Nursery Extortion

Twopints

warehouse wrote: »

Your child is the most important thing you'll ever be responsible for in your whole life and your worrying about the cost of childcare?

Sorry OP but something's very wrong here.

£3300 per month and you think they shouldn't worry about cost?

:money::money:

Barnezy

warehouse wrote: »

Your child is the most important thing you'll ever be responsible for in your whole life and your worrying about the cost of childcare?

Sorry OP but something's very wrong here.

What an ignorant comment. I have two children actually. Yes responsible parents do think about childcare costs. If this nursery continues to raise its fees as it has been, in 3 years we will be paying £4015pm for 2 children for 4 days, that’s £48k a year or a c£85k gross salary just to cover childcare. Hence the reason we’re looking at alternative options and trying to understand our liability to the nursery.

Anyway that was not the sentiment of my question, it was about unfair contract terms and poor commercial practice.

I suggest if you don’t have anything constructive to say, you don’t comment further.

General_Applause

Barnezy wrote: »

What an ignorant comment. I have two children actually. Yes responsible parents do think about childcare costs. If this nursery continues to raise its fees as it has been, in 3 years we will be paying £4015pm for 2 children for 4 days, that’s £48k a year or a c£85k gross salary just to cover childcare. Hence the reason we’re looking at alternative options and trying to understand our liability to the nursery.

Anyway that was not the sentiment of my question, it was about unfair contract terms and poor commercial practice.

I suggest if you don’t have anything constructive to say, you don’t comment further.

You can't afford to live where you are with children.


We raised our three with just me on a maximum salary of 18k. My wife stayed at home and looked after them.


Paying four grand a month, a MONTH is just stupid.


Have you looked into hiring an au-pair or nanny? It has to be cheaper than 4 grand a month.

Tigsteroonie

Barnezy wrote: »

My last question is, if we allow the contract to roll into Jan and start paying the new fee, is this seen as agreeing to the new terms and therefore solidifing the contract until they change the fee again?

..................
Yes.

Barnezy

General_Applause wrote: »

You can't afford to live where you are with children.


We raised our three with just me on a maximum salary of 18k. My wife stayed at home and looked after them.


Paying four grand a month, a MONTH is just stupid.


Have you looked into hiring an au-pair or nanny? It has to be cheaper than 4 grand a month.

I’ve not said we can’t afford it, it’s whether I want to deal with a business that takes this approach with its terms and fees. And obviously £4k is just wasteful when there are other options out there.

We’ve found another nursery just around the conner from this one that is just as nice. It would be £2,700pm for both children and they haven’t increased fees for 2 years. They have a two month notice period and you can leave at anytime in the year. It’s terms and fees are much more balanced.

We looked in to a nanny but there are some downsides. Socialising with other kids is more limited and becoming an employer with everything that comes with that is not of interest to us.

Comms69

the short answer is - yes a private business can charge whatever they like for their service.


The terms and conditions - obviously quite lengthy and not available to me here - are likely valid.

BoGoF

Paying someone £4000 per month to look after your kids......first world problems

unholyangel

Barnezy wrote: »

I’ve not said we can’t afford it, it’s whether I want to deal with a business that takes this approach with its terms and fees. And obviously £4k is just wasteful when there are other options out there.

We’ve found another nursery just around the conner from this one that is just as nice. It would be £2,700pm for both children and they haven’t increased fees for 2 years. They have a two month notice period and you can leave at anytime in the year. It’s terms and fees are much more balanced.

We looked in to a nanny but there are some downsides. Socialising with other kids is more limited and becoming an employer with everything that comes with that is not of interest to us.

Then how about an agency? Although it would probably be more expensive as then you'll have the agencies cut.


But yes, your understanding of most posts is correct - while the nursery is free to increase its prices, they must (to achieve fairness) offer the right to cancel without penalty, you cannot be bound by the price increase unless you agree to it.

The only way such a term might be binding is if it specifies an exact amount the price will increase by and it was brought to your attention before you entered the contract. As then you've effectively agreed (for example) £3000 from 18th august to 1st november and then £3100 from 1st november until end of the school year.

Have a look at CMA's unfair term guidance under "price variation clauses" (press control & f when viewing it to search for that exact phrase).

bris

Barnezy wrote: »

If I’m reading the comments correctly, when the nursery announced the fee increase they voided the contract, regardless of whether they have a term in there stating fees are reviewed annually? If so we have the right to end our contract at anytime without penalty or loss.

My last question is, if we allow the contract to roll into Jan and start paying the new fee, is this seen as agreeing to the new terms and therefore solidifing the contract until they change the fee again?

Well yes and no, yes if the rise is well above inflation and deemed unfair. No if it's a reasonable rise inline with inflation.


You will find mobile contracts etc keep their price rises on line with inflation to avoid allowing people to leave, pretty much similar here, only a court could decide if your rise is unfair or not because they are allowed to raise them.


If you allow the contract to roll into January the yes you are accepting the contact, you can't just cherry pick when you want to leave.

unholyangel

bris wrote: »

Well yes and no, yes if the rise is well above inflation and deemed unfair. No if it's a reasonable rise inline with inflation.


You will find mobile contracts etc keep their price rises on line with inflation to avoid allowing people to leave, pretty much similar here, only a court could decide if your rise is unfair or not because they are allowed to raise them.


If you allow the contract to roll into January the yes you are accepting the contact, you can't just cherry pick when you want to leave.

They haven't been allowed to do that for nearly 5 years due to ofcom. Ofcom treat any increase in monthly subscription fee as a material detriment, which means the provider needs to give at least 30 days notice and the customer must be able to leave the contract without penalty/without being affected by those changes. The only exceptions to that is where its been set out in legislation by government and it is compulsory (for example when VAT increased from 17.5% to 20%).

Previous to that, providers used to argue they were allowed to increase in line with inflation, but ofcom disagreed and so issued guidance thats binding on providers.