PACEY legal team

[fieldfare]

Has anyone experience of using the legal advice from Pacey?
I'm having a dispute with a new parent that doesn't want to pay her invoice and this evening sent a shirty message stating that the contract was terminated with immediate effect.
Unsure how best to proceed as obviously she needs to give notice and pay the outstanding invoice. Pacey legal or go direct to small claims court myself.
Any advice please?

Roughly how much does the parent owe? I seem to think it needs to be over £400ish before PACEY get involved? Also, is it payment for services already received? Not sure how it works if they payment is owed in advance.

It's a long time since I had to do this but when I did I had to prove I had requested money in the correct fashion. Keep copies of letters and send them a copy of their signed contract.
So letter saying that you acknowledge their request to terminate contract and therefore your contract will cease on (insert date) after the legally required (insert how long stated in contract) days required. State how much fees outstanding to date are and period covered. State that notice period will be (insert fees) and that you are available during this period to care for child should they require. You will be grateful to receive outstanding fees by (insert date 14 days from date of letter).

After 14 days send reminder letter requesting immediate payment of fees. State that as a member of Pacey and with a signed contract from parents you are willing and able to pursue outstanding fees further.

This is when I got paid! I found Pacey very helpful.

From now on payment in advance and keep a months deposit as last month payment to avoid this.

Good luck and I hope they pay!

Contact Pacey's legal team straight away; like kathryng90, I found them very helpful and effective when a parent decided that they were going to terminate their contract without notice. By the terms of our contract, they owed four weeks fees in lieu of notice.

They held their nerve and ignored all the letter/s Pacey advised me to send (as described by Kathryn), but paid up immediately when Pacey took over and sent a demand for payment.

Like bigpaws, I had heard the amount of money owed had to be fairly substantial before Pacey would take the case on, but the amount owed by this parent was under £300.

I spoke with their legal team a couple of times but I am a nanny (was having trouble with my boss). I found them helpful to some extent but some advice was vague and they directed me to .gov websites a couple of times to research details myself which I didn't like. HOWEVER it's free legal advice so DEFINATELY speak to them-it might be really useful or save you from doing things the wrong way (you might later regret).

The invoice is for approx £400. One week of actual work (end of Jan) and February in advance.
I've emailed her a copy of the signed contract, and confirmed that I've accepted her notice but that the 4 week notice required ends at the end of Feb. the invoice is payable by close of business on Monday so have reiterated that. Have logged a call with Pacey and am waiting for them to call me back.
It's very frustrating. She seems to have signed the contract and not understood that she's bound by the terms!

PACEY won't be able to tell you anything you can't find out, but they may be able to send a letter on your behalf which is worth it before going to small claims.

Pacey won't just send a letter, if they take your case the legal team will pursue the debt on your behalf if it remains unpaid.

Having received Pacey's letter, the parents who owed me money paid up. They didn't pay me directly; they had to send the payment, including Pacey's costs, to Pacey to avoid further action. Pacey then sent me a cheque for the amount they owed