Cancellation fee. Do i have to pay this?

[Lakey]

Booked a site in Hampshire for winter half term. Because we have only paid the £50 deposit they have charged us £17 cancellation fee! If however, we had paid in full, there would have been none! That can't be right surely?

Is the site having a laugh, and just making money of a stealth fee?????

Gareth

 

[Sproket]

Did you read the small print on the booking form ? was it explained before you made the booking about the cancellation fee ?

 

[RogerL]

Are you "having a laugh" Gareth - you've been excused the difference between the outstanding amount and the cancellation fee?

Just pay them the full amount and I'm sure they'll refund the cancellation fee !!

 

[Lakey]

Hi sproket,

Have had no detailed booking info, just told this on the phone!! so wil examine when recieved. We have stayed at this site the last too half terms and not had this!

RogerL, i don't quiet understand what you are saying? What do you mean "you've been excused the difference between the outstanding amount and the cancellation fee?". As i see it, we now have; outstamding amount + deposit = total amonut - deposit = outstanding amount + Cancellation fee!!

Why pay a cancellation fee? i will lose the deposit anyway, and i have to pay the balance within six weeks of the date of booking anyway! so if i do not pay this i lose

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Gareth,

There are no regulations that govern how caravan and camping sites can be booked. So the details are down to the site owner, and they can be as convoluted as they wish.

However, regardless of how the sites may arrange its bookings, once the arrangements for booking and payment are agreed and accepted, a contract exits between you and the site owner. This is so, even if no paper contract has been exchanged.

Neither party can vary the terms of the contract without the agreement of the other side. That means that if the cancellation fee was not mentioned when you made the booking the site cannot then impose it. Equally you cannot avoid paying for the pitch even if you don't use it.

It all depends on what was said and agreed over the phone when you booked. If the site asked if you agreed to their terms (even though you have not seen them) and assuming you said yes, then you are obliged to follow them. If no mention of the sites terms were made then you are only obliged to follow what was stated.

You need to get hold of a set of the sites rules that were in force at the time your booking was made, and red them carefully.

The only get out of a contract is if the terms are judged to be unfair by a court.

Traditionally sites do have a cancellation process, but because they are privately run, some may offer full refunds and other may charge a cancellation fee or it may depend on how close to the booked period the cancellation occurs.

Just because you have not experienced this at this site before does not preclude the possibility the site has changed its policy due to too many people booking and then cancelling.

 

[NickinFrance]

John L,

It's not quite as simple as 'what you agreed to & what was said'.

I know a lot of people who operate Gites in France & most of them use a standard set of Terms & Conditions.

I sent a set of these to my barrister son-in-law to check & while most of the terms seemed reasonable, almost none of them would hold up in court.

 

[Dustydog]

Nick

I'm not sure about France but in the UK if a person willingly and freely enters into a contract with another the terms are usually legally binding on both parties.

However I accept there will be situations where it may be argued an "Unfair term / condition" has been included. The work to have that sorted out is not easy. eg that aspect is governed by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 as amended.

Gareth

Are you sure this

 

[Alan Partridge]

I can't recall the numbers but at one time we often went to the same site in Norfolk for a week in a static at Easter. The cancellation fees increased as the date got nearer, right up to a week or two before when the full amount would be lost.

If you paid in full, then they would just keep the stipulated proportion if you cancelled. If you chose to pay a deposit only, then a "cancellation insurance" charge would be added.

I don't know whether it was literally insurance, or if they just pooled the money themselves to cover cancellations, in which case it couldn't properly be described as "insurance" in this super-regulated age, and they would probably just call it a cancellation option fee or similar.

It's difficult to have a view without details. When I read the original post I assumed you had cancelled and been charged

 

[NickinFrance]

Nick

I'm not sure about France but in the UK if a person willingly and freely enters into a contract with another the terms are usually legally binding on both parties.

However I accept there will be situations where it may be argued an "Unfair term / condition" has been included. The work to have that sorted out is not easy. eg that aspect is governed by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 as amended.

Gareth

Are you sure this

 

[Lakey]

Hi alan,

No we had not cancelled. we had only just booked!

I always thought a cancellation fee was applied for my benefit so i would not loose money if for some unknown circumstance i could not go on hols. But we have been charged this at the initial booking! it is not an insurance policy for them (at least i don't think), too me it just seems like an additional charge?

Gar

 

[oldievanner]

If,presumably, you are going to turn up, I would only pay them what you owe less the 17 pounds.

 

[trucker]

Garethy, as I understand it what your saying is you have paid them

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Nick,

I am not a legal expert, and I always recommend folks seek professional legal advice if they wish to pursue a claim. It is up to the individual if they take that advice or not.

It does not surprise me to read that your son-in-law believes that the French gites terms and conditions would not stand up in court, because it is his job to try and find loop holes or at least to make others believe there is a case to answer.

A barristers job is to challenge and effective convince you that black is white, but that does not necessarily make them right, only that the wining barrister has placed sufficient doubt in the minds of the judge/jury to change the perceived balance of guilt/innocence.

The view expressed by your son-in law about Gites documentation is a red herring. The documentation by your own statement was a standard French item and thus would have been developed under French not UK law.

I am keen to see that no one is unfairly disadvantaged, but at the same time I believe that it is beholden of anyone entering a contract to make the appropriate enquires and to seek clarifications before agreeing to a binding situation. That is a position that the Sale of Goods Act takes up when it recommends the buyer beware.

The point to Gareth's position is that if he was denied the opportunity to read the terms and conditions before agreeing to the contract then it may be void. If he was offered the opportunity but refused to take it, then that is his problem, not the sites.

Being a private enterprise matter, the content and method of the contract terms and conditions are not governed by any statutory regulations. This means that the site operator can operate any cancellation policy they like.

Of course anyone can challenge the terms of a contract, but just because you can, neither makes it necessary or right. And if the challenge is driven because a party did not make the necessary enquiries before agreeing, then the case is already weakened - unless the terms can be shown to be unfair.

Perhaps you son-in-law would like to join the forum and offer his processional advice?

 

[DeliDave_]

cancellation fee

 

[Sproket]

Just looking at a site to go to week after next:

""" A deposit of