Can a private school charge for a service that they never made clear was billable?

[HRTea]

My son is at a private school. At the start of the school year we were asked if we were happy for him to talk to a counsellor as he was having a hard time. We had to sign an agreement that laid out the terms of engagement but at no point before, during or after, were we told that this was a chargeable service.

We have a child at another private school who also speaks to a counsellor weekly and that is not charged so our assumption was that this would be covered by our fees.

Nearly 6 months on we have received a very sizeable bill. I contested this and the school have admitted they did not follow their procedures and it was their error. They have offered me a negligible discount but have said that, as they need to pay the third party, they want me to settle the bill. Despite asking repeatedly I still don't know what a single session costs as my bill is a monthly breakdown. I was further advised by the school that it would be detrimental to my son's mental health to stop the service abruptly so for now he is still meeting the counsellor weekly.

I am not at all happy about this demand for payment. We might very well not have agreed to him seeing the counsellor had we known the costs beforehand and we could have made alternative arrangements. As they have our deposit which is broadly similar to the amount they are requesting I fear that refusing to pay will simply mean they withhold the deposit amount. I obviously accept that we might have to pay any fees incurred since this came to light but it is the four months beforehand that I feel is completely unreasonable.

I intend to escalate this but wondered whether anyone would know legally what would happen if I took this all the way to the small claims court or got a solicitor to write a letter?

speak to citizens advice?

I’d speak to a solicitor. Go through all the ts and cs of your contract with the school.

You will have to pay from the date they said there would be a charge. They have to be able to break it down per session for you to see if it’s worth it. Maybe look at doing something outside of school.

I work in private and if it’s not made clear that it’s chargeable they can’t just charge you. My school has balls up a fair few times for this, they soon learnt that it needs to made very clear to parents what is and isn’t chargeable.

Really good to know. Thanks so much

One option is to do nothing, wait and see if the school issue proceedings against you and then use the lack of information about the price as your defence to the claim.

It wouldn’t go straight from current position to school issuing proceedings. OP presumably does want to maintain good relations with the school and so should continue to engage. Also, as she says, they have her deposit.
This will hinge on a couple of things:

1. was there anything at all in the agreement that you signed that could have been interpreted as a fee being payable? alternatively, did anything in the agreement give you the impression that it was free? What about other Ts and Cs in your main agreement with the school, that talk about what is and isn’t included?
2. How reasonable was it for you to assume there was no extra charge? The fact that another school provides this service as included to your other child supports your reasonable assumption here.
3. Can you say with confidence that you would not have agreed to the sessions and you known they were not free?
4. what about if they had been chargeable but cheaper than the actual cost? What would have been your threshold?

My suggestion would be to engage politely and maintain the line that you reasonably assumed there was no charge, and would not have proceeded had you known. Maybe negotiate a smaller percentage than they have offered, in a. “Goodwill basis” as a gesture from you. They've already admitted an error, highly unlikely they would pursue you formally.