School has sent letter in lieu of notice!

[vikidoc]

Dear all, would very much appreciate your view on this issue. We accepted a place in Salcombe Prep school, London for our daughter in May 14 but cancelled it in August 14 as a place became available at a local school nearer to our home in August 14. We lost the deposit paid to Salcombe school (£800). Now Salcombe school have sent an invoice for the first term fees (£2400) and if this is not paid are warning that the issue would be forwarded to a debt collection agency! We as parents feel that it is unfair that we have to pay for a service we have not received as our daughter did not attend school even for a single day. I understand the business risk to the school but is this not something that they should insure themselves against like other businesses which have orders cancelled and retain only deposits? We were recently offered insurance by a company to be able to reclaim paid tuition fees if our daughter goes off sick!! Why cant independent schools do the same? I wonder if anyone else had this unpleasant experience before and would welcome any advice.

Agree with the others.

But your deposit should be returnable shouldn't it? so effectively deduted from the terms fee.

Interestingly, the fact that you were offered a place at your local school on Aug 14, means that if this is also a fee paying school, that someone else will also had to cough up a term's fees for the place your DD has now been offered.
It's worth contacting Salcombe and asking if they have managed to fill the place, and if so, try to negociate???

Yes, it's standard practice for private schools, as money is their first priority, and they will invoke a debt agency if you refuse to pay. I think the initial deposit demanded by private schools is a con, because it does not serve anything and you would only get back exactly what you paid. The schools basically steal the interest on the deposit for up to 14 years (4-18).

I only paid £100!!! It's used at the end against things like A Level exams, 6th form Ball etc (won't quite cover it in my case!!!)

they might well have used your fees already in respect of things like hiring teachers, maintaining facilities, buying resources, etc, in preparation for the coming term. If a number of people drop out, the school will have significantly less money, and they in turn are not allowed to terminate contracts, cancel orders, or abandon building works without paying penalties too.

I'm fascinated you were so naive really... I haven't considered a private education for my DD, but I knew that most private schools require a term's notice or a term's fees in lieu of notice for cancellation of contract.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but surely if you were investing so much money into something you'd read the small print and make sure you understood the situation?

OP - I can see this is a nasty shock for you and I sympathise. I'm afraid that the terms notice is absolutely standard in the independent sector. The deposit system is to deter people from holding multiple places and deciding at the last minute which one to accept.

I'm afraid that I don't know of any cases where a parent has won in court against a school in a situation like this without extenuating circumstances or established wrongdoing by the school. It is quite common for state school places to come up at the last minute as parents with independent school places are sometimes slow to release their state place.

I feel it's a little unfair that you're saying the posts on this thread haven't been supportive. I think people are generally sympathetic but ultimately making it clear that it's likely you'll need to pay, unfortunately.

The fact that you accepted a place, may well have meant that in order to educate your child, the school would have had to hire another teacher, or buy extra resources, all if which they would have had to commit to months ahead of September.
That term of fees that you owe is usually referred to in the terms and conditions as 'partly offsetting the costs to the school' of your child not attending. If a teacher has been hired (and yes, those decisions are made on the margin of one extra pupil often) then the cost of them for a full year is far in excess of the term of fees you are being asked to pay. The school may well still be out if pocket, even after you have paid.

You can ask to make a deal and offer a lower amount. I really wouldn't go down the line of the fact you didn't know.....because that really is your fault and not theirs! Buyer Beware. Always read the terms and conditions, which you will have agreed to,when signing up.
They may accept a lower amount,but probably not, because if word gets out about such agreements, schools will find it difficult to enforce their notice periods.

Would be interested to know what the school say when you ask.

I think you have to accept it is your costly mistake and just learn from it.

There's a Channel 5 series called "Can't pay? We'll take it away." In most cases, debtors arranged payment plans with the debt agency, if they really can't pay. Hope this helps, if paying the full £2800 is the issue.

We've moved our daughter from a GDST private school to an outstanding state school. The state school facilities and teachers are much better than the private school, and it's all free. The problem with privates schools is that there's no OFSTD rating, and you can't gauge them by their exam results because they select average to above average pupils. Private schools are far over rated to our experience.

This initial loss may been high now, but sending your child long term to a private school costs many times more, and the chance of you getting your money's worth is not high.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Unfair Contract Terms Act. The UCTA provides that in standard form consumer agreements, any liquidated penalty cannot exceed the likely losses for the non defaulting penalty arising from non performance.

