Skylark country club administration

I work in contract law, so putting my thoughts for you below to try and help explain what this means and options

From what I can see they have appointed Administrators, which is very different to they have gone bust and cannot fulfil your contract . Administrators take over the decisions and running of the business and the Directors power ceases, which means they will look to restructure the finances to rescue the company as a going concern if it is viable and it is purely a cash flow concern right now. No creditors will be paid during the moratorium period in order to protect the income whilst the business is operating in order to protect and increase cash flow. This period is 8 weeks, meaning the administrator will need to make a decision procedure and proposal. It is at this point that they can either be given an extension for trading, be bought out or worse case, file for Liquidation, which is the point the will cease to trade.

As hard as it is to not panic, this means that they are still operating and trading with insolvency support support to look for future investment/ownership but essentially they are still a going concern and are committed to delivering your wedding. it is entirely possible they will continue to operate and there is nothing to worry about, but I do understand the risk this is posing. They have put a statement out to confirm all weddings will go ahead, and that is all they can do as right now as they are not liquidated so they have to operate as usual, this is why they probably wont contact you direct to discuss, as morally un-compassionate as that sounds, their priority is to preserve income and projected and revenue so wont want to discuss with clients directly as this will potentially cause cancellations and loss of projected income which would be forecast into the potential sale viability , so cancelling actually decreases the chance of their survival or a potential buyer being confident in the business being a going concern.

If you were concerned and wanted to cancel then I would suspect they would charge a cancellation fee or retain deposit as it is your choice, they are current operating as normal so the expectation is they are able to fulfil their contractual commitment so the contract is not frustrated so there are no genuine grounds to cancel for non delivery. If they are tyo be bought out the administration should ensure that all future bookings are committed to buy the new buyer under the original terms and pricing agreed. That is not to say that a new buyer may then look to novate your contract to their terms and costs, at which point you could claim legal frustration and cancel without loss.

I would say you need to wait for the 8 week moratorium period to pass and then see what the administrator proposes. I know this is going to be a worrying time and sitting and waiting feels wrong, BUT you don't want to knee jerk and cancel IF the business is then saved.

Hope this helps a bit to explain what is going on, and wish you all the best

Hi Lucy, just wondering how you have got on, I hope it is all sorted and you are less stressed