Venue ceiling collapse

[Collapsedceilingbride]

Our wedding venue was a quirky old building in
a major U.K. city that is regularly used as a location for events and photo shoots.

During the course of our wedding reception, the ceiling collapsed. Fortunately, only three people were injured. However, the whole thing was a bit shocking.

We have stated that we find the venue to be in breach of contract and want our money back. They have ignored this.

They have, however, returned our safety deposit, indicating they’re not claiming this is our fault (although I’m not sure how they could).

Where do you think we stand legally and what next steps would you advise?

Surely you're better off speaking to a solicitor?

I'm really sorry this happened on your wedding day.

That could be said about every post on legal matters, could it not?

I will be speaking to a solicitor later this week. Right now, I’d also like to hear what other people think.

And, thank you. It wasn’t really the day I’d imagined!

I am not a lawyer
What part of your contract do you think they are in breach of?
As for the injured people I would imagine they need to pursue themselves for damages if they want

I think we had a reasonable expectation of a safe venue in usable condition. This was not provided.

Was this during the event? Are HSE involved? You could ask about their risk assessments and inspections. Presumably they are covered by Public Liability insurance to cover injuries and damages. Hope everyone is ok.

I suppose

What was the impact on your day? Different if it happened at end or beginning and how much of venue become out of use?
That's quantifiable damage.

Then any claim for emotional side would be separate.

How could they possibly be in breach of contract? Unless you'd specifically had the clause "ceiling must not fall down" written into your contract.

I think you should refrain from having any more contact with them until you have spoken to a solicitor. This sounds more like possible negligence / a breach of health and safety.

I would imagine that they’ll be awaiting the outcome of a full investigation into why the ceiling collapsed before their insurance will pay out any damages, including to you if due. If you’re claiming negligence on their part then that would be based on the investigation concluding that the collapse was due to their failure to adequately maintain the building and could therefore have been foreseen and prevented.

I suppose it's breach if they then shut down the wedding and didn't provide all the paid for services?

Again, which part of the contract do you think they have breached?

@takeitandleaveit and @ComtesseDeSpair Both very helpful, thank you.

Contract law protects the reasonable expectations of contracting parties. If you don’t know this, then I don’t think you’re able to provide me with any useful advice. So, thanks for your time.

@Johnnysgirl As above to
@Hoppinggreen. You don’t need a contract to explicitly state that the ceiling won’t fall down for there to be a reasonable expectation that the ceiling won’t fall down. That’s not the nature of contract law (at least not in this country).

I’m not sure this post is going to be tremendously useful.

Have the venue actually failed to provide the agreed service or is this a case of Force Majeure? Is there negligence? Act of God? Fault of a third party?

Claim on your wedding insurance, and let your insurers appoint solicitors to deal with a claim. Nobody here can answer your question without much much more information.

Nothing useful to add OP but wish you luck. I certainly would expect a functioning ceiling to be included in my use of a hired venue, along with floor and walls I think it’s implied rather than needing to be explicitly stated in a contract.

What was the impact on your day? 😂
The ceiling fell down and injured 3 guests. That’s quite an impact.

When I hire a venue I expect the ceiling to remain in place for the entirety, even if that isn’t specifically written in the contract.

If you have wedding insurance I would contact them initially for guidance. Because of the nature of the contract you presumably have you maybe entitled to compensation for your disappointment, distress and loss of enjoyment.

You definitely need legal advice. Whilst I would like to think they would offer something back to you at the end of the day I would've thought any claim would be between the venue and those that are injured. I can't see them giving you a full refund but then again I'm not a solicitor. It also depends on when it happened imo. For example there's a difference in if it happened during the wedding breakfast or if it happened at the end of the night when people are leaving. I'm sorry it happened.

A number of people on this thread are showing a complete lack of understanding of UK contract law, asking which term of the contract was breached and suggesting that the venue is only liable if there was a specific clause in the contract covering the ceiling collapsing.

Every contract has implied terms as well as the express terms written into the document. In this case, regardless of what the contract says, there is clearly an implied term that the venue is safe and that the neither the ceiling nor any other part of the venue will collapse. As the collapse is almost certainly due to negligence by the venue's owners, they cannot put anything in their contract to escape liability. The venue is clearly liable for any damages paid to the injured guests. The OP is clearly entitled to a refund. Whether that should be a full refund or a partial refund is unclear, but I would certainly start by looking for a full refund.

Contracts would be very long if they had to cover off every possible thing that could go wrong! Of course you should expect that a ceiling won't cave in on a wedding !

Every event must abide by health and safety legislation and the venue has to be fit for purpose.

Your venue failed on both those counts.

I would encourage you to seek compensation op. Ignore those on here who perversely seem to think no venue should check structural integrity.

So sorry this happened.

Only on Mumsnet could posters suggest that a ceiling falling down at a wedding venue during the actual event is no biggie 😂

Good luck Op!