Cancelling nursery place during "settling in" period

emsywoo123

Hi

My son (12 months) has been "settling in" at nursery this week. For a number of reasons, this has not worked and I advised them I do not wish to take the place.

They informed me that I have to pay the rest of the month plus next month, and this is confirmed in their T&Cs

I will apparently receive my deposit back at some point in the next 6 weeks.

Are the T&Cs totally binding? I understand that if he were actively participating in nursery this would be fair, but he has attended 3 x 1 hour sessions this week, and they have shown that it would be totally wrong to send him there. He is/was due to start full sessions next week.

Please be gentle with me. Pretty horrible morning

Many thanks for reading

newcook

all depends if it states in the terms and conditions that if for whatever reason you decide not to continue with childcare (even in the introductionary period) that you pay the remainder of the month.
have a good look through the terms and conditions – it should also state a cooling off period.

emsywoo123

There is nothing in them about a cooling off period? The only applicable part is:

From the time the Nursery accepts your application for a place at the
Nursery in accordance with paragraph 1 above a minimum of one clear
calendar month’s written notice (i.e. if notice is given part way through
a month you will be charged to the end of that month plus a clear
calendar month) must be given to the Nursery in order to: -
3.1.1 withdraw your child from the Nursery;

Nothing about what happens if settling in does not work?

newcook

do the nursery actually class this period as 'settling in'? if they do they need to have a T&C paragraph relating to this.

how much was the deposit for? is it enough to cover for the remainder of the month?

emsywoo123

newcook wrote: »

do the nursery actually class this period as 'settling in'? if they do they need to have a T&C paragraph relating to this.

how much was the deposit for? is it enough to cover for the remainder of the month?

Yes, it is classed as settling in, 3 free sessions, 1 hour, the first I stayed for, the 2nd 2 I did not.

Deposit was £123, they want £89 for November and £246 for December. I have paid the £123, they want the £89 on Monday and the £246 on 01/12/2011.

newcook

in that case then I would ask them to refer to the section in the terms and conditions that relates to the settling in period and what happens if it doesnt work out.

if I was in your position I would have agreed that it is fair to pay the remainder of November (which your deposit will cover) but I wouldnt pay more.

WestonDave

Sometimes its helpful to try to understand where they are coming from in order to try to come to a fair conclusion. I suspect for example that you put your child's name down some time ago - maybe months ago - along with an anticipated start date for this week. They will therefore have booked your child into a slot (bearing in mind that they can only have so many children per staff member etc) and may have turned away other families wanting that slot in the meantime. Most parents wanting nursery places will be looking months ahead and very few will be wanting a place now at short notice. So your departure leaves them with a slot that they can't fill, so to keep the books balanced they probably need to keep your fees since they will still be paying all the staff, but won't be getting any income from anyone else. Certainly locally around here there have been a few nurseries closing due to financial problems so its not a high profit business where they can easily afford to lose a paying child without replacing them.

So in that context, it might be worth seeing if you can come to an agreement that if they haven't found anyone else for that place by the end of December you pay in full, otherwise you pay for the "vacant" part. That is probably all they could sue you for if you refused to pay since they could only claim what they have actually lost (although they might argue some admin costs of changing the place over etc).

Whether you could get out of all of it I'm not sure - terms and conditions look in their favour because I suspect if you cancelled even before you started they would claim at least a months fees and be successful in doing so.

emsywoo123

Weston Dave I understand you might think that, but no. I called 8th Nov as interested, viewed 9th Nov, and settling dates were 14th, 15th and 18th Nov. So entire process 10 days

WestonDave

Fair enough only going on personal experience - we started looking as soon as eldest was born and had a hell of a job getting a place where we wanted it for nearly a year ahead when OH was planning on going back to work.

grey_lady

Might be worth giving consumer direct a call (08454 04 05 06)
I think they are something to do with trading standards and they are gov backed - it would be interesting to know their take. As far as I know it is usual to pay a months notice.

But did you really give your son and the staff a chance to settle in? 3x1 hour sessions isnt a lot when some kids take a few weeks to settle.

Do you now think that this nursery is really bad? or is it that with a bit of patience and gradually settling LO in then it would be ok?

peachyprice

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Weston Dave I understand you might think that, but no. I called 8th Nov as interested, viewed 9th Nov, and settling dates were 14th, 15th and 18th Nov. So entire process 10 days

Aw gawd, that should have rung alarm bells!