Where do I stand - advice please

[Bettyboots]

hi

I wonder if someone could give me a bit of advice. My nursery hasn't given me any invoices and also hadn't been taking any money out of my account even tho a dd had been set up and in place for sometime but I didn't realise. They've just hit me with a colossal bill and demanded that I pay a chunk of it within a timescale i cant meet even tho I've offered to make additional payments that I can manage as I know I owe them money but will not take full responsibility as they've let the amount continue to grow without saying anything They've now suspended my child until the matter is resolved does anyone know where I stand?? Thanx

Well, did you not realise that you hadn't been making payments? Surely you knew roughly how much your monthly bill should have been, and the first month you didn't receive an invoice or notice money being taken, you should have raised it with them. You have benefited from the childcare so you have to pay them for it! How many months has is been going on?

I'm afraid you're going to have to cough up!! Although you haven't had any invoices, you know that your child has had the childcare and maybe should've queried when payment was due.Most parents budget for childcare every month/week so if you had done that then you would still have the money there.

See if they will accept a pay schedule, but sadly you should have realised that the money was not going out of your account. I roughly know how much DS's fees are and take that into account when I am budgeting monthly.

It is your responsibility to ensure you have the money to pay them. What have you done with the money? Why didn't you ask them where the invoices were?

Hi

I've not been getting inoices since last Oct when my youngest child started the nursery. I had been asking regularly as before this point i got them monthly and the fees for my older child had been take by dd. The amount varied greatly due to payments also being made childcare vouchers and my 3 yr old getting a free place. At October i was in credit so some months i hadn't been paying anything at all. i hadn't noiticed as the dd came from an account that is just used for dd's i check the balance regularly and use any spare cash to pay other bills etc, but i never check what has actually been paid as i'd assumed that once a dd is set up the money is automatically taken out and as no one had every raised anything will me i assumed everything was being paid as it should. This June i had another issue with the nursery and while i was emailing them about that i asked again for the invoices. At this point they provided two random ones i asked them to provided a breakdown and have since being asking ever since sometime in person some time by email. I never got any response to the emails but in person i was always told id get it in the next few days, next week etc until i finally got all the info a few weeks ago. Since then iv been trying to come up with a payment plan as i do know i owe the money and have no problem with that what i do have a problem with tho is the fact that they never bothered replying to my payment suggestions until i offered a one off lump sum payment of a reduced amount as i believe other parents in the same situtation at the nursery had been ofered this. it was only at this point that i heard back and that the lump sum was demanded along with the monthly amount. Unfortunately i can't do both and have explained that. First of all i was threatened that the bank would want immediate payment in full, then as i said i didn't have the lump sum amount as i was gona have to borrow it i was threatened with exclusion of my child then when i said i still didn't have the money he was excluded. I replied to this last email with a responsing saying that i'd tried to come to an agreement adn now that i'd have to find an alternative childcare i still wouldn't be able to pay anymore. I'd not heard anything else until i got a call earlier this evening from the owner apologising that it had gone so far.

Sorry that was a bit of a saga. Thanks in advance to taking the time to read and for your comments.

I expect the next step will be the nursery trying to recover their money by taking you to court. Expect a visit from the debt collecters or the bailiffs.
Sorry, don't have much sympathy. It's your debt and your responsibility to check that your bills are being paid.
Also, you might not be able to find alternative childcare, as the nursery may talk to other childcare providers in the area and warn them of your debt.