Being chased for tutoring money

[ConnectFortyFour]

I signed up my DC for some tutoring late last year with a local tutoring company. it was mid term. I had a telephone conversation where the woman running the company explained we could block book for short period and see how it went. we did and paid for a few weeks. I signed an enrolment form which I understood to be agreeing to their policy of allowing students to walk home alone.

Tutoring went well and I emailed back asking to book 'a block of lessons' in September. We then got an invoice and paid up front until half term. I signed the same enrolment form a second time with emergency contact details and agreeing that DC could walk home alone. A couple of weeks ago we received a bill for next half term for over £400. This is too much for us and we decided to stop for now and I emailed a week ago explaining this.

The tutoring company now email me saying i've signed a contract for the full academic term and we've missed the notice period (by a week) and we are liable for the fees.

This is our first time having a tutor and I may have been naive, but I am genuinely blown away by this. Firstly, because the woman we initially spoke to encouraged us to believe we could book on an ad hoc basis, and secondly there was never any mention of a contract - only an enrolment form which I believed was just for our emergency details and because DC was in their care. I subsequently discover I was emailed terms and conditions at the beginning of term, but these are are a separate document which I did not open, let alone sign.

They are saying that we can carry on with the tutoring if we pay but I've really lost trust in them now, particularly as the woman who encouraged us to sign up in the first place and is now asking us for the money is one of the tutors.

I'm worried about them pursuing us for the money and I feel genuinely misled.

Can anyone advise what our position is legally?

Hmmm. I was actually on the tutoring company's side until I saw you had been misled into believing you were signing for the T&Cs in the enrollment form, rather than a separate document. I think they have misled you. Refuse to pay and offer for them to take you to court. Explain why you feel you have been misled.

@TeaPleaseNoLemon - have you read the OPs updates where she posted what she had actually signed and how it was in a completely separate email to the T&Cs? We

But she thought the document she’d read and signed were the terms and conditions and I can see why. They needed to be clearer it was a separate thing. Not have some conditions in one document and some in another.

@TeaPleaseNoLemon - ordinarily I’d agree with you but in this case I do not think it is at all clear which T&C they are referring to.

The last line the form the OP said she signed says:

I have read and accept the terms and conditions.
Parent’s name ..............................................................................................................................................
Parent’s signature .......................................................................................................................................

It's really not their fault that didn't bother to read them. They sent them to her.

Yes, and she read the terms and conditions in the first email. How is she to know it referred to different/further terms and conditions?

Tbf If the tutoring is termly then there was always going to be a notice period to stop so the time to check this, if you were unsure, was as soon as the next invoice arrived and not just to let them know you no longer wanted to use them last week.

But the terms and conditions as per the OP's quote sound like the ones described immediately above - not an entirely separate unlinked set.

I was in the "hmm nope this is your fault" camp til I read how they had worded it.

There were terms and conditions within that email though - that the students were unsupervised and would be allowed out were terms and conditions they were asking you to accept. ‘Terms’ and ‘conditions’ have ordinary meanings, they do not have to refer to a document labelled as such - especially if that document is not provided at the same time and place (ie in a seperate email). You cannot add terms to a contract after it is formed and if this email was read and responded to in isolation then the next email would be an attempt to add terms.

Did they arrive at the same time? I.e both received within minutes of each other... with the T&C arriving first?

When were you sent the terms and conditions? Before or after you signed the form? Were there separate terms and conditions for the trial period or were you never sent terms and conditions for this? If the terms and conditions were sent after you signed the enrolment form then they do not form part of the contract

I’m pretty sure that the terms and conditions that you’re agreeing to have to be made CLEAR and if they aren’t on the signature form then that form needs to indicate where they can be found. I’m sure this is the law which was tightened a few years ago due to incidents like this.

any reasonable person would assume that the terms on that form are the terms that your accepting with your signature. There’s no indication of any other terms. Even worse is that they were sent in a separate email that could be easily missed, with no reference that those are the ones your signing to agree.

I won’t pay op. You haven’t signed for any other terms. Let them take you to court.

Why are they being daft? A company cannot impose terms that they have not clearly stated. Only terms that have been clearly communicated prior to the contract being signed can actually form part of the contract.

I agree the form you signed was not at all clear about the terms and conditions and should have clearly said that you accepted the terms and conditions in the document previously emailed to you.As you were one week late in cancelling I would offer to pay for one weeks worth of tutoring.

Then someone needs to have me looked at because I came to the same conclusion as Quebec when I read OPs updates. Not so sure why you are so certain or being so rude frankly.

Did you sign the form before or after they emailed the ts and Cs?

I just wrote out a reply about checking whether 14 day cooling off period might apply, as it could be said to be an online contract. The reply disappeared, but apologies if this posts twice.

If you are in a new billing period then your email might have been within the 14 days. Someone should have pointed you to the other letter and explained what was in it. I'd check your rights with CAB. And I'm not a lawyer, so this is just a random thought.
Good luck with this, and the learning; very off-putting when you're trying your best to support learning and get tripped up by sharp practice. Educators obviously deserve to be paid, but should be transparent and shouldn't be tricking people into paying for learning like this. It makes you wonder about the quality of their tutoring.

I recall being at a seminar where they briefly covered contracts, and they said 'if you sign a contract without changing anything in it, then you have done exactly what they wanted you to do'
Having said that it's easier said than done!

Nah. Not buying this. It has to be clear otherwise what stops an organisation sending other T&Cs with additional terms you never agreed to.

Yes my work will not change a contract unless you are bringing millions to the table and then they will charge you a lot more to change it and the changes will be limited. It’s just not worth the legal risk.

Thanks for all the replies. really appreciate it.

I signed the enrolment form after receiving the T&C. However, as PP have pointed out, its not clear they are linked.