write a formal letter of complaint first. then poss launch a Simple Procedure Court Claim . it's quite simple.

RECORD YOUR CALL IF HE RINGS

dx

 

 

[Arfurski]

Awesome.

I'm trying to get this picture up but I'm really hopeless.

I'm using Microsoft Office and managed to create the pdf hiding our names etc but getting it on here is making me scratch my head a bit.

[dx100uk]

click choose files at the bottom of the msg box you type in.

[Arfurski]

It shows different on my phone than it does on my laptop.

Different options.

I can attach it on the laptop but i can't seem to blank out my name and all that.

Not that it bothers me but I see its a rule to blank out all that.

I'll need to print it out, disguise names n stuff, scan it then put it up on here.

I'll try it tomorrow. 

[dx100uk]

or put it up and we'll do it

dx

 

[Arfurski]

 

Let me know if this works please

Wedding Contract-1.pdf

[honeybee13]

I hope the title of the pdf is the venue and not your names?

HB

[Arfurski]

Edited. 

[dx100uk]

the title of the pdf file. those still appear to be your names in the title filename?

or is that the name of the new owners of the venue?

dx

 

[Arfurski]

I edited it to just say wedding venue. It's our surnames.

How do I delete it and ill put up the edited file name?

[dx100uk]

put it up we'll swap

dx

[Arfurski]

Wedding Contract-1.pdf

[dx100uk]

done.

 

[Arfurski]

Superstar. Thank you so much.