Problem with nursery - advise needed

[Ptica]

My son has been attending the nursery for almost 2 years so far, full time. It costs us an arm and a leg but as we have no family arrangements, we had to choose this option. The fees are very high and my husband is a small business owner, so we often run late with the payments. However, the fees are always paid within current month and we were never late for a month or more. This month I covered the fees 10 days later (so I paid today for August) and the nursery started saying they never received my payment, so they are cancelling my son’s place. I called tha bank which confirmed the payment left my account, so I called the nursery and manager told me they cancelled my son’s place and accounts haven’t confirmed the payment was received. Also, she said it is a business and they have no depts policy . I asked what depts if I just paid as I got paid my salary only yesterday. She said they have to receive the payment by the 10th of the month - which can be challenging for us sometimes as I am getting paid around the 20th... I followed up with the email to her and accounts but they left me with no reply. I am in despair now as I paid for the month and they are not allowing him in and don’t have any childcare at the moment. Is it legal what they did?

[itsaboojum]

Well charging £65 or £80 per day I wouldn’t call it affordable.

Will I get flamed for suggesting it might be less than entirely responsible to have children when you know they’re "unaffordable"?

You want to look at these nurseries' costs and how close they are to going bust on their "unaffordable" fees, made worse by people who regard their charges as an optional inconvenience.

Oh, and please don’t ever grow old or you’ll discover what unaffordable care fees really look like. The figures you quote won’t buy you even a couple of brief care visits for an elderly relative.

[Imknackeredzzz]

For gods sake you can’t just announce you are paying late and the nursery has to accept it. You signed a contract, you breached that contract, contract terminated. Simple

You take the absolute piss

[YeTalkShiteHen]

Rent, business rates, heating, lighting, staff, equipment, food, training, decor, overtime.

All costs that have to be met, and won’t be, if parents think the rules don’t apply to them.

[Ptica]

Well, chariging £65 or £80 per day I wouldn’t call it affordable

[itsaboojum]

It’s this sort of parent who messes things up for every family needing childcare.

Constantly bleating about how it costs "an arm and a leg" when the fact is that fees are so low in relation to costs that many nurseries are on the verge of going bust. Late payments can only make matters worse.

Then there's the old chestnut of seeking out somewhere "more affordable". In reality this means they’ll always go for the cheapest they can get away with, instead of the best they can afford. Doesn’t this say a lot about a mum's priorities?

Constant downward pressure on fees means nurseries have to address their costs instead. That means fewer and less qualified staff, lower quality food, poorer quality toys and resources.

In a nutshell, this sort of attitude inevitably results in fewer childcare places for everyone, coupled with a general dragging down of standards and quality all round.

[Lunde]

I still don't think that OP even "gets it" - she thinks that she can just announce that she will be paying late and changing the terms of her contract and the nursery just need to accept it!

[jannier]

Its a shame parents don't get rated by Ofsted then those who pay on time wouldn't suffer because of late payers.

[Daisy2990]

Is there a reason why you are not paying for the nursery fees from your business account? We have always done this because childcare is an allowable expense. Presumably this would also have solved your cash flow problem seeing as the business was paying and you wouldn't need to wait for your salary.

[ellesbellesxxx]

People like you cost me a lot of time, effort and money.
When people pay me late, or not at all.. I then have to use savings to pay my children’s nursery (as I am not going to risk paying late)

I then spend time sending countless emails, and quite frankly it’s rude.

[Ptica]

They refunded me the days which we didn’t use + deposit. We are looking now for something more affordable so we make sure the payment won’t be missed. My previous nursery was notified that we would make a payment a bit later this month and we also let them know in advance about counting the days down to 3. Now it doesn’t matter as we have to move on.

[RidingMyBike]

Goodness. DD's nursery expects payment for that month by the 1st of the month. So August payment had to have cleared into their account by 1st August - OP does your nursery expect cleared payment by 10th of each month or is that the date you've started the transfer?

I initially tried to pay it from previous month's salary, as I get paid on 25th each month but that turned out not to have time to clear - nursery reiterated that it must clear by 1st month so the money I've just been paid on 27 August will now be used to pay the October bill, as September was already paid from July's salary.

It sounds like you've really messed the nursery around. What does your contract state about termination of the account?

[user1483387154]

Title should be ..... need help organising our finances. Our late payments mean our son has lost his nursery place.


