To expect to not to have to pay for nursery even though decided not to attend?

[flowerdebate]

Visited and verbally said I did want a place at a nursery on Thursday (they did not confirm that I would get a place at the time). Friday via email/phone they said I was welcome to register, filled out registration form (which seems to function as contract) and sent non-refundable registration fee back.
I have since decided that DC will not be attending nursery afterall due to extremely unfortunate timing of finding out huge news literally 12 hours after I arranged all this with nursery. Not delayed attending, but will not be attending at all. No settling in sessions done yet, but I did send that bloody form (wish I'd been too busy to do so!). I don't expect the registration fee back of course, but what about the one month's notice in the contract? There's nothing in there about what happens if you never even did a settling in or attended a first session. I also thought maybe the UK's 14 day cooling off period would apply since things were done via email/phone, but since I did visit in person maybe that doesn't apply? I'm in London where nursery fees are high to say the least, its a big chunk of cash to pay them for only holding a spot for me about 2 hours (as it was confirmed just before beginning of bank holiday and I'd be requesting to withdraw within minutes of opening hours after bank holiday)

(Anyone been in this situation where very shortly after confirming a nursery spot, and before settling in, changed mind)?

Have you actually notified them and they've told you they expect you to pay the notice period/ whatever is in the contract?

Unfortunately some people have more money than sense and can afford to write off registration fees, so nurseries, private schools etc. have to have charges specified. It doesn't mean they'll enforce it though.

It doesn’t sound like you’ve paid anything beyond the registration fee and haven’t had a place confirmed in response to registering with a firm start date? I’d expect you to have had to pay a far larger holding deposit if you definitely had a place. Basically I don’t think you’ll lose anything other than the registration fee.

Have you told them the big news and reason for cancelling?

I haven't actually told them yet no as its been a bank holiday, but from reading previous posts about people that have tried to tell a nursery they no longer want to attend before having any actual sessions, the nursery has come back and told them that they still have to do a notice (whatever that period is), even if they hadn't actually started. This is usually because someone goes to a settling in session and ends up not liking the nursery, but legally it seems the same either way- in my case and in their cases the contract has been signed and place confirmed, but then the client (me) changed their mind.

How much was the registration fee and when is your child meant to start?

If you paid £200 for a place in September, I wouldn't expect to pay a penny more. If you paid £15 and are due to start settling in tomorrow, they will probably expect payment.

In those cases the nursery has usually been holding the place, and so turning away other potential customers. I think it would be unusually harsh of them to enforce this on you since they've been holding the place for literally one day. There is no cost to them apart from perhaps a small amount of admin done.

I hope you're ok after your news, OP - I wasn't sure from your post whether it was bad news.

@Hardbackwriter that's kind of you, don't worry we are ok!
I do think it would be harsh of them from a moral or reasonable perspective, but if they have legal right I kind of think this particular nursery would go for it, sadly. The actual staff in the nursery rooms seem utterly lovely, but the management and their pricing schemes seem a bit 'nickel-and-dimey' and on about every dimension a nursery can have policies in place to get extra money out of someone, they do. I was prepared to look past this as they had space on short notice and seemed like one of of the only ones that had space that was legitimately great childcare, based on the tour.

@Goodoccasionallypoor , registration fee (non refundable and not able to be put towards the actual sessions) was £150. Due to settle in and start next week (half day only) if settling in went well.

The actual staff in the nursery rooms seem utterly lovely, but the management and their pricing schemes seem a bit 'nickel-and-dimey' and on about every dimension a nursery can have policies in place to get extra money out of someone, they do.

They are running a business, of course they have to be ‘nickel-and-dimey’
Many childcare practices run to very tight margins.

At the end of the day you signed up to a place in the nursery, agreed to their ts and cs and paid the registration fee. They are perfectly entitled to operate to their policy and have you pay for your notice period. All you can do is ask nicely that it be waived but ultimately they don’t have to, just the same as if you signed up to a gym but hadn’t stepped foot in it yet.

