BURSTA woman who had to find a new location for her wedding at the last minute has won a $4,365 judgement against the original Langley venue, which cancelled after it turned out they had no business license.
The venue was Latimer Rooftop, which was located on a lowrise office building at 84 Avenue and 200 Street. The venue appeared in 2023.
According to an Oct. 9 ruling of the B.C. Civil Resolution Tribunal, the bride booked the venue in late 2023, for a Sept. 1 2024 wedding. The price was to be $3,412.50.
In June 2024, the woman noticed that some of the social media presence for the Latimer Rooftop had vanished. She contacted an employee with the venue, who told her that they had been ordered to shut down.
The company that had run Latimer Rooftop refunded her $1,706.25 deposit.
However, she now had to find a new venue for her wedding in two and a half months. The new space cost $7,350, more than double the price she had planned.
The bride brought her case to the Civil Resolution Tribunal, which functions as B.C.’s small claims court.
She brought her claim against the numbered company that ran Latimer Rooftop, as well as against Vesta Properties, which has its head office in the same building.
The tribunal’s adjudicator, Andrea Ritchie, ruled that Vesta was not involved with the contact, so it could not be held liable, and the claim against that firm was dismissed.
The numbered company behind Latimer Rooftop did not defend itself at all, but Vesta filed a defence that covered both firms.
The sudden venue closure took place because Latimer Rooftop was operating without a business license.
The bride filed documents from the Township of Langley, showing it had ordered the business to shut down operations in 2024.
The rooftop patio had originally been built for the use of building tenants, according to the Township.
“After several complaints from the community, the Township investigated and found that Latimer Rooftop was being operated as a venue space without a business license and outside the scope of the building’s development permit,” Ritchie noted in her ruling. “Specifically, the Township found that Latimer Rooftop was not zoned for ‘assembly use,’ meaning it could not host events such as weddings, and it would not issue a business license on that basis.”
The website for Latimer Rooftop is currently offline, and its Instagram account stopped posting around February 2024.
Ritchie ruled that the woman whose wedding venue was abruptly cancelled was in the right – she had a binding contract, and she was owed damages for having to rent a different and more expensive venue at the last minute. The damages of $3,987.50 amount to the difference between the cost of the Latimer Rooftop site and the second venue she found, as well as $50 she had to pay her hairdresser for travelling farther on the day of the wedding.
In addition, the company was ordered to pay the woman’s tribunal fees and the cost of getting documents from Langley Township, bringing the total to $4,365.