AIBU to expect a refund from nursery?

[RaeCJ82]

I'm fully prepared to be flamed for this but here goes. My DD's nursery closed when asked to in March and we'd already been told that we wouldn't be expected to pay anything during the closure period. We were told that the nursery email address should be used for any queries we had and to communicate any changes and this would be manned by the owner as all other staff were furloughed.
A couple of weeks later one of the managers, who was also my DD's keyworker, told us she was leaving - not via the email address I may add. Prior to the manager starting at the nursery our DD had quite a few keyworker changes which we were a little bit unhappy about, but DD really liked the current one. We emailed the nursery to ask if they had any plans for when nursery reopened after losing such a key member of staff and it being another change for DD. We never received a reply.
After Boris' announcement that nurseries could start to reopen we waited to see if we would receive any communication but didn't. We again sent an email with no response. About 8 days later we received a generic email to say they wouldn't be reopening in June.
My OH and I had been WFH and looking after our DD, which although actually being lovely, has also been difficult and DD definitely hasn't been receiving the full attention she needs, although we've done our best. We decided under the circumstances to find a new nursery and gave notice to the old nursery. We also asked the owner to refund the fees paid for March after the closure.
We received no confirmation that the notice had been received, nor that fees would be refunded. We've emailed twice since, during which time we received another email to say the nursery was still remaining closed until August at the earliest.
So AIBU to be extremely annoyed at the total lack of communication from the owner of the nursery and to expect a refund of the fees paid for March when nursery was closed?

Given that you havent had any response to Any of your emails, I'd wonder if i was using the correct email address! check

Definitely unfair to ask for the March fees back. YABU.

It's the correct address. We use it every month to confirm fee payment.
We've also heard from another parent who is also very concerned about having no response.
Just to add, we won't be pursuing a refund. We were just incredibly frustrated with the handling of the situation, but we have now moved DD to another provision.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/money/12245839/nurseries-refund-parents-childcare-lockdown/amp/

The business likely didn’t know anything in March. Everyone in the country was caught off guard and the staff who have been furloughed deserve the same support as everyone else through this. You have no idea what communications have been going on behind the scenes with owner and staff. The fact the manager was leaving suggests that they were trying to make their own arrangements. If the business didn’t use furlough all the staff who have been looking after your child will have been unpaid and completely stuffed. That’s assuming they aren’t reopening at some point. Insurance companies haven’t been paying out and this has really messed things up for a lot of nurseries. Some can’t access other support that some businesses have been able to. Then they were told to use funding instead of furlough scheme to pay staff at the very last minute before the scheme opened.
They may be poor at communication but I expect they have struggled through this just as the nursery I work for has with guidelines changing daily. They have not acted fraudulently!

I do know what communications have been happening between staff and the owner, as the remaining manager, who has now also left the nursery for a new job, told us exactly what communication they'd received.
The fact that there was no response to emails throughout this entire period suggests that the writing was on the wall from the moment the nursery closed in March. The nursery has 50 places available with only 22 children on the roll as of the end of last year, so I would imagine they weren't making much money from the provision. Seems to me the owner is using the furlough scheme for as long as possible with the intent of closing the nursery when the scheme ends. The whole handling of the situation has been absolutely appalling.

Alternatively maybe he has advised his staff that the nursery is no longer viable but wanted to give staff the opportunity to find new jobs whilst still getting furlough money. I understand that from a parent perspective it is not acceptable but that could have been his reasoning. My guess is that it will shut down.