COVID-19 nursery closure and refund

[justthisreally]

I have 3DCs in a private nursery. A staff told me today that they are getting themselves ready for the closure in the event of government directive. I asked if parents will be asked to pay for the period of closure. She said that all depends on what their head office decides when the time comes.

I'm self employed. And if I need to look after my DCs, I worry that I will have no income but have this huge nursery cost?

AIBU to expect my private nursery to not charge (including refund for the fees paid in advance) in case of closure?

Does that not mean the staff will not be paid though?

If you are SE and will have no income then you can't pay what you don't have. But if everyone doesn't pay and demands refunds then I'd suggest planning how you will cope because there may be no nursery to reopen later. If it's part of a big chain (you mention head office) then they may be in a better position but they might also be more likely to take action to enforce contracts. Have you read yours?

Our nursery have said they will stay open until forced to close by government. In that case then full fees would still be payable.

Difficult question. I use a private nursery and I expect I will have to keep paying. It would be bad for me though if the nursery went under and I had to find another one.

I think in all cases no refunds will be given.
They simply don’t have insurance

Can you imagine that the people who set up conferences, matches etc have insurance for this.
No one does. How much do you think it costs to set up a any kind of huge experience. Millions. No insurance.

Do you think the nursery should foot the costs? Do you think you should ?

Our nursery have explained that they will have to keep charging as they are a business that will go bust if they do not. Their insurance does not cover/ won't pay out for this.

I'm hoping they will make exceptions for those that can't afford it. I'm happy to keep paying to help them stay afloat and help others that can not pay.

Speak to them and see what you can do around payments you can't make. That's the best option.

Hi OP
I have a very similar thread running over in the Coronavirus board :-)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3846483-To-get-a-drs-note-for-stress-due-to-covid-19-and-childcare-issues

And FYI this is what a major recession looks like.
More major than the last. Because there is NO contingency

It costs say, the Chelsea flowers show millions to set up. So people rely on those millions. They plan years in advance.
You cancel that, it’s not just “oh then Chelsea flower show closed”

It’s years of getting back on track. It’s taken most business ten years to get over the last major recession- this will be worse

YSBU if you are asking this without reading your contract and checking if this situation is covered.

I would expect to still pay them depending on their contract with their employees and I would expect any savings to be passed on to patents

The nurseries bills should be less than normal e.g. No heating, no food, no supplies so even if they are still paying staff then bills to parents should at least be reduced.

Well that's the disadvantage of self employment I suppose. There are a lot of perks, but the massive downside is not getting paid if you are not working. Tbh I expect lots of 0 hour contacts are in the same position.

As long as the government keep paying the funded hours to the nurseries, that would help them out.

Do people not understand contracts? Unless they gave insurance you have to pay. What’s hard to grasp about that.

I work in conference industry. It costs millions. Someone has to pay. Business will go under, without a doubt.

Our contracts with preschool are clear. Anything their insurance doesn't cover eg flu outbreak means fees still payable. Fine with me! I agreed to those terms when selecting our childcare setting.

@Nicketynac
But they have contracts. Do you think them not being in the building means they don’t have to pay.
How much do you think electric really costs. Might save £2 each per person per month

I mean do you have any grasp of the reality of what business has to pay out to survive.

Even your local shop!!

We've had a similar email from our nursery, helping saying as a community we all need to pull together in times like this. But - they're not pulling together. If their clients have no childcare, and have to take unpaid leave, whilst still paying nursery fees in full, they are getting hit twice whilst the nursery gets full pay for providing no service. Obviously their overheads will continue, but certain costs will be reduced and pretty much every other business will take a walloping from the effects of COVID19 and will need to think how to survive. Frankly if nurseries are shut down, they'll quickly find a number of parents simply won't have the money to pay up anyway. All nurseries will be in the same boat, and the government will have to take action at some stage to get the economy back on track, so I cannot see that at the tail end of this pandemic, we will emerge to find no childcare providers left in the country.

We've decided to request parents pay 50% if we are forced to close as a retainer to ensure their space is there and asked anyone who will experience hardship to contact us. It's not enough to cover the bills but we're negotiating some things, we'll use reserves, borrow, we might have to put more easily replaced staff on layoff too. It's very difficult and we didn't feel comfortable saying 100% but we won't survive with zero.

We're raising it with politicians btw, not just sitting on our arses passing all the buck to our parents.

If the nursery is not open providing the service you have paid for that would be a breach of contract so you would be entitled to damages. The contract will contain clauses to deal with these situations force majeure etc which will deal with what obligations remain.

It will make a difference how long it is and whether employers are paying their staff to be off. My DH is on enforced work from home now and I'm assuming I would be paid as I work in a school, so I could afford to keep paying fees especially if the government keep paying the funded hours.

Anyone who considers claiming damages from small businesses forced to close due to this (and I wouldn't assume all contracts cover it fully tbh) deserves to spend the rest of their lives shitting hedgehogs.

@aroundtheworldyet I don’t have kids in paid childcare anymore, but had to pay a few years ago when nursery was shut due to snow.
This is different because it is going to be longer term. Would a nursery leave lights and heating on when the building is empty? So the bill will go down. Will they buy nappies and wipes? The bill will go down. And so on and so forth for other expenses.
I don’t expect that this will reduces fees to zero (never run a nursery but I assume that rent/ tax/ staff are much larger components of costs), but I think that savings should be passed on, that was my point.
SIL used to work in a private nursery and she doesn’t think that her ex-colleagues will get paid during a closure. In that case I would hope that parents are being charged very little.

@nicketynac

The point is, you don’t just pop to Tesco to buy nappies or Waitrose to organise food. All this stuff is booked in advance, bought in bulk under yet another contract.

So the knock on affect of savings is way down the road. And. By then they’ve gone bust.

Anyway: people:
Read your contracts. Because clearly no one has on this thread. Aside from the few

Do you have business insurance? If you do do you have loss of income on in your insurance policy? If you have both of these check if you are covered if you can’t work due to coronavirus.