The nursery have closed with immediate effect....for good!

[AlbertCookie]

We had a notification of a new post on the app the nursery use to update parents on Monday night, about 7pm

It was a letter from the landlords of the building saying that their tenant (the nursery company) had withdrawn from the rental agreement with immediate effect so would not be open tomorrow.

This was then removed and later replaced with a letter from the directors, saying that the landlords weren't co-operating with some building requirements following an inspection, meaning that council funding had been lost, so they were basically unable to pay rent and the landlords had taken back control of the building. They would unfortunately be closed with immediate effect.

A message from the manager then, to say that with regards to fees we should re-read the terms and conditions, and to email the company directly.

I'm so angry....I only paid the full fees until the end of February last week and now I face losing it all.

There are 2 points in the t&c that I've picked out, 1) Termination - either party must give 4 weeks written notice to terminate the agreement. And 2) Calculations - if the nursery is forced to close due to circumstances out of its control eg. Weather conditions or other 'acts of god' , fees remain payable.

Can anyone offer any advice, or help with trying to get my money back? Or is it lost.

If they are bankrupt it's usually curtains for getting any money back. However it's worth a try to write to them, they may not be bankrupt yet.

There are several other nurseries and holding companies listed for the directors

That is irrelevant. You can't go after other companies for your money, even if they have the same directors and/or owners.

No I know that really, I'm just so annoyed

@AlbertCookie

I've just re read the letter from the directors and it states: "Despite our best efforts and significant financial and time investment to date, following the acquisition of the nursery we informed the landlords 10 days ago that we would not be able to pay rent from Feb 2022 onwards as we will not receive any funding from the council due to this and our priority was to pay the staff" .

Can I count then count this as definitely NOT an unforeseen circumstance?

This is awful. So sorry you're having to deal with this.

Sounds like they knew before your DS started that they were going to close?!

Exactly, although I may have just found something useful.
When I paid my 2 weeks fees when he started, they sent me a form with 'regiatration fees' as the header. It goes on to say "At the time of booking 2 weeks fees will be taken as a deposit and be returned upon leaving providing the nursery has been given 4 weeks’ notice in writing and the account balance is clear. Total Registration fees to pay £xxx"

They have already told me only registration fees are refundable. So I may have grounds to get this amount back from them at least?

You might, but if the company is insolvent you probably won't. In that situation you are an unsecured creditor, which means they cannot legally refund anything until all the secured and preferential creditors have been paid.

Ok well if they're having to refund everyone's 'regiatration fees' as their email said they must at least some money. I'll see what response I get!

It depends if they decide to liquidate. Then it's up to the liquidators x

This hi is happens with my daughters out of school club. The liquidators did not make any payments back to parents unfortunately. To us has been coming for a while. It does not happen overnight!

I would say they are trying every contractual trick to stop you getting money back. The 4 weeks notice means that anything you are owed by means of registration fees will.be swallowed by noone being prepare to pay any more than they have already - so they will keep the registration fee too. Sorry. Its shit when companies liquidate and avoid paying up.

It’s difficult to answer without actually seeing the contract but TBH sounds like there is a good chance the company is insolvent so I wouldn’t hold your breath re a refund. Do request one though and if a liquidator is appointed put in a claim.

If they have other nurseries you could go down the route of starting at one of the others and asking them to take your fees paid into consideration

We had this - ended up having to scramble for cover for 2 months when the nursery re-established itself (yup new company) and found a new location

When we left that place we basically didn’t pay the last period as we didn’t believe we would ever get our deposit back and they never quibbled

I appreciate my advice is not legal advice so depends if you can talk to the actual people