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Ruined Wedding
My Daughter's Wedding was held at a beautiful location but was ruined by the owner of the land in several ways - I have written to him and outlined my complaints and requested compensation. -asking for a reply within 14 days or I inform the small claims courts - He has written back to me completely ignoring the complaints about him and re iterating things that he did to "help" on the day
I would like some help on how I should proceed with this delicate matter - I spent thousands on the day and hoped it would be perfect. I can go into detail if someone is willing to help or give advice
thank you
I would like some help on how I should proceed with this delicate matter - I spent thousands on the day and hoped it would be perfect. I can go into detail if someone is willing to help or give advice
thank you
Answers
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There is good general advice about using the Small Claims court procedure here. Start there.
http://www.which.co.u...e-small-claims-court/
The limit of the claim is £5k in England / Wales - less in Scotland or NI.
http://www.which.co.u...e-small-claims-court/
The limit of the claim is £5k in England / Wales - less in Scotland or NI.
i think that it's a tricky area, If they provided all they should have done in relation to the contract then it's different if it was ruined because (for example) you were expecting and paid for dinner for 50 and only got enough for 25. i don't know how a court might view "loss of enjoyment" if that's what it was
Wow answers already
Thank you buildersmate for the link I will look into that -
thank you Methyl I will go o Citizens Advice and not publicly state my case. - I was thinking if I could e-mail someone tho not put it on answer bank -
Yes hc4361 I asked him for a specific amount - I listed all the things he had directly affected and added a sum to them and collectively that became my claim - and I think its negligence there were several things we thought we had hired and turns out we hadn't ( one of these things was "the toilets" ) ( exactly!! ) and a major item (and I mean major) was not fit for purpose - why do you ask - would I proceed differently if it were breach of contract?? I only told him I would proceed with the SCC if I didn't hear back from him
Bednobs I hope I have covered it better above because I really need advice - what do you think now ??
Thank you buildersmate for the link I will look into that -
thank you Methyl I will go o Citizens Advice and not publicly state my case. - I was thinking if I could e-mail someone tho not put it on answer bank -
Yes hc4361 I asked him for a specific amount - I listed all the things he had directly affected and added a sum to them and collectively that became my claim - and I think its negligence there were several things we thought we had hired and turns out we hadn't ( one of these things was "the toilets" ) ( exactly!! ) and a major item (and I mean major) was not fit for purpose - why do you ask - would I proceed differently if it were breach of contract?? I only told him I would proceed with the SCC if I didn't hear back from him
Bednobs I hope I have covered it better above because I really need advice - what do you think now ??
Well, if you look at the sample letter in the Which? website link I provided, you should be able to compare the extent to which you covered the requirements of Civil Procedure Pre-Action Protocol in your first letter. Then you should be able to work out what points to cover in any future letters, before you do start court action.
No, it is not necessarily too early to state that 'ignoring my letter may result in court action being started', so hc4361's point is not strictly correct.
No, it is not necessarily too early to state that 'ignoring my letter may result in court action being started', so hc4361's point is not strictly correct.
you do not need to publish identifiable details on here, but proper information of the complaint is usual on here methyl
otherwise whats the point of this section of everyones answer would be go to CAB...?
i think your claim very much depends on details - as in the words in your agrrement, what you signed etc
you say you thought the toilets were included...but does it actually state this anywhere in the literature, or your agreement? did you discuss this?
if you just assumed a lot of stuff and didnt actually clarify, you may find he is not liable here
for instance if he offered the use of a 'vehicle' to help out, and you accepted 'assuming' it would be a fancy car, and an old green jeep turns up - then really, technically' he has fulfilled his offer...
we need details
otherwise whats the point of this section of everyones answer would be go to CAB...?
i think your claim very much depends on details - as in the words in your agrrement, what you signed etc
you say you thought the toilets were included...but does it actually state this anywhere in the literature, or your agreement? did you discuss this?
if you just assumed a lot of stuff and didnt actually clarify, you may find he is not liable here
for instance if he offered the use of a 'vehicle' to help out, and you accepted 'assuming' it would be a fancy car, and an old green jeep turns up - then really, technically' he has fulfilled his offer...
we need details
you also say 'location' , not 'venue'...does this mean this is not a normal wedding venue?
you say we 'thought' we had hired stuff but we hadnt...well as i say you cannot just 'think' you have unless its agreed.
as HC says if you hired his field and he gave it to you, as agreed, but you then expected him to provide a marquee, tables, etc but he hadnt actually said he would , then the mistake is yours i am afraid...
details please
you say we 'thought' we had hired stuff but we hadnt...well as i say you cannot just 'think' you have unless its agreed.
as HC says if you hired his field and he gave it to you, as agreed, but you then expected him to provide a marquee, tables, etc but he hadnt actually said he would , then the mistake is yours i am afraid...
