Nursery issue: non refundable deposit of £1000.

[kgb777]

Is this a normal practice for a private nursery to retain full £1000 deposit?
In november 2011 we looked for a nursery for our 2 y.o daughter and found an afternoon place available from September 2012 in Noting Hill, London.
They have asked for £1000 deposit to secure the place and to sign terms and cons. We have sent the cheque during the same month. Unfortunately in June 2012 we had to move and our new home is far away from the nursery in Noting-Hill. On 1st July we notified the nursery that we wont require the place any longer and that our daughter is not going to start with them from September 2012.
I understand that there are some admin fees to be covered but i hoped that we will be able to recover at least some money from the original £1000 deposit.
Turns out this is not the case and ' no longer kind and friendly' nursery manager advised me that i have signed terms and cons, where i have agreed for full £1000 to remain with the nursery....
Please can someone tell me if you had a similar experience as £1000 is a lot of money for our family.
thank you

Gezz I didn't realise there was such a huge difference in nursery fees up and down the country.
My DD nursery charge by the hour, so it works out well if u are part time then u cache pick when your morning starts and day finishes. But if u need them in full time 5 days a week then it works out more than the other nurseries round here.
As for the deposit, refundable upon giving 28 days notice.

Bloody hell, the amount some of you pay for childcare I don't even earn that much.

I only get 1,400 if I work 40 hours a week at my day job, and 10 bank care work . Depressing :(

Edwinbear's costs are about normal for parts of London - I work in CW but place my DD in C nursery in zone 3 where I live, dropping her off on my way in. I pay £1,100 for a four day week but I a.m so far very happy with them. Again though, I think the situation was the same re deposit - I paid £50 to go on the waiting list and that was non-refundable whether they offered us a place or not. When they did, I had to pay half the month's full fees as an actual deposit which I will get back when she leaves if her account is up to date. Had I pulled out after paying the £550 then I would have lost it...

£50 deposit here then off against first months fees.

Like someone said upthread, it wasn't the waiting list fee, it was for a guaranteed place. I recently wanted to change DD's nursery due to the distance to the current one. We were offered a 3 day a week place in July for the place starting half way through November. If I took the place, I would have to pay £250 deposit refundable from the last month's fees and £1350 in advance for a month plus for any remaining part of the month that already started so 6 weeks in advance. If at anytime from July to Nov I would've decided to nit take the place, they would keep the money. Im guessing it's what happened in your case..

Oh and I'd have to pay that in July, straight away.

Is there no way that you can keep the place and just spend longer each day travelling?

I was just wondering if it's a nursery attached to a school, with admissions like a school, or a day nursery place with ad hoc admissions.

For if a school, I think your chances of getting it back are slimmer: they cannot fill places in July and August because they are closed, and those who applied back in the previous January and were turned away may well have made other arrangements. For a school, a clear terms notice is the norm, and for joiners losing the deposit only is often cheaper than losing a whole terms fees. For a part time place for the whole year, that may not stack up the same way but if it's a chi chi place then it may be starting part time but progressing to a full time place as part of the deal, and that's a bigger potential loss to the school.

Does that include the 15 hours free entitlement. I don't pay anything for DS2 Nursery!

£1000??!?!?! Is it a gold plated nursery where the children lie on chaise longues all day and are hand-fed freshly peeled grapes? Jeezy Chreezy.

Personally I would just put up with the travelling rather than kiss a grand goodbye.

It sounds like a private nursery, not connected with a school.

Mine is a private nursery if that helps.

OP sorry you are having this issue. It's really interesting to hear people's reactions to the costs involved though; this is just how much nursery costs in London! I was also paying about 1,500 a month for one child full time when we lived there (3 years ago). Then I had a second a moved overseas because I couldn't afford to pay that! London nurseries cost the earth...

Mine is a private one too. I balked at paying the £38 deposit for DS2s place!

That is a lot! They would have a waiting list that they can draw on, so will be unlikely to miss out on a fee (that's about half a term?).

Any 'reasonable' nursery would maybe not keep the full amount (considering you haven't just changed your mind) but maybe keep an 'admin fee'. Usually the deposit comes out of the final terms fees and you need to give one term notice in writing.

I'm interested to know which one it was (I'm local and 'in the field'). Attached to a school or a standalone chain nursery?

I had this with DS2 a few years ago. Not a deposit, but you HAD to give a month's notice, and if you didn't then you still had to pay for a month.

The Sole Trader shop I was employed in shut down. I got the sum total of 3 days notice. My wages stopped INSTANTLY. As did my WTC that covered the majority of the fees. (There's a run on now, there wasn't then).

I ended up owing the Nursery £2,000 for a service I hadn't used.

IMO, it should be pay by day. No sodding notice period or stuff like that. For NMW people like me, we just CAN'T cover childcare fees if our work stops or drops overnight.

Zero hours contracts are awful for this - I found I had to pay for the Nursery even when he wasn't there. How the hell am I meant to do that if I have no work that week, and therefore no wages?!

And THAT is why do many Lone Parents who would be working NMW jobs are on benefits. Because they can't take a zero hours contract because they still have to pay for Nursery or a Childminder when they AREN'T at work, and have NO INCOME. And they can't use a Nanny, because they aren't Ofsted registered, so they couldn't claim the help with costs from WTC that is essential if you are on NMW, and they often can't use an Au Pair because a) They have no spare room in their home, and b) If they had an Au Pair live in their home, they would breach the Tenancy Agreement if their home, and lose their home. (Subletting rules).

£2,000 was a Month's fees for 3 days a week, and that was 6 years ago here. (Commuter town in SE).

I'd get on to Trading Standards, it sounds like an unfair contract term to me. And check whether you have legal cover on your household insurance - if so, you may be able to get advice that way.

I know they are run as a business etc but there has to be flexibility when things are our of our control. People get made redundant, couples split up, they have to move suddenly...

Any reasonable nursery will sit down with you and try to work out the best way ahead - whether its to offer a deduction, more time to pay, shorter/longer hours... You do get people who skip off merrily without any intention of paying fees due (and they really can afford it) and its probably where a nursery has been hit with a few of these (and it does happen quite a bit) that they become inflexible. It also can damage their reputation though - a nursery seen as puting cash before kids is hardle going to have recommendations, is it?

couthy, nurseries would go out of business if it was pay by day.
How could the nursery pay it's staff if they had no income comimg in because everyone hd decided not to send their child in that day?
It simply wouldn't work.
Zero hours contracts should be made illegal.

Actually, there IS one pay by day Nursery in our town. It's just too far away for me to get to on buses as I don't drive.

They are the busiest Nursery in the town, and they have the best Ofsted rating.

Problem is, most of THEIR staff are on zero hours contracts, so that they can be called in at any time to meet the adult:child ratio.

Which would make ME loath to use them, if i was close enough, because their staff are treated no better than me!

I can see the point about the Nursery being a business, but how are low paid people meant to get themselves off benefit if their childcare is screwing them over?!

Theres 2 pay by day where I am

That is total daylight robbery. I've never heard of anything like that amount of money. But I think it will be difficult or nigh on impossible to get a refund if you've signed a contract.