Nanny in breach of contract

[Lila07]

I got a nanny from an agency, which I have paid around 400 pounds for, just to sign the contract. The contract was given to the nanny, who agreed to become my employeer, be registered in the anny payroll and submit an voluntary ofsted registration whithin two weeks of the job starting. Shortly after taking the role, the nanny informed me that she would prefer to do her taxes at the end of the year, I said ok as long as the Ofsted reg was still going ahead, which she agreed. After two or three weeks, I started asking her about returnng the filled for so I could send to Ofsted, and pay for it myself. She then started making excuses, about having to talk to her dad who was an accountant, but never really got to talk to him. I then preceeded to tell her she had to make up her mind, as it states in the contract that Ofsted reg was a requirement, and she then pointed out that she needed to work as my employee nd that it was too much work, and printed and edited out a series of notes, (while looking after my seven year old) from the HMRC website, where it states that it is a serious offence to not submit your taxes, and that there was a difference between self employed and employee (yes I know, I work for them!), and that she did not know anything about what was in the contract as she worked from 8am to 10 pm, and had not had time (surely she must have researched, before accepting the job!).

After several sarcastic notes, back and foward from her to me, and then between us, she then decided to give me notice, as she felt she ws working too many hours, and felt too tired. In her last week, she managed to get a button from my oven, all the way in, and then called my neighbour, who then forced and chipped the 8 months old oven, trying to open the top (it has screws!). I fixed the button and left her a note, saying that if there was a problem with the oven, she should leave it, and should not be caling anyone to fix it, if they have no knowledge of fixing ovens, and that I wasnt very happy about it. Also I found myself cleaning the kitchen floor at 10 in the night as it was black! Middle of the week, I get home and find her in a huff,leaving the living room as I get in, and asking her how my son was and got a @fine!@ as an answer! Told her again about theo ven and she started to scream, saying she did not touch the oven, and that the neighbour was called because she was afraid the house would go on fire, and that next time she would let the house go on fire! Left in a huff, and slammed the door, ithen asked her for the keys, wich were trowed at me, and then ofcourse I finally lost my temper and told her to leave (not exactly in those words!) as she was still arguing as she was walking away! So my first experience with a nanny has been not very good, and Im dreading getting a second one now, afraid of having the same issues! Anyway, is she not in breach of the contract? The agency despite being paid on time, does not seem very interested in helping me out, and told me I still had to pay her one week notice, despite being left without anyone to cover for her,and I still have to pay someone else for the two days as she is not coming back. I feel compltely stressed out with this experince!

Yes, but only about 25% of the fee I paid, as she worked for more than 6 weeks, and they have three weeks to find someone else, which means having to rely on friends until then, running the risk, of getting a quarter of the money I paid to be left with no one! I was thinking that maybe, I could open an nanny agency, good pay!! 400 pounds to desperate parents and single parents, who are paying for the piece of mind and quality chilcare, and end up with no nanny, no fee and completely left in the dump! Out of order, but that the state of the things as they are. Anyway there is still another two weeks to go, for the agency to find me another nanny, so lets see how they keep their word.

This sounds a very similar situation to ours regarding a nanny agency. We wanted a nanny for full time hours to look after our multiples at toddler age. We ended up going with the 3rd choice after interviews who accepted the contract as our employee. Within the first couple of weeks it was evident that there was some deficiencies with the standard of work. At the point of contacting the agency to discuss dismissal under the probationary period the employee told us about a pregnancy (known about prior to accepting contract and starting). This meant that dismissal was going to be very difficult and likely to be legally challenged due to the timing. The agency would only offer 50% off the fees for finding another nanny for mat cover. We have had disciplinary procedures to go through to try to sort out the issues. We also have to sort out finding a temp nanny and am very dissappointed with the lack of continuity of care for our children. To be honest I thought using an agency would provide some safeguards such as safety checks, validation of candidates, high standards of employees and assistance in employment issues but in my experirnce they take money without the responsibility. Also my first nanny employee experience.