details please
Ok here goes - in a nut shell - we booked a 5 star lake side location - the idea was we book all three self catering lodges (sleeping 16) for two nights and the lake was then ours exclusively to hold our event at - we had a marquee on the lawn next to the lake. We did all our correspondence via e-mail, nothing official was signed the only paper work we had was receipts for money paid which had dates of bookings on. (I must point out that this man was brilliant and couldn't do enough for us) We were allowed up to 100 guests ( we had a total inc those staying at the lodges of 80 ) we made 2 site visits ( January + June ) we asked loads of questions and on the whole got it right because we wrote everything down that was explained to us about facilities. We were keen to note down how many toilets there were (he told us 5 bathrooms - but it turns out there were 6 - more about that later plus an out side fisherman,s loo - which although not up to the 5 star standard of the lodges was nevertheless clean and tidy) at no time during our talks or e-mails did he hint there would be a problem - he did however advise us to get porta loos. I looked up H&S for events and discovered that 1+1+ a urinal is recommended for events of up to 100 people - So I just thought this man was being over cautious about queues. So because he was being so nice to us even though I thought it was over kill I ordered 1 porta loo to be placed by the fisherman,s loo. ( going off this subject for a mo )
During our site visits the ground was very boggy we wore wellies but our first visit being January we accepted what he told us - That " it would be rock hard by August" ( wedding was 31st) It was raining on our second visit in June so thought nothing of the wet boggy ground. Our Marquee company also made 2 visits there and was told the same thing - the also had another Wedding at the lake before ours ( April ) and reported back to us that the ground was boggy but the inside floor area of the marquee was ok ( a bit damp under foot) I think he said. The man that owns the lake kept checking that I had a walkway organised to run from the path to the marquee. With hindsight he was very jittery about this subject and mentioned it every time we spoke he was worried that if it rained the brides dress would be wet and people wouldn't be able to walk on the lawn - again I just thought he was making sure I had thought of everything. I kept assuring him I had ordered a red carpet and would make sure I had polythene under it to protect it. August as we all know was a very wet month. Lets now skip to the day of the booking. (Day before the Wedding) The weather was glorious - we took picnic blankets hoping we would be able to sprawl out on the lawn the next during the afternoon of the wedding. We arrived on site to be greeted by a very upset Marquee guy saying the owner has been rude all morning and the ground was more boggy than he had ever seen before (he was very close to canceling us and leaving) Then the owner appeared and was indeed very irate telling us we should have had a solid floor in the marquee and that to just carpeting would ruin his grass!! The red carpet walkway was inadequate because again it mean't that people would be walking on the carpet on the grass he had assumed we would be building a solid ( bridge or something - I still don't know what he expected ) anyway the ground was so boggy that the internal design of furniture had to be rearranged so that the dance floor went over the wettest bit - the flooring soaked up the water over night and even though the weather was again glorious, by the time the guests arrived and stood on the flooring the water puddled around their shoes - The poor old chef worked on a big muddy puddle all day! His feet were very wet and his shoes ruined - More on next reply I have run out of characters sorry but you wanted detail
During our site visits the ground was very boggy we wore wellies but our first visit being January we accepted what he told us - That " it would be rock hard by August" ( wedding was 31st) It was raining on our second visit in June so thought nothing of the wet boggy ground. Our Marquee company also made 2 visits there and was told the same thing - the also had another Wedding at the lake before ours ( April ) and reported back to us that the ground was boggy but the inside floor area of the marquee was ok ( a bit damp under foot) I think he said. The man that owns the lake kept checking that I had a walkway organised to run from the path to the marquee. With hindsight he was very jittery about this subject and mentioned it every time we spoke he was worried that if it rained the brides dress would be wet and people wouldn't be able to walk on the lawn - again I just thought he was making sure I had thought of everything. I kept assuring him I had ordered a red carpet and would make sure I had polythene under it to protect it. August as we all know was a very wet month. Lets now skip to the day of the booking. (Day before the Wedding) The weather was glorious - we took picnic blankets hoping we would be able to sprawl out on the lawn the next during the afternoon of the wedding. We arrived on site to be greeted by a very upset Marquee guy saying the owner has been rude all morning and the ground was more boggy than he had ever seen before (he was very close to canceling us and leaving) Then the owner appeared and was indeed very irate telling us we should have had a solid floor in the marquee and that to just carpeting would ruin his grass!! The red carpet walkway was inadequate because again it mean't that people would be walking on the carpet on the grass he had assumed we would be building a solid ( bridge or something - I still don't know what he expected ) anyway the ground was so boggy that the internal design of furniture had to be rearranged so that the dance floor went over the wettest bit - the flooring soaked up the water over night and even though the weather was again glorious, by the time the guests arrived and stood on the flooring the water puddled around their shoes - The poor old chef worked on a big muddy puddle all day! His feet were very wet and his shoes ruined - More on next reply I have run out of characters sorry but you wanted detail
lyndy - I have ploughed through all this.
why is it the landowner's fault if the ground was soggy - it's been a very wet year?
Why didn't you get a proper contract with all this laid down in writing and properly signed? I can't envisage arranging an event like this without doing so, you have nothing to fall back on. The contract would have laid down what would happen in the event of bad weather, need to cancel, etc. Did you take out wedding insurance, which might have covered this sort of stuff?
why is it the landowner's fault if the ground was soggy - it's been a very wet year?
