My husband and I had to change the date of our wedding, and the venue that we had already placed a deposit down on didn't have any other dates available for us to change to. So, we decided to book a registry office and have a small do in a pub afterwards, accepting that we would lose the deposit with the venue. We paid a non-refundable £500 deposit, plus a refundable £300 ceremony fee. When cancelling I found out that the following t's and c's apply to cancelling the date:
18. A holding deposit of £500 is required for parties, which will be returned less any cost for breakages.
19. In the event of cancellation, the booking deposit is non-refundable. Additional cancellation fees will be charged as follows:
o Between 12 and 6 months before the date: £500 + VAT.
o Less than 6 months before the date: Balance of hire subject to a maximum of £1,500 + VAT.
o Additional cancellation charges will be refunded if the date can be re-hired on satisfactory terms.
Because the wedding is 5 months away, they sent an invoice for £1,500 minus the £300 ceremony fee. In shock, I emailed them to explain the situation, hoping they would be kind to us.
They have reduced the cancellation fee to £750 + VAT, but we will not get back the deposit or ceremony fee, meaning we have paid them £1,550+VAT for doing absolutely nothing. The entire venue hire would have only been £2,300 anyway if we'd gone ahead with the wedding on that date.
I understand they potentially have lost money, but they haven't actually incurred any money lost yet. I also checked a number of wedding sites and they are not advertising the date on any of them, which leaves me questioning if they are actually going to try and book it with another couple. It is a popular date in August so I would have thought it would have a good chance of re-booking.
Do I have an argument to not pay this additional cancellation fee? I can live with losing the ceremony fee. (and we never thought we'd get back the deposit).
Thank you
18. A holding deposit of £500 is required for parties, which will be returned less any cost for breakages.
19. In the event of cancellation, the booking deposit is non-refundable. Additional cancellation fees will be charged as follows:
o Between 12 and 6 months before the date: £500 + VAT.
o Less than 6 months before the date: Balance of hire subject to a maximum of £1,500 + VAT.
o Additional cancellation charges will be refunded if the date can be re-hired on satisfactory terms.
Because the wedding is 5 months away, they sent an invoice for £1,500 minus the £300 ceremony fee. In shock, I emailed them to explain the situation, hoping they would be kind to us.
They have reduced the cancellation fee to £750 + VAT, but we will not get back the deposit or ceremony fee, meaning we have paid them £1,550+VAT for doing absolutely nothing. The entire venue hire would have only been £2,300 anyway if we'd gone ahead with the wedding on that date.
I understand they potentially have lost money, but they haven't actually incurred any money lost yet. I also checked a number of wedding sites and they are not advertising the date on any of them, which leaves me questioning if they are actually going to try and book it with another couple. It is a popular date in August so I would have thought it would have a good chance of re-booking.
Do I have an argument to not pay this additional cancellation fee? I can live with losing the ceremony fee. (and we never thought we'd get back the deposit).
Thank you
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