What happens when a business you have a contract with changes ownership? Sergio Flores with NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 Responds explains.
You can’t help but smile to see the old videos of little Leigha. She’s a handful of years old in those videos and already shows a certain spunk as she performs magic tricks and pretends to play the piano.
Her mom, Jessica Romero, lights up when she speaks about her daughter, who turns 15 in December.
“I’m like, wait, you were just 7. You were just 5 not too long ago. How are you going to be 15?” she asked rhetorically.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
So the whole family set out to organize a traditional coming-of-age Latino celebration that Leigha wanted since she was in first grade. She had just turned in a school project on cultural traditions where she learned about quinceañeras.
They picked La Hacienda Restaurant and Catering as the location and locked down an all-inclusive package for almost $8,000. Leigha picked a Winter Wonderland theme for her big day. The countdown to Dec. 6, 2025, was on.
Romero gave a $1,500 deposit and a $50 first payment. She then made close to $400 every month.
The first four payments went through as planned, but not in January. It showed up as canceled.
NBC 7 Responds
Romero found the venue had new owners who said they did not buy her contract. They held her reservation to give her time to get her money back from the previous owner.
However, the former event planner said they no longer had access to her money and offered two options: move her event to a different venue or return her $3,600 in $200 monthly payments. Romero just wanted a full refund.
“I feel like a customer. I did everything right. I kept my date. I didn’t cancel on them,” she said, describing how she suddenly was back to square one. No venue and no money. The clock to her daughter’s birthday kept ticking.
Neither the previous nor the current owner gave NBC 7 Responds a copy of the business transfer so we could check out the terms of the sale.
Consumer rights attorney Octavio Cardona-Loya said it’s a tough spot to be in.
“A lot of times, consumers don’t actually know what the terms of that sale or transfer is," Cardona-Loya said.
The attorney added that when a business changes hands, the new owner may or may not have agreed to take on existing contracts. They’re not obligated to give out that information.
Cardona-Loya recommended:
- Get everything in writing before entering an agreement
- Save all communications with the company, especially when changes are made
- Insist on a contract and read it thoroughly
- Request they add how quickly you’ll get a refund should they need to cancel the contract on their end
“If you want to make sure something is going to get done by a certain date, that’s something that normally you’ll want to make sure it’s expressively provided," he said. "That way, neither side can get out of it if worse comes to worst."
Romero took the advice she was given while at small claims court.
“They said, ‘Here is NBC News. Reach out to them. Maybe they can help you,’" Romero said. "And I said, ‘Well I have to try.'"
The former event manager for La Hacienda explained to NBC 7 Responds that a failed partnership closed down their family-owned restaurant of 21 years. They said they sympathize with Romero and the importance of her daughter’s quinceañera.
They offered to refund her money quicker, more than doubling their initial offer to $500 a month until the $3,600 is paid off. Romero accepted the new payment plan as it refunded her money in time to help pay for the quinceañera — when her little girl formally stops being a little girl.
