Client cancelled project and wants deposit back

[nicknock]

Hi

A client has cancelled a large event we were managing the marketing for after paying us a 50 % deposit. He cancelled with no notice due to issues with the local authorities, no fault of ours. He has asked for his full deposit back. Our contract says he must give a months notice, but we don't include a point about keeping the deposit. We have already spent time on the project and also involved some of our other clients as partners so it makes us look bad.

I know lots of agencies keep 100 % of a deposit in the event of cancellation but we don't include that as a term in our contract. Is there a legal standard for compensation?

Thanks

 

[paulears]

Is there any point in a refundable deposit? In the absence of specific contractual explanations, it would be reasonable to charge out your time and any out of pocket expenses before considering a return of any of his money. For events, which frequently get cancelled for all sorts of reasons, perhaps a 'sum on account' would be a better description for the future, but deposit might not be a sensible word in the strict sense of things. It's usually a sum paid in advance of the final invoice isn't it. They can be returned or kept depending on your contract. In the absence of one, returning it might be the moral thing to do, subject to any costs incurred? Depends if you wish to keep the client for the future really?

 

[nicknock]

Well our terms are 50 % upfront, 50 % on completion, we don't actually term it as a deposit but it essentially is. We feel as though charging for time already spent is a fair approach but equally there is potential damage to other relationships to consider. Hopefully other clients will be understanding but they may not!

 

[Mr D]

If cancelled due to local authorities then may be no fault of the client either.

Do your terms and conditions in the contract allow for anything in relation to this money?

 

[The Byre]

due to issues with the local authorities,

That is a nice way of saying that this client is one of those idiots, who hope that somehow the local council will give them the go-head for an event, despite the fact that at no time did they even get a slight nod in that direction. This kind of thing happens all the time and is why events companies have to ask for a deposit.

In extreme cases, I have even seen 'organisers' expect to be given the right to use public and/or council land for their event, not realising all the rules and conditions involved.

Every year, people die at events - drugs, accidents, heart attacks, fights, whatever. Many more get injured. For that reason, the H&S rules are massive. Self-styled organisers with zero experience in holding large events, assume that somehow all those rules about numbers of security personnel, doctors, access roads, noise, rigging, toilets, vendors, electrical installations, water and emergency evacuation procedures will not apply to them.

To the OP - without seeing your T&C, nobody can tell you what you can and cannot do.

 

[Mr D]

Oh yes, whatever you do - do not get roped into a group organising an event. Everyone else focuses on where the bunting should go leaving the one person who has a clue to do all the serious stuff - which the group does not agree to, does not want to spend time on and bitches about it right up until the event. Oh and moans about the cost too.