Is anyone able to let me know if I might have a case?

[weddingdispute]

Long story short we booked a wedding venue just over a month ago.

In person at the initial visit we agreed on certain things such as the requirement of family rooms for us and our immediate family members with babies as the venue is far away from where we live.

End of January I ask to confirm the rooms required for us and for immediate family (parents/siblings etc)

They tell us at that point that there aren't enough family rooms.

I ask again and explain that we agreed what we required back when we visited and the response from the venue was that they couldn't accommodate the children.

This meant we wouldn't be able to hold the wedding there and they had gone back on their terms so I asked for them to return our deposit minus any admin fees occurred (which should be minimal as it had only been a month since booking)

The response was no we couldn't have our deposit back.
We were contacted shortly after to say they had changed their minds and now they are willing to accommodate the children.

This would have been fine if they had done this originally but due to the tooing and froing along with the stress this issue had caused has left us aggrieved with the service provided thus far and we have made subsequent requests for the return of our deposit.
All of which have been firmly refused saying it's in the contract that deposits are non refundable.

However, we wouldn't have asked to cancel ha they not caused the issue in the first place.

The deposit is a large sum and over 10% of the venues overall charge and I believe that the term of the contract is unenforceable due to unfairness as it has not left them £1000 out of pocket

[Plumsofwrath]

I’m afraid that I can’t understand what your problem is, now what you want.

You say you wanted accommodation suitable for children. They said fine. They took your money. Then they told you they couldn’t accommodate children. So you asked for your money back. They said no, but okay they will accommodate the children after all.

What do you actually want your money back for? For not “being professional” in their dealings with you? TBH to me it sounds like six of one and half a dozen of the other. The contract may not have been clear but to me it sounds like you signed it anyway knowing as much (and if you didn’t know that, why did you sign it?!).

This is all very strange.

If your date is a little under a year away, given how long it takes to get things done and how stressful wedding planning can be, I suggest you put this bumpy start behind you and proceed with them. Make an appt to see the manager. Go up there with a list of everything to be done. Say you want a fresh start and mean it. Then plan and have your wedding.

Don’t blight the run-up to your wedding day with legal drama over a venue you’re not going to end up using.

[weddingdispute]

Plums - if they had been more reasonable in their dealings of the issue we would have continued.
We liked the venue that's why we booked them.

But they have gone back on their word on too many things and the manager is effectively telling me it's my word against his and that's why we have no leg to stand on with them.

Certainly doesn't make me want to spend any extra money with them let alone hold such an important day with them.

They only came back saying they would accommodate us somehow after telling us twice that they couldn't.

I'm sure you can imagine how stressful it's been finding that the venue we chose has been able to make such errors early on and this is way before we are talking about timings/numbers/final catering choices etc.

If I came back in December and said that the day went tits up, or 6 months time try decide they couldn't fit something else in that was previously agreed, and that more payments had been made, that people would have thought me crazy for carrying on the booking with them.

It's not just an afternoon tea with friends. It's 48 hours and thousands of pounds I would be risking

[worridmum]

Sadly changing your mind is not normally a reason to get your deposit back because thats the entire point of a deposit. Even if you go to small claims i doubt you will win so ether continue with the venue or right off the money because all you will be doing is causing yourself massive stress for nothing.

[weddingdispute]

Yes that's understandable,

I am wondering if anyone has any experience with a claim for unfair terms due to withholding more than a fair level of deposit which is what Which? have suggested

[Plumsofwrath]

A “claim for unfair terms due to withholding more than a fair level of deposit” is vague, subjective, and given you say most of the interaction was he-said-she-said, nigh on impossible to prove. You will spend more time and money trying to reclaim a few hundred £ through the small claims court (if you’re successful, which on the basis of what you’ve written here, I’d be amazed to see), than would be worth the time, effort, worry and stress.

Very very often, success means knowing when to cut your losses and walking away.