Deposits and Refunds Policy

Approval date: 01/08/2025

Review date: 01/08/2026

This policy explains when deposits may be requested, and when they might be refundable. It also covers the payment of refunds.

Deposits.

• OBWSC does not normally ask for a deposit but does expect that the full payment will be received by or on the day of the course/hire/event.
• A deposit may be requested where:
  1. the amount is large
  2. there are set-up costs required for the event which have to be incurred and cannot be used for anything else (e.g., where food is booked)
  3. Where a late cancellation would mean that sessional staff would have arrived and need to be paid even though the event was cancelled.
  4. Where other costs would not be recoverable.
• In these cases the deposit is unlikely to be refunded, unless the costs can be offset elsewhere.

Refunds.

• Courses and activities
  1. Cancellation by the customer
     1. Courses and events require the commitment of qualified instructors and equipment, which are not always available. They usually also require a minimum number of participants to make them viable. Consequently, we cannot usually refund all of the fees if you cancel your booking.
     2. If you cancel within 48 hours of the start of the booking then the fees may be charged in full.

• If you cancel between 2 and 14 days before the day of the course or event you may be charged up to 50% of the charge.

1. If you cancel more than 14 days before of the day of the course or event you will be refunded in full less a £10 administration fee per person.

1. Cancellation by OBWSC.
   1. Courses and events are run subject to safe river and weather conditions on the day. OBWSC will decide whether conditions are safe for the specific event.
   2. If a postponement of your course is deemed necessary by OBWSC, we will give you as much notice as possible and we will offer you alternative dates.

• In the unlikely event that we are forced to postpone the second day of a two day course due to adverse conditions, we will offer alternative dates to complete the course within a six week window of the original course date.

1. Under these circumstances only, and if no convenient alternative date can be agreed, any monies paid will be fully refunded.
2. OBWSC are not liable for any losses incurred by you due to cancellation of courses.
3. Special arrangements for larger group bookings may have different payment terms.

• Hiring craft:
  1. In the event of the booking being cancelled by you we would aim to rearrange the date.
     1. If this is not possible, and no costs have been incurred, we may refund the fee.
     2. If costs have been incurred, these may be deducted from the repayment.
  2. If you have booked for a group and the numbers attending will now be lower
     1. if you let us know in advance, and we have not incurred any cost, we will usually refund the amount for the people not attending, providing that at least half the original number will still be attending.
  3. If the hire is cancelled by us, (perhaps due to bad weather)
     1. We will attempt to agree an alternative date
     2. If this is not possible, we will refund the fee.