Non-used image licenses

Hi everyone,

What happens when you bought licenses to use images for academic / research publication but did not use those licenses at the end due to non-publication? Some agencies allowed me to use these images anyway as the licenses were still not used. But I have one agency that requests I pay again and that there is a penalty for non-use of these images. This is why I need to buy licenses again. Pretty steep as these images costed a lot. :(

Please share your knowledge 🙏.