Excerpt from official UCTA guidance:
"Cancellation penalties and charges. A term which says, or is calculated to suggest, that inflated sums could be claimed if the consumer cancels the contract is likely to be challenged as unfair. For example, a penalty for wrongful cancellation that requires payment of the whole contract price, or a large part of it,20 is likely to be unfair if in some cases the supplier could reasonably reduce ('mitigate') his loss. If, for example, he could find another customer, the law would allow him to claim no more than the likely costs of doing so, together with any difference between the original price and the re-sale price."

A few people have referred to cases having been decided on this. I would love to read them if you can provide a bailii or other link.

OP - it only costs £50 to make a small claim online. If you time your claim well (eg, start it on 20 December), you could well get judgment by default. Just sayin'! :)

I'd be surprised if she wins, PF - it's a very standard clause and it's reasonable to say that if notice is given in August the school may be unlikely to fill a place in September. Given the OP reserved the place in may, I'm guessing this school doesn't have a large waiting list to fill the breach.

Yes I agree in this case notice was very late, but the burden would be on the school I think to show that this is not a prohibited penalty.

I'm afraid it's standard.

We gave notice during May half term that dd would not now be attending a private senior school from the following September & we had to pay a terms fees in lieu.

The school stated that as most families would already have made decisions regarding schooling by that point they would be unlikely to fill the place.

The problem with privates schools is that there's no OFSTD rating.

But they are inspected by the ISI.

The fact that the clause is standard does not mean it is fair/compliant with UCTA. Good recent example here www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-advice/10662931/Thomson-case-could-spell-end-of-unfair-holiday-cancellation-charges.html

We had something similar.

The head left, giving no notice, and was replaced immediately by someone who had recently left a headship of a nearby private school, which had a poor local reputation.

As our DC was moving from the nursery to reception, we thought it would be a good time to move. We left at the end of the academic year, but still had to give notice for the first term of the new.

We were pretty cross, considering the head was, apparently, allowed to leave without notice, but we were not.

But you sign the contract, and you stick to your agreement.

(The head of the new school gave us a 50% reduction on the first term's fees, which helped a bit.)

I think a full terms fees in lieu would be compliant but a full years would not.

These cases have been upheld in court multiple times, e.g. www.bristolpost.co.uk/Clifton-mum-s-fury-Bristol-Grammar-School-fines-2-000/story-11251018-detail/story.html

Thanks Exexpat. I'm still not convinced though, and if would quite like to see how the judge came to the conclusion that the 'fine' (of course it is not really a fine) was compliant with UCTA. The article really does not give enough detail.

Private schools are indeed periodically inspected by the ISI, but there's no rating and certainly not graded to OFSTD standards. So it's impossible to know if a private school is better or worse than a state school beforehand.

There's a GDST private school that changed from private to state recently, and OFSTD only rated it as good. So going to a private school is not always better than a state school, which we learnt the hard and expensive way.

Of course, Sunflower, you are not just basing this judgement solely off the back of an Ofsted report!

For all those who might benefit, called and agreed with the school to pay off over 5 months. They were not willing to negotiate in any other way but I am incredibly pleased that I would never have to deal with Salcombe school once I have paid of this whopping sum! Looks like they did not have a long waiting list to fill cancelled places unlike other schools which get filled instantly.

Sounds like sour grapes, OP. Why did you book a place at the school if you think it's so bad compared to other schools nearby?

Personally, I hope our prep school is vigilant about chasing up debts like yours. Because, if not, it will be the current parents like us that have to pay for the flaky ones, and I'd resent that.

Op, if they'd had an incredibly long waiting list, you wouldn't have got a place in May.

Think the school have been very reasonable to you as presumably you were ready with the cash to pay the first term upfront if DD has started there.

I have just looked at a Cognita contract at another school. You had 4 weeks prior to the start of term to cancel the contract with loss of the deposit only. I guess this is the same contract for all their schools. Therefore the cancellation policy as clearly stated on this contract will come into force if you did not give 4 weeks notice. This is a relatively generous contract and I agree with everyone else that you have no option and no room for negotiation. At least the fees are very low!!! If you did this to a boarding school in future, you could be out of pocket by nearer £11,000!!! Always read the contract.