Can I get a deposit back if I paid on a credit card?

Q I am contacting you because I am being pushed from pillar to post dealing with a conservatory deposit refund.

In May this year we paid ?5000 deposit on a ?20,000 conservatory to Sunset Nation Conservatories in Windsor.

At the beginning of September we heard our planning permission was refused, and as my wife is due to give birth, decided to cancel the order and rethink our situation again next year. For the past eight weeks I have been treated very badly by Sunset, they do not return quick answer phone calls and it takes two weeks to reply to our mail if at all.

I have called their head office who just refer it back to the local branch who in turn take even longer to reply because I made contact with the head office.

Getting quite frustrated, I called the Trading Standards Office in Windsor who asked me if I had paid any of the deposit on credit card. We paid ?3,500 on the card and ?1,500 by cheque. They told me that Tesco Visa were jointly liable for the contract and that if I wanted to cancel they should refund all ?5,000 back to us.

Is this true?

Sunset are saying that we can't cancel the order without first trying to resubmit other designs for the conservatory that will certainly pass the planning procedure. We don't want to do this because we talked to the planning officer concerned who refused us and the options he talked about certainly wouldn't appeal to us.

What are our rights? And what is the quickest way to get our money back?

WM

A From what you say it seems likely that there is a clause in the agreement spelling out that the contract is subject to you getting planning permission. If so this will govern what you are entitled to receive if you cancel in these circumstances subject to the clause being fair under the Unfair Terms Regulations.

A clause which allows the company to keep a planning office fee may be fair, but one which allows then to keep several hundred pounds may not be. You can get advice on this from your local trading standards office.

Generally though, when you cancel an order you are in breach of contract and you forfeit the deposit as it is regarded as a surety for entering into the deal. But since you made an advance payment of 25% of the price, this is more likely to amount to a part payment rather than a deposit. Part payments can be refunded but only after the supplier has deducted its damages for loss of profit and administration costs.

Tesco Visa is jointly and severally liable with Sunset Nation Conservatories for refunding what you are due. You should threaten them both with the small claims court and give them 10 days to pay up. Failing that you could take them both to court and claim interest on the amount outstanding. I doubt the case would proceed very far before either one of the parties' stumps up your refund.