School Exit Fees - Are these legal?

[pigsinbutter]

I signed my son up to an online private sixth form school. He had dropped out of sixth form. He has recently been diagnosed with AuDHD, with pathological demand avoidance. This seemed like a good solution, since it's online and he can access it when he wants, but it turned out the platform was difficult to access, and he did not study that well. Last August, we got his AS level results and he failed the exam. So we decided to pull him out and immediately gave the school notice that he would not be returning in September.

The school are now saying that we need to pay a full term's fees as 'exit fees'. they have retained our £500 deposit already, but want a further £1300. There have been no services given as my son has not accessed any of the school's resources / platforms since June this year.

Are these types of exit fees legal? from what i have read, they are not. I also think that their retaining the £500 is not legal either.

They are now also threatening us with a debt recovery service. I know that these don't really have any power to enforce anything since they are not mandated by a court order, but this seems like intimidation and harassment to me.

Any advice on whether this is legal or not?

thanks

What does the contract say?
When you say that the platform was difficult to access, does that mean offline or too complicated for your son to navigate or something else? If in that respect the service provided wasn’t at the promised level, the position seems different.

If everything is available for him to access but he is not using them then that is neither here nor there.

It’s common for private schools to state you must give one terms notice, so I imagine the same applies to paid for online schools. It should be in your contract. Is one term usually £1,800?

Why wouldn’t they be legal? Did your T&Cs when you signed him up to the online school not include details of the exit fee? Otherwise, it’s completely normal for any form of private schooling to require a term’s fees to cancel.

Depends what you signed for. Read the contract.
Most independent schools have a 1 term exit notice period Inc fees to pay.

I think I would take my chances, refuse to pay because of the awful service you received and say you are prepared to go to the small claims court. 90% certain that they won’t take further action. Be prepared for threatening letters and phone calls though.

Requirement to give a full term’s notice of withdrawal of a child is standard in the private education sector and yes it is enforceable. The fact that he failed his exam has no bearing on this whatsoever. Schools don’t give guarantees of good results.

One terms no ice is pretty standard and you haven't given that. Check your contract.

If there's something they've failed to provide that they said they would that's different, but it sounds like your son just didn't engage with it.

Most independent schools will 100% take action to recover fees if it was stated in contract.

And using a debt collection agency to collect a valid debt is not intimidation or harassment. If they want to pursue it beyond that, it would be easy and cheap for them to commence proceedings, particularly given the arrival of Garfield AI on the debt collection legal services market.

Read your contract

You would need to read the terms of your contract.
although you say it was difficult to access, they have still provided the service, so I don’t see why it wouldn’t be legal

Poor advice. Schools do pursue these claims and failure to pass an exam does not evidence “poor service” in the context of education. If she gets sued, she’ll have to pay the school’s legal costs and interest on the debt and the costs, as well as the original debt.

A more sensible solution would be to write to the school proposing payment by instalments, which they are likely to accept in order to avoid the hassle of litigation.

If the contract requires one term's notice, this fee is perfectly legal and they are entitled to retain your deposit towards meeting it. They are also entitled to use a debt recovery service if you refuse to pay.

It will be in the contract you originally signed.

This absolutely incorrect. Having just consulted with a lawyer charging exit fees is not legal under the consumer rights act.

Thanks - and I agree. It would be throwing good money after bad for them, and I doubt that they would pursue it once they consider the legal fees involved

Giving one term’s notice is absolutely standard in private education.

I have now consulted with a solicitor, and got the real low-down. For all of you who have said that exit fees are 'normal'- they may be standard but charging a fee for a service which is not provided is absolutely not legal. Secondly, there are clear grounds to argue for discrimination for the poor service provided which did not meet my son's educational needs. The lawyer will be providing a strongly worded letter and hopefully that will be the end of it.

Secondly - you cannot just roll-over the Ts and Cs of a previous contract as you see fit. If there was no follow-on contract, then there is simply no contract that they can use to enforce anything.

Let us know how you get on with that OP. 🙂

Lol, your lawyer sounds brilliant, OP.

All those hundreds of previous cases must just have been totally wrong.

Thanks for the low down.

But the service was provided - you chose not to avail yourself of it.

But good luck - it’s well known that private schools take advantage of the fact that their parents are financially poor non-professionals. Oh, wait…

If the lawyer said specifically that any exit fee is not legal, I respectfully disagree. Exit fees are not prohibited by the Consumer Rights Act. Exit fees are allowed provided they are fair and transparent. And courts have generally upheld such clauses in school contracts, finding that they are reasonable for the school's financial planning. It may be that your lawyer thinks they can convince the court that the clause in your contract is not fair or transparent, but it won't be ruled out simply because it is an exit fee.

Anyone else do a sharp intake of breath at OP being so dismissive of prh47bridge?!

😬😬😬😬😬