I will appreciate any advice...
We hired a wedding caterer based on his estimate that was within our budget. We gave him a 50% deposit, signed his agreement and all was going well until he sent us an updated estimate for 4k more than what we originally agreed upon. Question 1. Is our original agreement still valid?
We called and told him we did not accept his changes and would not need his services anymore and we would need our deposit back. His original agreement said we have to cancel in writing 15 days prior to the event. We cancelled 19 days prior and when we did, he acknowledged that we were well within his requirements and gave us a deposit pick up date. When we showed up, he informed us he was keeping 50% of our deposit because we did not notify him in writing. We told him we would accept this because A) he provided no catering services B) we never agreed to his second estimate and C) we had cancelled within his requested time frame.
He is basing his whole argument on this "written notice" clause on an old agreement that he broke by changing the price significantly. I am just wondering if he has a case. I think the law is based on common sense, not technicalities but this is my first time ever dealing with anything like this...
We hired a wedding caterer based on his estimate that was within our budget. We gave him a 50% deposit, signed his agreement and all was going well until he sent us an updated estimate for 4k more than what we originally agreed upon. Question 1. Is our original agreement still valid?
We called and told him we did not accept his changes and would not need his services anymore and we would need our deposit back. His original agreement said we have to cancel in writing 15 days prior to the event. We cancelled 19 days prior and when we did, he acknowledged that we were well within his requirements and gave us a deposit pick up date. When we showed up, he informed us he was keeping 50% of our deposit because we did not notify him in writing. We told him we would accept this because A) he provided no catering services B) we never agreed to his second estimate and C) we had cancelled within his requested time frame.
He is basing his whole argument on this "written notice" clause on an old agreement that he broke by changing the price significantly. I am just wondering if he has a case. I think the law is based on common sense, not technicalities but this is my first time ever dealing with anything like this...