Why didn't you get a proper contract with all this laid down in writing and properly signed? I can't envisage arranging an event like this without doing so, you have nothing to fall back on. The contract would have laid down what would happen in the event of bad weather, need to cancel, etc. Did you take out wedding insurance, which might have covered this sort of stuff?
Sooooo - back to the irate owner he said everything was wrong and he didn't like the marquee (so what it's our Wedding ) anyway my porta loo turns up and he went nuts - basically he turned the porta loo delivery man away and said that either I get an all singing all dancing trailer toilet housing 4 toilets each side (cost to me £600) or the Wedding will not go ahead and when I protested and asked him why he told me then and only then that no - one was allowed to use the accommodation facilities and furthermore he would be watching to make sure no-one went in them (even though 16 of us were staying there?!!) The reason he gave was that he has a reed bed system and it was not adequate for the number of people we had on site !!! ( as a note the is a one line mention of the reed bed system on the environmental bit of his web site saying not to throw bulk objects down the pan - nothing about usage) So caught between a rock and a hard place I ordered the trailer toilets ( the marquee guy knew a company and when he told them what had happened they did it for £400 )
Then we dressed the tables and filled the marquee with all our goodies - We found the next day we should not have left things in the marquee over night because of the rising damp ( beautiful warm outside condensation in side ) so the day of the Wedding we are hastily moving things to one of the lodges.
So to end the story we rowed about the toilets and the ground - In my opinion both were not fit for purpose he also screamed at us as to the "state of the lodge - full of stuff" he called us thieves because a teddy was missing - it was under a pile of cushions ( exactly where it was when we arrived ) he also said we were like one of those " big fat gypsy Weddings of the telly" Please!! The actual Wedding was very sophisticated. Honestly
And a footnote to the number of loos - one lodge had an extra bathroom at the back entrance - which we didn't know about and he didn't tell us about - We noticed it the day after the Wedding while clearing up and guess what - It was blocked of with a pole across the entrance !!
So help please - how do I proceed
Then we dressed the tables and filled the marquee with all our goodies - We found the next day we should not have left things in the marquee over night because of the rising damp ( beautiful warm outside condensation in side ) so the day of the Wedding we are hastily moving things to one of the lodges.
So to end the story we rowed about the toilets and the ground - In my opinion both were not fit for purpose he also screamed at us as to the "state of the lodge - full of stuff" he called us thieves because a teddy was missing - it was under a pile of cushions ( exactly where it was when we arrived ) he also said we were like one of those " big fat gypsy Weddings of the telly" Please!! The actual Wedding was very sophisticated. Honestly
And a footnote to the number of loos - one lodge had an extra bathroom at the back entrance - which we didn't know about and he didn't tell us about - We noticed it the day after the Wedding while clearing up and guess what - It was blocked of with a pole across the entrance !!
So help please - how do I proceed
Oh Box tops - the land is not drained properly - it's not draining away - the land is advertised as a Wedding venue but no- one was allowed to walk on the grass and furthermore the marquee guys erected 11 other marquee events that week ( in the area ) and all of them - although the grass was wet - were drained and within hours of putting up the marquees all of them were dry underfoot inside even when a few of them were put up during rain
I can imagine how upset you must have been, lyndylou.
I'm hoping someone such as Barmaid can come on and give you some hope of succeeding in a claim for compensation. The law is a tricky area and can throw up some unexpected outcomes, but I have to say I am not particularly optimistic about your prospects unless there were clear responsibilities on the owner's part to drain the land and unless it can be shown he led you to believe the lodge toilets would be adequate.
Do you know whether any other weddings have taken place there and had/have you spoken to them to hear their stories?
I'm hoping someone such as Barmaid can come on and give you some hope of succeeding in a claim for compensation. The law is a tricky area and can throw up some unexpected outcomes, but I have to say I am not particularly optimistic about your prospects unless there were clear responsibilities on the owner's part to drain the land and unless it can be shown he led you to believe the lodge toilets would be adequate.
Do you know whether any other weddings have taken place there and had/have you spoken to them to hear their stories?
Bed nobs - What outcome - he take responsibility and drain his land? - would cost about 5k because it is right next to the lake it would be very easy - an apology to me and the bride and groom? - the amount of money I have asked for in way of compensation for ruined items? - Or perhaps - He stops advertising as a wedding venue? Visit Britain strip him of his 5 stars?
Factor 30 - the land lake and accommodation are advertised as a wedding venue - The three go together - book the lodges for at least two nights and get exclusive use of the whole place to hold your function - this has got to be tip top for such an event so the land and the toilets should be fit of function?? And yes he said in an e-mil to me that he has had 20 weddings there but I wouldn't know how to get hold of them ??
Factor 30 - the land lake and accommodation are advertised as a wedding venue - The three go together - book the lodges for at least two nights and get exclusive use of the whole place to hold your function - this has got to be tip top for such an event so the land and the toilets should be fit of function?? And yes he said in an e-mil to me that he has had 20 weddings there but I wouldn't know how to get hold of them ??
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