The wedding carousel continues to turn due to Covid. My daughter's wedding was originally supposed to be in August of 2020 but we re-scheduled it due to Covid to July of this year.
The venue at which we were going to have the reception took advantage of the pandemic, and their customers, but forcing all 2021 and early 2022 weddings outside. How they took advantage of the situation is they are doing renovations at the same time, so getting their revenue while doing their renovations at the same time. I get it, it's a smart business decision but one that doesn't take into account the needs of their patrons. We were going to move forward with the outdoor reception when they also informed us that due to the renovations, there will be scaffolding and tarps on the building, we will lose half of the parking capacity, and there "may" be some construction equipment visible.
So, we decided to move the reception and it will be at a venue that does not allow us to bring in our own chairs. You have to use theirs and they claim it is because of safety regulations. The venue is the Henry Ford and I don't know if because they're a non-profit or public entity they have to abide by certain restrictions that a private venue doesn't?
The issue is we already put a deposit down with a company to provide the chairs and they do not want to refund the "non-refundable" deposit. However, their rental agreement contains the following language:
If XXXXXX cannot perform this contract due to fire or other casualty, theft, act of God, or other cause beyond the control of the parties, then XXXXXX shall return the deposit to the client but shall have no further liability with respect to the contract.
I bolded "parties" because my understanding of this clause is if there is something out of our control, as one of the parties to the agreement, we would get the deposit back. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I do negotiate contracts for my company and I would think that Covid causing us to change venues would be something out of our control?
If it was $50 I probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it, but it's over $300.
Do I have a case and if so, if someone could offer up some verbiage I would appreciate it.
TIA!
The venue at which we were going to have the reception took advantage of the pandemic, and their customers, but forcing all 2021 and early 2022 weddings outside. How they took advantage of the situation is they are doing renovations at the same time, so getting their revenue while doing their renovations at the same time. I get it, it's a smart business decision but one that doesn't take into account the needs of their patrons. We were going to move forward with the outdoor reception when they also informed us that due to the renovations, there will be scaffolding and tarps on the building, we will lose half of the parking capacity, and there "may" be some construction equipment visible.
So, we decided to move the reception and it will be at a venue that does not allow us to bring in our own chairs. You have to use theirs and they claim it is because of safety regulations. The venue is the Henry Ford and I don't know if because they're a non-profit or public entity they have to abide by certain restrictions that a private venue doesn't?
The issue is we already put a deposit down with a company to provide the chairs and they do not want to refund the "non-refundable" deposit. However, their rental agreement contains the following language:
If XXXXXX cannot perform this contract due to fire or other casualty, theft, act of God, or other cause beyond the control of the parties, then XXXXXX shall return the deposit to the client but shall have no further liability with respect to the contract.
I bolded "parties" because my understanding of this clause is if there is something out of our control, as one of the parties to the agreement, we would get the deposit back. I'm definitely not a lawyer, but I do negotiate contracts for my company and I would think that Covid causing us to change venues would be something out of our control?
If it was $50 I probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it, but it's over $300.
Do I have a case and if so, if someone could offer up some verbiage I would appreciate it.
TIA!
