Withdrawal fees increased - school changed the contract

[spajunky]

We are deregistering our daughter from independent school and they have said we need to pay 2 terms fees to do so. When she started there the terms were 1 term fee to leave the school but they changed the contract in 2023. They say they emailed us and put it on the school app to notify us but can they do this?!

I would have thought so, have you checked your emails to see if it was received?

Our school has changed contract terms about once a year (usually minor tweaks but one recent alteration specifically articulated ability to charge vat on top of fees). Notification is via email well in advance of changes coming into effect. I think very much something they can do.

Yes, they should give at least a term’s notice of changes, which it seems they did.

If they told you with sufficient notice yes they can. They are doing to help cushion the blow of kids leaving due to VAT.

Depends If you ever got the email/notification and whether they highlighted such a significant (and unusual) change to you. Make them prove it.

It’s good practice to highlight significant changes, but I don’t believe it’s a legal requirement

You’d be amazed at what ordinary people can argue and get the courts to agree. It why so many people can argue against banking contracts despite them often being crystal clear - you can say that contract terms are unfair, that communications were not clear, that the changes should have been pulled out and highlighted and in the absence of the person writing the contract doing that, there was not true agreement.

In this case would be looking to form arguments about non receipt of the contract terms (can they provide you got the message? Opened it?) lack of clarity (depends o t he message itself), etc.

While it’s hard to argue against the contract as signed at the time of entry, there’s a whole host of fun to be had when people change terms on you.

The original contract should have sections on notices and variation.
you need to read those to check if they have given notice in the prescribed manner and if the variation is in scope

This isn’t a banking contract affecting millions of people.

That’s not relevant either way.

Consumer law says that a business may need to do more to draw attention to particularly important/onerous clauses, and it sounds like that may not have happened here.

I’d research the point OP and then think about arguing it. I would also ask the school to provide a copy of the email they sent you, though I’d expect them to be able to do this.

There is a fair bit of consumer law to consider which may help but do check it covers contracts with independent schools, there may be some random exemptions.

Why do you think that would be relevant?

The government says this. I would say they should have expected a response that you understood the revised terms. The price of leaving so to speak. The Government’s advice is attached but there’s more. Obviously they might have flagged up that they can change the contract, but this might be unfair too.
@prh47bridge might know more.

The first thing you need to check is whether the contract you originally agreed allows for them to make changes without getting your agreement. If not, then it's easy to challenge them. If it does include such a right, the second step is to check if the change they made was allowed as per the original contract (e.g. did the contract require them to give notice in a particular way, and if so did they actually do that?). The third thing to consider is whether the clause allowing the change is "fair" (if it's not, a court would not allow them to rely on it). However that assessment is a little difficult for a layman to do. You'd need some legal advice to advise you on that point.

Any term that allows the school to change the contract to parents' disadvantage without notifying them of the change and giving them a chance to withdraw without penalty is unlikely to be valid.

Assuming parents were notified of the change and had the opportunity to remove their children from the school before it came into effect, the school could take the fact the children were still at the school as consenting to the change of terms.

Having said that, one terms notice is pretty standard. The courts may well feel that 2 terms notice is excessive and hence unenforceable.