School deposits

Andy_L

Hintza wrote: »

Assuming you pro-rata your enrollement costs for the year on each pupil joining that school that year. It shouldn't be too difficult.

Advertising costs, staffing costs, heat and light, IT costs, cost to cover admissions office space etc etc.

an interview with the head/senior teacher/school guvoner
an Entrance exam
credit check to see if they can afford a full years fees

Flyboy152

Andy_L wrote: »

an interview with the head/senior teacher/school guvoner
an Entrance exam
credit check to see if they can afford a full years fees

It would have to be proved that those items are accountable and they actually took place. It would also have to be shown that other parents have been charged for those items.

The meeting with staff members can not be included in the pre-estimate, because that would have happened anyway, even if the deposit wasn't paid, the same goes for an entrance exam. Credit checks, if one took place, is about fifteen pounds.

Nonetheless, the "deposit" was taken in part payment for the service to be provided. It was not to pay for the recruitment of students.

halibut2209

Yup, the actual cost of a credit check is the only thing mentioned so far that would be considered an expense.

System

halibut2209 wrote: »

Yup, the actual cost of a credit check is the only thing mentioned so far that would be considered an expense.

What about the piece of paper that the parent would have signed to say they wanted the place? That would be a customer specific expense as they can't reuse that.

Thats 1p clawed back by the school

DCodd

Basically OP, if the school can not provide a reasonable breakdown of costs to the school that covers the £700.00 (and they can not just make it up as they go along) then the witholding of your money couild be seen as a financial penalty under common law which in turn would be seen as an unfair contractual term.

The following link is dated Nov 2011 and is about deposits for nursery places but would be relevant in your own case (check out the link within this article for the office of fair trading's guidance notes sections 4 & 5)

http://www.bllaw.co.uk/sectors/health_and_care/childrens_day_nurseries/news_and_updates/contracts_with_parents.aspx

System

On a side note I am not completely convinced that they have to justify the expenses. Reading the legislation it sounds like a none refundable deposit has to be "reasonable depending on the circumstances" and if it is then they don't have to refund. That sounds so vague that I doubt its hard for the school to argue their case.

Personally I think £350 is a perfecly reasonable sum of money to ask for to reserve a place at the school. It would be interesting to see what percentage that amount is compared to the actually yearly fee but I would imagine it was less than 10%.

I think the only way the OP will get her money back is via goodwill from the school. I would be suprised if she is successfully legally and a failure legally would mean they have to pay even more in legal fees!

System

DCodd wrote: »

Basically OP, if the school can not provide a reasonable breakdown of costs to the school that covers the £700.00 (and they can not just make it up as they go along) then the witholding of your money couild be seen as a financial penalty under common law which in turn would be seen as an unfair contractual term.

The following link is dated Nov 2011 and is about deposits for nursery places but would be relevant in your own case (check out the link within this article for the office of fair trading's guidance notes sections 4 & 5)

http://www.bllaw.co.uk/sectors/health_and_care/childrens_day_nurseries/news_and_updates/contracts_with_parents.aspx

As it says here they don't have the whole details of the case so all comments are of a general nature. There is nothing here that says £350 is an excessive deposit for a school place

System

This seems to be the relevant legislation

"Alternatively, the prepayment may be set low enough that it merely reflects
the ordinary expenses necessarily entailed for the supplier. A genuine
'deposit'– which is a reservation fee not an advance payment – can quite
legitimately be kept in full, as payment for the reservation. But of course
such a deposit will not normally be more than a small percentage of the

price, otherwise it is liable to be seen as a disguised penalty"

It sounds like if the £350 is a small enough percentage of the whole payment then the school are entitled to keep it. So for instance if the fee for the year was only £500 it would be unfair for the deposit to be so high. However if the fee for the year was say £3500 then £350 could be considered a fair deposit.

halibut2209

No, that percentage section is only if the deposit is a reservation fee ONLY (ie, not part of the fees for the school year)

If the deposit is part of the fees, then the first statement applies - namely it reflects the expenses.

System

it doesn't say reservation fee ONLY though.

It says the deposit can't be an advance payment of the fees. However I think thats a grey area as the school could argue that it is a reservation fee, however if you take up the place as a goodwill gesture they take the reservation fee off the school fee price.

I would actually like the OP to take this all the way to see what actually happens.