Legal challenge considered by family hit by Patshull Hall financial mess

Patshull Hall, near Pattingham, south Staffordshire, called in administrative receivers BDO LLP, leaving 29 weddings in the balance as bosses said they could only honour bookings up until September.

BDO says it is still taking bookings but not for beyond September 2. They have also asked some customers to pay extra as some clients did not get payment from Patshull Hall.

Some couples say they could lose as much as £5,000. The daughter of Vicky and Chris Brookes, of Fox Road, Shipley, near Wolverhampton, was due to marry in July. They want others affected to back a compensation quest.

The mother of the bride said: "Instead of separate families speaking to the administrators and getting different answers we are looking to get together and coming up with a way of being compensated for this wedding.

"I can't see why my daughter shouldn't get a percentage of the money she has paid back but instead she's being asked to pay more than £1,000 extra." BDO said it has updated the hall website to say it is in receivership but Mr Brookes said: "I don't feel it is right that this company is still trading and taking bookings in the position that it is in.

"We want people who have been affected to contact to us as we consider the possibility of a legal challenge."

Kim Rayment, business restructuring partner at BDO LLP and joint administrative receiver of Patshull Hall, said: "We appreciate that the recent changes at Patshull Hall may have caused concern.

"That is why we have taken care to explain the situation to couples, and why the administrative receivers have given assurances that all events, including weddings, scheduled between now and September 1 can go ahead, provided future costs of the events are met.

"The alternative would have been to close the venue, meaning that couples would have been unsecured creditors of the company and, in all probability, lose their booking deposits/event fees and be left without a venue to hold their event.

"It is regrettable that Patshull Hall Ltd did not hold amounts paid by couples in separate deposit accounts and did not make all the payments required to suppliers to hold the weddings in question, before the receivership.

"Those monies are not available to the administrative receiver, with the unavoidable result that a number of couples have been asked to meet the future costs of providing the event.

"To be clear – these payments will cover future costs only, and are expressly not for profit making purposes.

"Should couples choose to cancel their bookings they will rank as unsecured creditors of the company in receivership and their claims would be dealt with according to a statutory order of priorities."

Those interested in the group should email patshullrefunds@gmail.com