by: Tish501 - 08-11-07 20:17
As the owner of a very happy, successful small nursery, can any other owners out there give me advice about unpaid fees.....the ones where you take them to the small claims court,pay for them to investigate etc,.......and then find that the person apparently has nothing in her house for the bailiff to sell to repay our debt??? Does anyone know of the next step to getting my money back thanks Tish501
by: sillymoo
Basicaly dont let them have the childcare if its not paid for. They dont have to pay months in advance, a monday morning will do. No-one can go into Tesco and buy food on 'tick' so why allow them to do this with childcare?
We are a big 110place nursery (but not a chain) and have no outstanding debts. We have also recently installed Chip & Pin as cheques are usually made out of rubber!
If you are happy & sucessful like you say then parents will understand and it will also avoid any embaressment when chasing fees x
by: newsetting
Hi, if you go to https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk that may help you. You can use the site to claim money from people who owe you. Its all done online, without the costly solicitors getting involved. There is a fee, but it is small. Basically, they will get a county court summons for the money, and i think that would be enough to get them to pay up. Then you just cancel the action with the online system so it never actually gets to court. Its very easy!
Hope that helped
by: NeilD
As above, everyone should be on monthly fees, paid in advance. Give them 5 days grace and then refuse entry or operate pay as you go.
by: norfolk.nog
Hi there.
I would just like to add a few points to this older topic,
We too have a few problems with outstanding debts. first of all we went through the courts, and you would think that when the courts have told people to pay x amount to us every month, that would be it, Oh no, total wate of time and money, we have spent a small fortune on the courts fees and not had enough back to cover a fraction of the court fees, let alone the original debt.
I then tried our solicitors, and basically he told me that they had outstanding fee's owed to them and they have been unable to collect them, What hope had they for me?
Finally we approached a local debt collecting agecy, they have a no win no fee policy and I can honestly say they have been a lot more succesful than anyone else, they charge more, but at the end of the day, these debts would have been written off, so my view is anything is better than nothing.
NOG
by: whmon
I am also using a debt collection agency, with good results in all but one case. This one individual owes £1,200 pounds and is ignoring all correspondance from the agency (yet has a good job with the Tax Office). Stupidly, I let the debt build up over several months before telling her that her child would be withdrawn (after constant requests for the money) because we all loved the child so much. When I finally did tell her about his imminent removal Mum started to cry then brightened up when she realised he had 'until the end of the month'. As soon as he was withdrawn, she put him into our nearest competitors nursery, so she obviously found the money from somewhere to pay fees to them, that she should have paid to me.
The (other) big problem is that she is now trying to justify her child's absence from our nursery by telling all of our parents that she withdrew her child herself, because she wasn't happy with our service. Luckily, we have some very loyal parents who have told us about this. Although we had previously kept the debt as a strictly confidential matter, we now have no other option but to explain to any parent who asks that the little boy was withdrawn by us, not the mother because of non-payment of fees.
by: Maestro
Since bankruptcy has lost a lot of the stigma that was associated with it collecting debts is very hard. As hard as it you must remain strict and ask for the fees. You get to hear every sob story under the sun when its time to pay fees but it's a way of life for some people. Never accept a cheque and get a chip and pin machine, the transaction fees are less than a cheque and the monthly rental can be recouped in the savings on cheque fees or credit fees on credit cards. You should charge 3% for the use of a credit card.
Never be suttle asking for fees, if you try and be nice it only makes it worse as they play to your good nature. If they dont pay, dont tell them Friday night that their child can't come in, tell them Monday morning when they are doing the school run and going to work. Harsh?? Yes definately but in experience they only ever do it once!!
by: Millie
Hi everyone
Try getting parents on standing orders a month in advance, this works really well.
Also a word of advise - even though a parent has left your setting and no matter what they say about you, you are still bound by confidentiality and must not disclose what has happened between you. Talking about the situation to other parents will only prompt the question as to what the setting could disclose about them when they leave. Settings must remain professional at all times, if they are to be seen as a viable, reliable professional setting.
