Nursery won't refund my deposit "LEYF Nurseries"

[Mumonamission93]

I went to visit a nursery called the Soho family centre run by a company called LEYF. I had a show around and decided to place my daughter in to this nursery, I was given 14days to pay a deposit and a one fee in advance from the 26th of November. I was causous about doing so and live in west London and was worried how my daughter my will cope with the daily commute starting at 7am. I paid for the deposit to secure her place on the 7th december although I wasn't to sure about my decision. I did make the nursery manager aware of my concerns. The following monday which was the 13th of December I went to visit schools for the reception in take 2019. During the visit I was make aware that, a particular local school offered 30 hour spaces available. This school is a 10 min walk from our home so naturally I weighed up the options and found that the school nursery closer to home would be better for my daughter's wellbeing. So the same day i phone the head office and the nursery manager informing them that i would like ro widthdraw my daughters application from the Soho family centre, This was also followed up with an email confirming the details that we had discussed over the phone. My daughters due date to start the soho family centre was the 7th of January which ment from the date I paid for the deposit, to the date of her start date, she had 31days to start. I cancelled my space within 6 days of paying my deposit. And now the nursery are point blank refusing to refund my deposit of £570 and they are also still hold a advance fee of £776.39
there reason behind them doing is that I didn't follow the contractal agreement which states

"A minimum of six weeks’ notice must be given in writing to the Nursery Manager to end the nursery place. Full fees will be charged for a minimum of six weeks from the date of notice even if the child stops attending"

My argument is that my daughter never did attend the nursery So I could never could have notified them at the end of her nursery space.

And also that I never did have 6 weeks but I I only ever had 31days from the date I paid and signed the agreement. My interpretation of this contract is clearly written about children whom have already started the nursery, my view is that there are no provisions regarding children who have had to termainte their contract before their start date.

Where do I stand I have been informed that I am entitled to dispute based the consumers right act, giving me a 14 day cooling off period and a breach of contract based on my interpretation of the contract.

They also offered me a diabolical sum of 4weeks penalty which calculates to 668.80 because this is how long I originally held her space for.

My come back is that I don't mind paying for 4 working days which I actually held her space before cancelling. Which totals to £167.20

Every nursery i have ever looked at, the deposit is non refundable, but that is a huge deposit you had to pay, I only had to pay £50.

I only had to pay the 1st months fees a few days before she started as well

Don’t expect to solve this via message board. You need a proper solicitor because the answer depends on a detailed reading of the entire contract by someone who is trained in contract law.

All we can offer here is a few general observations. IMHO you do not appear to have a strong case for much of a refund. The contract you signed represented a commitment on your part to go through with the childcare arrangement, not just a commitment by the nursery to hold the place for your child. Changing your mind and withdrawing your commitment does not cancel your responsibilities under that contract.

Contracts do not automatically have 'cooling off' periods, except in particular industries (eg. insurance and some financial products). It’s worth seeing if they’ve written a cooling off period into the contract, but it’s not a given.

The fact that your child hasn’t started at the nursery is unlikely to change anything.

The moment you signed the contract, you essentially 'locked up' a childcare place. That place has a cash value, not to mention the costs incurred in 'recruiting' your child, paperwork, admin, appointments, etc. The nursery could no longer 'sell' that place to another family. So the situation created a business cost for the nursery, as well as possibly a lost opportunity for another family. It’s quite possible the nursery had to turn away one or more other families in the time between you signing up and cancelling.

The whole purpose of the deposit and fees is to prevent parents doing exactly what you’ve done, and the ensure they don’t lose money whilst trying to fill the place they’d thought you would be using.

IMHO your best hope is that you might be entitled to a partial refund if you can get a solicitor to prove the nursery can reasonably be expected to mitigate their loss by finding another child to fill the vacanct place.

Whilst I understand what you're saying, from a nursery perspective it's very standard and regardless of how many days the deposit was down for, it's there for that reason - to safeguard them from loosing custom. What if they saved you a space and the next day someone else requested it and they turned them down as you'd had the last space to reserve. 4 days later you cancel, they refund your deposit and the nursery tries to contact the second family whose now found alternative childcare and the only looser is the nursery.

Deposits are deposits for a reason, although IMO (as a nursery manager) they are being rather OTT in keeping the advance fees when no care has been provided, and for want of being a nice person in this life I'd be refunding that part at least.

Sadly, if contract returned/signed then not much you can do I'm afraid

All nurseries deposits are non refundable