To think the nursery are wildly unreasonable?

@Gerrp What do you do if DC is sick? If they get chicken pox and have to be off for at least five days? Most companies will offer unpaid parental leave as a worst case scenario IF you are unable to take annual leave… can you not take any time off work? Do you have a partner? If so you both take a day or so off, share the load. Other parents of nursery kids, take a day each (multiple kids sometimes easier to look after than one!).

@2boyzNosleep OP said it was because the nursery was damaged and needed repairing.

Someone once said to me to view the nursery bill as money that you pay for that space for the year. So don’t think too much about the daily rate itself as otherwise you drive yourself mad thinking how much time you’ve paid for when they’ve been sick. Same is true here - if you want the nursery to remain open longer term and you want to keep your space there then unfortunately you just have to suck it up. It’s only three days, you should hopefully be able to manage alternate childcare without necessarily having to pay for it, in the same way you surely would if DC was sick.

EDIT- just reread OPs posts to see that the nursery building has damage.

In which case I think you do have to just accept it

It's not the owners who will suffer. It's the staff who already look after your children for peanuts.
If it's a small, independent nursery they won't have loads of money. If it's a chain it'll be the owners who get the money.
I didn't say it was right, I said do you want the staff to walk because they haven't been paid.

Sounds like a simple breach of contract on their part (service not provided), so I’d expect a refund but if you pursue them, are they likely to find a reason to refuse you a place after Christmas?

The ts and cs you signed presumably allow for this. Our nursery closed in Covid and we still had to pay if we wanted the place open when lockdown was finished. They did relax that to 50% eventually but at first it was just pay 100% or lose your place.

They still have to pay their employees and bills even if the building is closed, hence why their terms provide for this.

You'd likely win at small claims court, but also likely you'd need to find a new nursery.

That's insanely cheap, especially just outside London.

You can ask them if they'll reimburse you but they can say no and you'll have to accept it

At £140 pounds a day I’m sure they’re not on their arse, otherwise how does our £65/day nursery run?
They certainly aren’t paying their staff double minimum wage at £22/hour.

Its a business but if they can’t balance the books they close.

definitely not the case in UK, well definitely not for home insurance, commercial might be different but I don't think so

This relates to Covid, when many nurseries were charging… but in principle it is the same.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law/nursery-and-early-years-sector-covid-19-restrictions-and-consumer-law-advice

General principles
In the case of ongoing contracts such as the provision of early years childcare which is provided over a long period, the CMA’s view is that:

• the consumer should not normally have to pay early years providers for childcare services that cannot be provided for a period for any reason
• a term requiring a consumer to continue to pay when the trader is unable to or is otherwise not providing any service is likely to be unfair and unenforceable
• consumers should be offered a refund for childcare services paid in advance which are then not provided by the business because of those restrictions, and no further demands for payment should be made until it is clear that the service can resume
• consumers should not have to pay for temporary breaks in the service, where the childcare provider is not in a position to actually provide care

Such is life…..centre parks are having to refund everyone as their facilities could not open over the storms …..the money comes from the insurer …..or they take a hit…..shit happens….but OP should not take the hit

Only on mumsnet should the financial burden of a nursery staying in business fall on the sole responsibility of OP. Think of the poor penniless nursery owners, on the days they don't provide a service, OP should presumably give them a tip as well for the convenience 🙄

That is shocking. I'm not surprised you are raging

OP your nursery fees are crazy. I also live an hour outside London and I pay £69 a day 8-6.

Act of god my arse…..all reputable insurers offer storm damage insurance…..I have just started a claim for some roof damage with my insurer…..they went online to a national database which records weather…..wind speed has to be over 55 mph to claim…..it was 63mph so my claim is going ahead

They will still have to pay everything, staff wages etc.

Haha the local owners must have their Porsche on PCP then.

The nursery should pay for Business Interruption insurance and then they would not need to charge for zero service. They have taken the business decision not to insure the risk, so they should be liable for it. All this silliness about staff not being paid is plsying on emotions instead of considering how a business should be run.

I’m not sure actually - she’s paying for a service which is not being provided, leaving her out of pocket.

I guess you have to conclude if everyone refused to pay their fees it would result in the nursery closing. If you are able to join another easily you could try refusing to pay. Ours closed a few times for weather-based incidents (leaky roof) and also over COVID (we received a 50% discount for fees occurring for the latter). You could ask for a discount on next month’s fees and see what they say?

I would love to know the justification of people thinking they can keep the money... paying staff isn't OPs job. She paid for a service and did NOT receive it, she even had to pay double to replace the service she did not receive.

If you pay for a service and dont receive it because the PROVIDER cancel then you are entitled to a refund... there no 'debating' it with but they really want that money to pay bills or blaming god.

You can put any clause you want in a contract or T&Cs but that does NOT make it legally binding if the very act goes against the customers rights or the law.

Small claims will find a refund fair.