[CALIFORNIA] Air conditioning "broke" at my wedding reception during hottest day of year legaladvice

The air conditioning at the venue for my wedding reception did not work on the hottest day of the year. The lady who runs the venue (she leases the facility) at first denied anything was wrong, then later admit the AC was broken. She did not to attempt to rectify the situation. She left the venue and stopped answering calls. I texted her in disgust, and she simply said there was nothing she could do.

We spent ~$30k+ on decorations and food. Decorations were ruined due to the heat. Guests spent most of the night in the parking lot due to the 95+ degree temperature inside of the building.

We requested a partial refund, and instead of giving us a refund, she told us we owe her ~$4k for damages to the venue.

She was terrible to deal with throughout the whole process and lied about some detail regarding the venue. I would not be surprised if the AC had been broken for a while.

The contract did not contain any language stating the AC would be functioning FYI.

What are my options for

(1) Not paying the $4k (2) Suing her for my venue, decoration, and food costs?

Thanks in advance!

  

Additional items of note:   

• She sent the janitorial invoice just 2 days ago and dated it for 9/4 and said due in 30 days. Meaning we received the invoice on 9/24 and it has a due date of 10/4.   
• I have an email from her saying there was a refrigerator at the venue, there was no refrigerator, she did not even have a sink, she had a small faucet in the back and that's it. She originally told us there was a whole kitchen at the venue; however I do not have this in writing.   
• Here is the paragraph in the contract which I believe may be related to this issue: "______(name of venue) shall not be held responsible to Client or any 3rd party for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from or in any way attributable to the operation of, use of, or any failure of the banquet center, its furniture, facilities, etc. (name of venue) shall not be responsible for any defect or failure unknown to (name of venue)"

 

Damages claimed by venue:

  She claimed the bathrooms had urine on the walls, and guests intentionally shoved cake down the toilet, and broken toilet seat. She said the bathrooms had to be washed and steamed multiple times. She also claimed carpets had to be cleaned in parts of the venue, and also claimed back storage room was left filthy. We have photos of the back storage room when we were leaving, and it's in great condition. She's claiming the janitorial bill was ~$4k.

Submitted September 26, 2017 at 12:33PM by undrrated20 http://ift.tt/2xt690l legaladvice