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

There is a write up on a recent case at Are private school fees in lieu of notice an unfair penalty? - Gilson Gray. Whilst Scottish law is different in some areas, the Consumer Rights Act applies in full in Scotland apart from some clauses relating to letting agents.

@pigsinbutter if you signed a contract though you are accepting the terms!

You haven’t given any details of the contract or of the ways in which the service wasn’t up to standard, so this discussion is unlikely to be very useful. Your lawyer will have those details so it’s not very fair to compare their answers with the answers here. But nevermind, I’m sure everyone will get over it

I think the solicitor (notwithstanding favourable interpretation by the OP), would be relying on the 'disproportionately high sum in compensation' for contract termination of Sch 2. Whether or not a term's fees are disproportionate would be down to a judge. On the one hand, it's a standard clause. On the other, exit fees/non-refundable deposits etc are supposed to mitigate an actual loss, and if they fill the space then they haven't lost anything.

I hope your lawyer isn’t expensive OP, otherwise you’ll be paying their fees and still have the school’s £1,300 to be paid at the end. More if you’re charged court costs.

Whilst this is true, for consumer contracts such as this the courts can strike out clauses if they consider them to be unfair. However, as per my previous posts, the courts have repeatedly upheld similar clauses in school contracts and have held that one term's fees for a pupil leaving without a term's notice is reasonable. I can only presume the lawyer OP has consulted is unaware of the extensive case law on this subject, or they believe that the wording of the clause in this particular contract lays it open to challenge, or they believe that they can show that the school is itself in breach.

What “clear grounds”? I hope you don’t mean failing his exam 🤦‍♀️
Unless you’ve brought the inadequate teaching to their attention before the exam, it’ll hold zero weight now.

What follow on contract? You’re bound by the terms of the original contract

Op, by consulted a lawyer do you mean you asked chat gpt? Ifs the only explanation for the erroneous info you just posted. The reason chat gpt doesn’t work in this sort of situation is you don’t have the legal knowledge to know how to phrase your question. Law is very nuanced. And someone with no back ground asking chat GPT usually gets a bad answer as they phrased their question erroneously in the first place. Sending them the letter chat gpt suggest will have their lawyers laughing.

The school I worked at was relentless and would chase the last penny

For most private school you have to give a term’s notice - a full term. This is standard in a contract. They can’t just be told we are going to leave and no income - they have to pay staff and overheads like everyone else.

A term's notice is fairly standard.

The audacity of saying this poster is incorrect, an actual qualified solicitor, giving their free time to assist.

Rightfully so. Frankly giving incorrect advice here, and not helpful

And as i suspected, responding here from the perspective of the school, and mostly from accounting. It is not legal. They can forecast their costs and anticipate a certain number of drop outs like anyone else

🤣

Please come back and update us on how this goes OP

Are they??? How would you know that? If their legal advice is not sound thats my right to point out, surely?

At DT’s school a full terms notice or fees for the term were required under our contract with the school. What is the wording in your contract?

Is it really an “exit-fee” as you state? Your solicitor can only give advice on the question you ask.

an exit fee would be charged regardless of notice. If your son has to give proper notice and can attend up until the notice date, that would not be an exit fee.

a stronger case might be a failure to deliver promised services, but you are going to need to show that you reached out for help with accessing the coursework and they still failed to address the issues. If you or your son were passive about the situation, it is hardly the school’s fault if they were not alerted to a problem.

Something tells me the OP won’t be coming back in a few weeks with a positive update

I can guarantee there won’t be a positive update for us to enjoy… schools don’t have to allow for unexpected dropouts as parents have to give a term’s notice.

Because this poster has been here for years giving free advice to MNers and that advice has led to many successful outcomes.

You realise lawyers will write letters about many things as long as they are paid to?

What makes you think it’s an exit fee instead of just the normal process of giving a terms notice? Are you still allowed to access to the service for the last term you are paying for?

Because its common knowledge here. You also posted in Legal, so if you didn't want qualified opinions why post there?

There's nothing wrong with their legal advice. I'm not sure where you got yours from, but by nature exit fees are not illegal.

I expect a lawyer will be more than happy to take your money op to argue this out for you.

I’d take a look at the case law prh47bridge has signposted to though before you press on.

Willing to bet we never get an update on this!