Wedding Venue Foreclosure - Deposit refund?

fay1009

Hi everyone -

I am having some trouble finding a precedent online, so I was wondering if any of you could offer any insight.  My fiancee and I found out about a month ago (June 2013) that our wedding venue is going into foreclosure. We canceled our May 2014 booking shortly thereafter (as soon as we were able to secure a new, financially stable location), and the wedding refuses to refund any money that we've paid them.  We understand that it states in the contract that all monies are non-refundable - which would be fine if we just decided we didn't want to get married or something of that nature.  However, our reasoning for cancelling with them is mainly due to the fact that there's no way that we can guarantee that the venue will even be open at the time of our wedding.  In that case, why are we held accountable because of the fact that the business cannot pay their bills to their creditors? It really feels like we're getting the short end of the stick.

My real question is this - if they happen to rebook our date, are we entitled to get our money back? We've only paid a little bit over the required deposit, but cannot fathom how it could be legal for them to hold onto our money and essentially get paid twice for the same date. Plus, it'd be nice to have our money back as what we've paid pretty much covers our honeymoon, and we've had to move our location to a more expensive venue since it was less expensive to move there than to change the date and potentially lose all of our deposits with our vendors (and potentially need to find new ones). Has anyone gone through this in New York and are able to offer some insight?

Thanks!

Jean0715

@fay1009

What venue is this? 

Unfortunately I dont think your entitled to the deposit back. If the contract specifically states 'non-refundable' then your SOL. 

However, I would assume that if you were to kept your date with them and they closed, then they would have to return your money due to no services rendered on their behalf. 

I would talk to them and ask that if someone rebooks that day if you can get your deposit back. But if they're in foreclosure, I highly doubt they will. 

fay1009

It's a venue up in Orange County. We're frustrated with this entire experience - the only reason we even found out that they were being foreclosed on was because of a wedding coordinator I had reached out to months ago.  She wrote me an email asking if I needed help finding a new venue - I had no idea what she was talking about! Apparently they sent letters to a few couples notifying them of the foreclosure,  but we weren't one of those couples. Why we didn't make the cut we're unsure. The staff at the venue hasn't been good about getting back to us or putting anything in writing (i.e. when they swore to my fiancee that they'd be open in May 2014, and that all of our money would be in an escrow account so it'd be safe and not get taken by the banks).  It's been fishy since this whole issue started.  We've been trying to talk to them about the possibility of getting our money back if the date re-books, but they haven't returned any of my fiancee's calls.  They did tell one bride's mother that they could get their money if the date gets rebooked (they paid much more than us up to this date), but haven't put anything in writing for them either. We really didn't want any of those to happen, we just can't take the risk of them closing their doors a day, week, or month before our wedding.

Jean0715

I live in Orange County and am looking for a venue. Which one is this so I know who to avoid.

This is so sucky.  I am so sorry. If your able to I would go to a lawyer with your contract and every email you have ever received/sent. Just to find out your rights and such. Im so sorry!

Weesh

fay1009 said:

Hi everyone -

I am having some trouble finding a precedent online, so I was wondering if any of you could offer any insight.  My fiancee and I found out about a month ago (June 2013) that our wedding venue is going into foreclosure. We canceled our May 2014 booking shortly thereafter (as soon as we were able to secure a new, financially stable location), and the wedding refuses to refund any money that we've paid them.  We understand that it states in the contract that all monies are non-refundable - which would be fine if we just decided we didn't want to get married or something of that nature.  However, our reasoning for cancelling with them is mainly due to the fact that there's no way that we can guarantee that the venue will even be open at the time of our wedding.  In that case, why are we held accountable because of the fact that the business cannot pay their bills to their creditors? It really feels like we're getting the short end of the stick.

My real question is this - if they happen to rebook our date, are we entitled to get our money back? We've only paid a little bit over the required deposit, but cannot fathom how it could be legal for them to hold onto our money and essentially get paid twice for the same date. Plus, it'd be nice to have our money back as what we've paid pretty much covers our honeymoon, and we've had to move our location to a more expensive venue since it was less expensive to move there than to change the date and potentially lose all of our deposits with our vendors (and potentially need to find new ones). Has anyone gone through this in New York and are able to offer some insight?

Thanks!

My venue told us that if we had to change the date or cancel, we would get our deposit back if they could re-book the date.  I would think that the same applies here, but that may be specific to a certain venue.  You're right, if they have someone else to take that date, I don't think you should have to lose the deposit.  I'm sorry that you're going through this, I hope they start communicating with you!