I think it's a little unreasonable to have come to this conclusion without even speaking to them and just assuming that they're going to keep your money because you've read that it happened to someone else. Maybe they are, but you don't know that for sure until you actually tell them what's going on in your mind!

@Sissynova , if you'd signed up for a gym via website or phone and changed your mind within 14 days, that' wouldn't apply. I suppose here I'm wondering if the fact that the agreement was done via email/phone means that the cooling off period for UK services applies, or if that goes out the window because I had visited the premise the day before (even though no verbal agreement of any sort was made at that point, I viewed their 'service' in action I suppose)

I'd assume they will expect payment if you signed a contract but you should call first thing tomorrow and see what they say.

@theGooHasGone but it will be a much easier conversation for me if they say 'no, you have to pay it' tomorrow and I've spoken to others who have gone through this same situation, in terms of if anyone knows about if cooling off period can be applied here, etc, because I'll be more mentally prepared for how I am then going to respond to their response, if that makes sense?

If they do ask for payment, don’t pay it. They’ve had £150 for pretty much nothing and obviously you have to write that off as you are probably begrudgingly willing to do so. I cannot imagine them taking this further if you just say, that’s your lot mate, thanks bye.

Maybe talk to the nursery before jumping to conclusions

They may not, but you need to talk to them asap. To be honest I'd have sent an email straight away to have it in writing.

I've been where you are in that we booked a place for our DD2 to attend a local nursery (paid £100 holding fee for a place a year in advance as it books up that far ahead). A couple of days later they hiked their prices by over 20%, which literally rendered it unaffordable for us so we had to say we could no longer take up the place. Lots of parents were fuming and pulled their kids out. I tried to argue that we should get the booking fee back as they would have known about the intended fee increase when we viewed and had they been upfront about that we'd never have filled in the booking form or paid the deposit, but they didn't see it that way unfortunately.

@Plumbear2 , as I mentioned to another poster, I'm going to have to respond immediately to their response on-the-fly when I make the call, it would help a great deal to know ahead of time where I stand if there is a legal cooling off period etc in this sort of case, so if they DO say I need to pay for a notice periods worth of sessions, I can already have my head 'round how to respond

@mummabubs Oh dear, 20% fees raise planned by the time you would start and they didn't mention it to you? That's just scammy behavior/calculated!

In my case I don't dream of getting the booking fee back (as they haven't changed anything on their end, its my end thats changed), but I'm just worried about the entire notice period's sessions.

I imagine you're right they'll take your non refundable registration fee probably (although depending on circumstances they may waive that). It really does depend on your huge news i think. If it's bad news I imagine they will have some compassion. Give them a chance. If you aren't happy with their response on the phone just say you'll have a think about their response and ring them back in half an hour or something.

What does your contract actually say?

Most nurseries in London have a waiting list as long as your arm. They will keep your registration fee and just move onto the next person on the list to offer a place to. They almost certainly don't have the time and resources to go chasing after anything else, particularly when they can fill the place in a heartbeat. I think you are building this up to far more than it will be.

I hope your news was not bad, OP. But it does make me cross when people expect a business to be not business-like because it's a child care setting...

@CurlewKate , I do not hold childcare settings to any different standard than any other business. With any business, if a service has not been started and they business has not lost any time or other business from my commitment (in this case there was only 2 hours of working business day where my slot was being held, and I know they had more than just my slot free in the particular room, so they will not have turned anyone away), its a different situation than if the business is out of pocket in anyway. My 150 non-refundable reg fee will surely cover the time they spent processing my form and few minutes chatting on phone.

There seems to be lots of unnecessary worry, I would have emailed them ASAP about my change in circumstances, phone them today to confirm they’ve seen and read your email. It seems you’re only assuming this without even talking to them.

Update- they do want the month of sessions, even though they didn't turn anyone else away in those 2 hours Friday and still have an additional slot on top of mine still not filled in this room. Will try to negotiate or see if it can be credited very far in future if were to need nursery