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