Mum told me on the day of tutoring that there is no more tutoring

[Thatyachtmusicsong]

Can anyone help please?

I do private tutoring and have tutored one student twice per week for three years.
She has had some health issues and we changed from tutoring at her home to online 6 or so months ago.
We tutored over summer until the last few weeks of August when she said she was taking a breaj for summer and would tutor again as always in September.
Today I messaged in the morning checking that all was okay for tutoring in the evening and the mum told me that they decided to take her out of school and have signed up to an online school.
The mum said she doesn't know about the future and how things will go and she would take a pause for our tutoring as it may be too much for her.
I feel sad for her and understand the situation, but this has come as a real shock to me as we rely on those lessons financially. I had done tje planning for September and feel shocked they only let me know on the day of tutoring, which leaves me no time to find something else.

Stupidly, I don't have a contract.

What would you do about this situation?

Would it be fair to ask for a months payment since I had no notice etc?

Feel like I've really been left in the lurch

You cannot enforce anything without a contract. A very hard lesson learnt for next time.

You don’t have a contract so it is de facto a casual arrangement. I’m afraid you can’t realistically ask for anything. I would probably say you are disappointed by the late notice and you had already prepared some work, then hope they feel guilty enough to compensate you even though they have no obligation to

Without a contract you can’t ask for any fees. This is a hard lesson. In the future, have your clients sign something agreeing to a reasonable notice period as well as policies about cancelling sessions.

It's shit and wrong but it's not contractual. I assume they are overwhelmed and having an awful time too.

Ah balls. Nothing you can do but poor show on their part.

I'm sorry this has happened to you. Unfortunately tutoring is unstable money even if you had a contract. It was very thoughtless of them but I really don't think you can even ask for payment for services you haven't delivered without a contract.

if you were relying on that income then I'm sure you realise how foolish it was to not have contracts in place. Sadly not much you can do.

Fellow tutor here. There’s very little that you can do. You have no contract so both sides can walk away at any point.

The only thing you can do is let them know that a retainer will be required to hold the slot “on pause” for a few weeks. No retainer means that you can’t guarantee the slot will be available if and when they wish to resume.

Then fill the slots with other tutees.

Would you not ask out of goodwill? explaining the situation etc, if they say no, they say no

She's said she really can't say what will happen at the moment and to go ahead and book others if I need to

Unfortunately you can’t do anything you’re going to have to take the loss but please ensure going forward that you have contracts in place, payments to be made a month in advance etc
sorry this has happened to you hopefully you will find another student to take that place

Did you have a contract? If not, there is nothing you can do.

If yes, look over it and remind the mother that payment is due for either a termination without notice, or whatever other terms there are wrt cancelation of services.

You could also ask if she's aware of any other potential.clients, or if she would be willing to provide a reference for you for future clients. I'd dig a bit about what she meant by 'too much' though.

Don't push the payment bit if she's willing to give you a good reference.

This means she doesn’t want any more tutoring but sounds as though she’s letting you down gently.

Just learn from it and move on.

No, it's too late.

I don't know why you wouldn't ask.

"I'm very sorry to hear you're in this situation and I wish her all the best with this new school. However you have given me no chance to find a replacement. I rely on that income. I had already done the preparation work. I know we don't have a contract in place but I would appreciate if you would pay me a month's notice."

Do you think so? She said this after I did push about needing to organise & cover her spaces with other students if she wasn't going to have tutoring

As far as the parent is concerned, your arrangement is over, so I wouldn’t even expect a reply to your request.

She only told me today...two hours before the lesson. I had two hours notice

Yes, ask her.

I cancelled a service a few years ago that didn't have a contract (and I assumed I could cancel at any time). The owner of the company politely informed me that I had left them in the lurch a little. I was due to send them £1K for that month. I felt they should have made clear that notice was required, had they I would have told them sooner, but nonetheless, I compromised and sent £500.

They said thank you. No bridges burned.

Do you think this is ok?

I suppose I've got nothing to lose

It's annoying though as she said it all nicely, but no actual apology.
They are very wealthy, maybe they don't realise this can have a large impact on *Normal people

You need a contact to protect yourself from this happening again. Also, take a retainer in July from people so they are committing to the new term, and if they don't continue you have a financial buffer to tide you over until you find a new student to fill the gap.

Music instrument teachers come across this issue all the time, you will find suitable contracts even though you aren't a musician, on the musician's union website and the ISM website. I don't think you need to be a member to access the documents

That's so harsh though? I've been with them for over three years and worked hard.

You need a contract. It is a bit unreasonable but you have no grounds to argue.

It’s business. If there’s no “termination fee”, I certainly wouldn’t pay out of goodwill.

You need to use this as a lesson learnt. You need contracts and T&Cs.