It's completely your fault and they are well within their rights to cancel your son's place

[spaghettiforhair]

It's quite simple you pay for a service on time, they provide the care for your son. Or should they start paying their staff late to suit your payment schedule?

[JeSuisPrest]

I know I was wrong but clearly they cannot ignore me.

Perhaps they are ignoring, you the way you ignored their requests to make sure you paid your bill on time? It's annoying isn't it?

[QueenAravisOfArchenland]

I understand they are running a business but what about child wellbeing?

Bloody hell, this is indeed the most CF thing I've ever seen on here. They're not a child wellbeing charity and your child isn't "in need". They're a business that provides childcare for money. You've consistently failed to pay for their services, so they've now declined to provide them further. Good for them. They don't have to do a damn thing for you or follow any procedure they don't choose to follow. The fact that you don't have other childcare is 100% not their problem.

I can't believe how completely unembarrassed you are. The second time I paid even a day late, I would be crippled with embarrassment and would do whatever I had to do to make sure it didn't happen again.

[ElinorOliphantIsCompletelyFine]

2 years and I've never paid my nursery late. I found out just today that they didn't receive everything for this month, due to a mess up with tax free childcare and our Ch vouchers, so I emailed them straight away. I make sure the nursery is paid as soon as I get paid because they provide an extremely valuable service and my son loves the nursery. If we were consistently late, I would not blame them for terminating the contract.

And they don't owe you a grand, they possibly owe you about 200!

[YeTalkShiteHen]

You can’t just pay late and expect there not to be consequences. Small businesses can be broken by late payments, if every parent paid late they wouldn’t be able to pay their staff or bills!

Find somewhere else and ffs get your finances together and pay on time!

[itsaboojum]

Sorry, typo.....

The end of my fourth paragraph should read, "....entitled to suspend care and/or terminate the contract...." etc.

[itsaboojum]

The OP keeps suggesting that’s a business just can’t do this. But they absolutely can. There are also some posts that imply the nursery must follow some process that should be detailed in a written contract. That isn’t strictly true.

Termination of a contract (or, indeed, breach of contract for that matter) does not always depend on written contract terms. Think about it: it would be impossible to write into a contract every single circumstance that might trigger termination.

Contract law requires all parties to act reasonably at all times. So, for instance, the law takes it for granted that a service provider will exercise due care and deliver a reasonable standard of service. Similarly, the law takes it for granted that the customer/client will fulfil certain obligations, such as acceptable behaviour and paying when they are required to pay.

The OP has breached this legal code of reasonable behaviour, by her own admission on multiple occasions. The nursery is therefore entitled to care and/or terminate the contract without the usual notice period.

It’s also reasonable for the nursery to retain the monthly fee or deposit. The nature of the service is that involves advance booking so, when a client breaches the agreement, the nursery is likely to lose potential income through no fault of their own: they cannot simply fill the vacancy immediately. The nursery would be legally obliged to make an effort to mitigate the loss by trying to fill the vacancy ASAP. If they managed to do this within the month, then the op could be entitled to a partial refund of the fees paid.

[CatLadyToddlerMother]

My DDs Nursery expect payment by 5th of every month. The first time you pay late they send a reminder on 7th asking where money is, after that they reserve the right to terminate contract. The contract states that other payment dates can be arranged but these must be confirmed by the finance manager before the care is started and any problems with payments need to be discussed with FM, if your nursery has that clause they may be able to terminate without notice.

Seems they've given you chance after chance and you consistently pay late. I know my DDs Nursery wouldn't accept this, and they're a chain as well.

[HSMMaCM]

If thy add up all your late fees, you probably owe them more than a week of money (which is your payment for the rest of August).

You absolutely should have not been paying late and they have decided to enforce the terms of your co tract. You're lucky they haven't added late fees.

[Anotherdayanotherdollar]

Are you sure the fees were only late twice? Because you say you "often" run late. I wouldn't consider twice in 2 years often. Although I also wouldn't consider it acceptable

[QforCucumber]

The fees are very high and my husband is a small business owner, so we often run late with the payments. I am confused as to why the fees being high and your husband owning a business mean that your fees are often (note, not sometimes) late?

[HollywoodMontrose]

Would your husband do further work for someone who hasn't paid the last bill?

I hope you get somewhere soon and hope that they refund the last week fees as your son has not attended the sessions.

[PotteryLady]

They probably won't pay you anything back they will keep it as it will be late fees you have incurred. Sorry but look for a new nursery and hope they don't get a reference from your old nursery.