Desperately need advice pls!!!

[mamka]

Hi all,

I really don't know what to do know. I work xxxxx au pair agency, family requested for au pair on Tuesday saying asap. By Friday O. let me know that I should arrange M. come over to UK. I did, send invoice, O. asked if she can pay by Monday,cos I want to be nice, I said yes. M. arrived on Saturday, she came from UK airport to O. house by her self. (In M. portfolio was written basic English and O didn't mind) . 2 hours after M. arrived to O. house, I got call from O. saying she wants M. go by today(Saturday) or tomorrow(Sunday), reason is because she doesn't speak English. I tried to explain to O. that M. just came from another country, she needs to get used to accent,she is tired..blabla. Next thing call from crying M. saying O. locked her in house and left d house with her children. After 2 hours O. came back and giving me call again saying M. must go as O. found childcare somewhere else. I arranged another host family for M. to go there on Sunday. Sunday morning call from O. saying M. asked her to open door for her and now is standing outside looking lost, I said O. that she should go out and speak to M. and help her, which O. refused. cut it short. I met M. around noon, crying, her English was very basic, but I spoke slowly and understood what she was talking about. M. said that she didnt eat nothing since yesterday when she had some food on her way from airport to O. house. M. said that O. didnt provide her with any meal since yesterday 3pm-Sunday morning, also O. total ignored M. I called O. today, but she didnt answer my call. Am so upset, and not sure what can I do now! how can O. let M. come to UK from another country, refuse her after 2 hours, not to offer any meal, not to pay fees to our agency, not to comply with terms and con (min 1 week notice, she must pay fees after invoice was sent, she cant get any candidate from another sources before 14 days since invoice was sent..blablabla..)
Please I need advice!!! can I report O. to HR???must she pay fees to our agency? shall I contact solicitor???
I just feel so sorry for M. she came from another country, didnt get any chance from O. M was with no food for 24 hours, till today I bought her lunch, she wasted money for ticket from her country to UK, and thanks to O. M decided to go back to her home country and spend another £100 for ticket!!

Any advice for me pls!!???

The family have got a contract with your agency. They must pay your Invoice.

I'm not surprised M is going/has gone home. If she was staying I would recommend that she go to the police. O's actions as described could lead to a charge of false imprisonment. However, that won't happen unless M makes a complaint and is willing to give evidence.

The only thing you can do is collect the fees in conformance with your terms and conditions. Provided you made O aware of your Ts & Cs and can produce evidence of that if required, you can pursue O through the small claims court for the amount she owes you. You don't need a solicitor for that. However, O may claim that you failed to meet your side of the contract because you provided an au pair who couldn't speak English. As M would not be available that would be difficult to prove one way or the other.

If the au pair could get from the airport to the correct house without problems her english can' be that bad! I would send O your bill again as you provided what she asked for and she then changed her mind. I don't think for a minute she'll pay it though. I would suggest you don't deal with her again. Do you have any relationships with other au pair agencies? You might want to warn them.....

Thanks for advice, I got M. from my partner agency abroad and lady from this agency know about averything, so could provide evidence if needed and to speak to M.
How to take her to court for the fee that she owes our agency?(£420), If i provide eveidnece in court, would she have to pay any money to M. for wasting her time and money? I never had any family like O. so not sure fow to deal with it.

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You can only sue O for money she owes you. You cannot sue her on M's behalf. In any case, I presume M's contract was with you rather than with O, which means M would have to sue you. You could, as nottirednow suggests, include a claim for any additional expenses you have incurred as a result of O failing to honour the terms of the contract but the court may take the view that this is covered by the £420 O already owes you.

You should write to O setting out the amount she owes and giving her a reasonable time to pay (14 days, say). If she doesn't pay you can get all the information you need about how to make a claim here.

The main problem you will face is that O is likely to claim that you failed to honour your side of the contract and may even try to counter-sue claiming that you have caused her additional expense by forcing her to go to another, more expensive agency.

I will send Invoice to O. again and letter explaining everything.
O. called on Saturday around 5 pm saying that M. must go by Sunday latest. Another call from O. on Saturday after 8pm, saying she already found someone else, so M. must go as O. needs M's befroom for new person!
How did she managed to found new AP/someone else to look after her children on Staurday between 5pm-8pm???

Concerning evening meal : M. asked O. who replied : see later.And didn't offer anything!
My partner agent abroad got few recorded msgs on mobil left on saturday/sunday from M. crying on phone and complaining about not meal being given...etc
Also O. called me on Sunday morning saying M asked her to open door for her and that M is standing outside looking lost, Which I said that O should go out and offer help, but she didnt, O said " I can't M can't speak English"!

I agree with prh47bridge.
And M. English can't be so bad, if she gets from airport to O. house by her self.

Good luck

Did O. knew your agency fees before you sent invoice off?
Maybe O. didn't expect you fee be £420.
As it sound suspicious O. finding another AP on Saturday in 3 hours!?

now after 2 weeks I received email from O. TOTALLY twisting and lying about everything what happened.
Shall I?
A/ ignore O. and loss £420 (fee that O. didn't pay for services that we provided)
B/ take O. to court, but I would have to pay much more than £420 for solicitors

One way I don't wan to ignore O., cos I know am right, having all needed statements and proves and witnesses that O. is lying! And that would mean O. "won" and think that am idiot and believe her falls email.
But I can't afford to pay around £200 per hour to solicitor :o(.

What would you do?

.....I mean if I ignore O. she would think am an Idiot and believe her falls email...

Small claims court for claims under £5k. Get citizens advice to help with the application form. You should be able to do this for a lot less than an hour at a solicitor and if the court rules in your favour you should get your costs.

I would chalk it down to experience and learn from what has happened. I would also in future send out a written Contract that the client has to sign BEFORE anyone is placed with them (a copy of what they agreed to on the internet). In addition, I would make sure that the person I was sending them was DETAILED IN FULL (ie limited English) so that the client could also sign in confirmation that they were happy with the standard of English etc.

Don't bother taking them to court, solicitors fees and the stress is just not worth it for £420.

I would take Pisces advice and learn from what has happened so that you can avoid future problems. But I disagree with Pisces about going to court.

As you feel so strongly I would take it to small claims court. You can find all the details here. You don't need a solicitor for this. If you win you will be able to recover the court fees (which are fairly low) from O.

The staff at your County Court can help you with the process. They aren't allowed to give you legal advice but they can explain how things work.