Unusual Deposit and Fee Nursery Terms: Piplings

[motorbird83]

Hi,

I've been offered a place at Piplings East Dulwich but a couple elements of their terms of condition jump out at me as strange. I was hoping if you could tell me how these compare to the other nurseries in the area:

1. There is a 700GBP acceptance deposit that they keep in general operating fund until you leave and is not applied to your fees once you start. Given fees are paid in advance the fact that they hold on to such a large deposit seems strange and also the fact that its not held in escrow but in the general fund and therefore can be used by the nursery seems to put parents at risk if the nursery gets into financial trouble.

2. If the manager decides your child isn't suitable for the nursery for any reason, they expect you to pay two months worth of fees after you've been kicked out. They call this fees in lieu of notice (typical notice if a parent wants to terminate is 8 weeks, which also seems long).

Any feedback on how these terms and conditions compare to other nurseries in the area would be great as they strike me as a bit cheeky!

[Passiflora]

Hope you get feedback from parents using other nurseries in the area but I would steer well clear motorbird!

[tomskip]

Mumsnet or NetMums could give you really helpful answers to this question (just a wider audience). I have to say as someone with only minor experience of nurseries (and that quite a long time ago) that those t&c's seem extraordinary!

[Saffron]

My daughter attended a well run and managed nursery in central London a few years ago. T&Cs were not dissimilar. xx

[motorbird83]

Thanks everyone. I'll ask on Mumsnet as well. Its so hard to no what is standard as the shortage of places makes it so that popular nurseries really seem to be able to take serious liberties

[lightweight]

We were at Gumboots 6 years ago and they didn't have terms and conditions like these. The one about paying even if asked to leave is unusual!

[motorbird83]

Thanks lightweight. I have had a couple of PMs this morning from people as well confirming that the amounts and terms are pretty aggressive even for well regarded nurseries in this area... This is giving me serious pause now.

[alex_b]

We are at Little Unicorns in Canary Wharf and those seem more punitive than their terms. They do have two months notice to leave, but to be honest since it would take a good 4-6 weeks to arrange alternative childcare I'm not super worried about that.

I am not a lawyer but I suspect that them demanding 2-month's fees in lieu of notice after kicking out your kid would be unenforceable under the Consumer Rights Act.

My biggest concern would about giving them an unsecured interest free loan of ?700 for 3-4 years!

It might be worth speaking to Trading Standards or Citizen's Advice to get their view.

[redjam]

That all sounds highly irregular. Our lovely old nursery, Blossoms, had nothing like that (this is going back a bit so maybe it's different now but definitely not when we used it). The one we briefly used before - which shall remain nameless (not Piplings) - had more dodgy T&Cs, though still not as bad as these. And actually it turned out to be a rather weird place and I think the T&Cs were a sign of that.

I would say trust your instincts. It certainly doesn't sound reasonable to me and I'd worry about what it says about how the place is managed. I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, and God knows it's hard to find reliable childcare, but you're going to be dealing with these people day in and day out and you want to feel that it's a nice, straightforward, fair organisation.

Be interesting to hear from anyone who has kids at Piplings...

[midivydale]

We have been with two nurseries (one nunhead and one in the city) and neither had terms like the above. Both were pretty unfavourable for the customer but still nothing like the above.

[ryeme]

I have heard a few things about this nursery- good and not so good (as anywhere). Can parents whose children have left now confirm the deposit system worked ok?