Preschool disenrollment tuition obligation - question for all you lawyers out there !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It stinks, but I disagree that it it "not fair". She read, understood, and signed a contract. She has had a change of heart, which she is entitled to, but which is not grounds for cancelling the contract.

Totally fair.

But the preschool gets $7,000 for doing nothing and can sell her spot on top of that. How is that fair?

Surely the $7000 is in case they can't sell the spot. They would otherwise be out of luck if every other parent had already placed their kid elsewhere and thus they lost the tuition that they were counting on from the OP.

Yes, if the school fills the spot, they have mitigated their damagers, and aren't entitled to the full tuition (although maybe some advertising and related expenses). If the spot is not filled, though, seems to me the OP is SOL. (And it's not spot specific - if the max is 16, and OP leaving makes it 10 students, but they later recruit 4 additional students, bringing the total to 14 - she still has to pay.)

[Anonymous]

Not to go against the current with all the goody two-shoes lawyers on here, and sure you signed a contract, but my vote is f-'em, OP. The moral high ground is you give up your deposit, don't pay the tuition, if the school is really in such high demand and the other schools are full, somebody else will take the spot and they won't bother coming after you. You are going to need that money for the baby, they will find another student. Anybody who says otherwise is not being very humanistic about the whole thing and is probably making their money denying people health care or refusing to pay business insurance claims.
Make sure there's no way they can take it out of a credit card you gave them or anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to go against the current with all the goody two-shoes lawyers on here, and sure you signed a contract, but my vote is f-'em, OP. The moral high ground is you give up your deposit, don't pay the tuition, if the school is really in such high demand and the other schools are full, somebody else will take the spot and they won't bother coming after you. You are going to need that money for the baby, they will find another student. Anybody who says otherwise is not being very humanistic about the whole thing and is probably making their money denying people health care or refusing to pay business insurance claims. Make sure there's no way they can take it out of a credit card you gave them or anything.

WTH are you talking about?

Nobody is saying OP should pay it upfront, just that it is likely that if the school comes after her for a breach of contract claim that they may win. Not only that, they may be able to argue that she willfully breached the contract and go after her for their attorney fees as well.

We don't have a crystal ball, so no way of knowing whether the school actually will do this, but certainly they would have at least a plausible breach of contract claim and OP will be faced with litigation costs AND $7K.

Moral here is don't sign these types of contracts unless you are 100% committed to going to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to go against the current with all the goody two-shoes lawyers on here, and sure you signed a contract, but my vote is f-'em, OP. The moral high ground is you give up your deposit, don't pay the tuition, if the school is really in such high demand and the other schools are full, somebody else will take the spot and they won't bother coming after you. You are going to need that money for the baby, they will find another student. Anybody who says otherwise is not being very humanistic about the whole thing and is probably making their money denying people health care or refusing to pay business insurance claims.
Make sure there's no way they can take it out of a credit card you gave them or anything.

Here's another perspective: this school needs revenue to pay its teachers and employers. There are valid reasons why schools require contracts. Frankly, the highest level schools require them and for various reasons. The moral high ground is not that OP shirk the obligations SHE AGREED TO. If she needs the $ for her baby, signing this contact was a pretty poor decision on her part.

Anyway, as a PP stated, most likely they won't sue her. They'll just turn the debt over to a collection agency and this will show up on OP's credit report until it's paid.

[Anonymous]

Not one person on here said that this is a good and happy thing--in fact, most of us have said that the situation totally stinks.

BUT...

Rules are rules, and like it or not, they are there for a reason. She signed a contract, and like it or not, she is on the hook. We all GET it, we understand the pain of losing $7K, we're just saying that she probably doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning this battle. (and we're not all lawyers!)

OP, how distasteful is the school, anyway? Is it worth losing the $7K plus whatever fees you will be paying an alternative school? Or it is no longer your top choice but would be tolerable for a year? I'd think seriously about keeping her slot unless there is something HUGE that you have discovered that makes it a real problem to send DC there. (On that note, you might want to be careful about how big a battle you pick with the school before you have decided what you will do.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It stinks, but I disagree that it it "not fair". She read, understood, and signed a contract. She has had a change of heart, which she is entitled to, but which is not grounds for cancelling the contract.

Totally fair.

But the preschool gets $7,000 for doing nothing and can sell her spot on top of that. How is that fair?

There's an opportunity cost for the school if your child doesn't attend and the slot goes unfilled. You signed a contract. You have to pay it.

[Anonymous]

There is another preschool that is more ridiculous with a month in advance tuition and a deposit that equal one month's tuition ( 2 months which is like 3200) that you must pay up front and if you leave before 3 years you lose it. The worst was a huge list of items of why you can't leave including financial issues or if your kid was crying etc...

[Anonymous]

If no other child has been denied a spot bc of OP, i.e. if she did not take someone else's spot, then what are the schools damages and where is detrimental reliance? She agreed to pay if her child goes to school. Her child is not going to school and therefore, the school has not incurred any costs as a result. If they have open spots, they have also not turned down money in relying on the OP's promise to pay.

OP changed her mind, but I dont see where the school gave valuable consideration or had any detrimental reliance.

[Anonymous]

Cases like this have been litigated before and the parents were ordered to pay the tuition even when the school filled the spot from a waitlist. You have a legal obligation to pay since you signed the contract- there is no way around it unless the school decided to negotiate with you.

[Anonymous]

How confident are you basing your decision on things you've heard secondhand? I know in my child's class we have 2 awful moms who are hell-bent on bashing the school and can't wait to get out. They are spreading a lot of venom to others wit their opinions - opinions that certainly not all of us share. I am (and have been for some time) happy with the school and feel like I'm doing damage control from these others. OP, just make sure that what you are hearing is the the truth. A school that is a good fit for one family may not be for another. If what you are hearing is beyond opinion, then maybe some other people higher up need to be investigating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If no other child has been denied a spot bc of OP, i.e. if she did not take someone else's spot, then what are the schools damages and where is detrimental reliance? She agreed to pay if her child goes to school. Her child is not going to school and therefore, the school has not incurred any costs as a result. If they have open spots, they have also not turned down money in relying on the OP's promise to pay.

OP changed her mind, but I dont see where the school gave valuable consideration or had any detrimental reliance.

Did you drop out of law school after a single contracts class? Or is your legal knowledge from watching Matlock? You're throwing around legal terms but not really seeming to understand. In order to enforce a signed contract, there doesn't have to be detrimental reliance. Of course there was consideration--the school guaranteed a spot for the child. That's enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cases like this have been litigated before and the parents were ordered to pay the tuition even when the school filled the spot from a waitlist. You have a legal obligation to pay since you signed the contract- there is no way around it unless the school decided to negotiate with you.

Says you.

[Anonymous]

asshole lawyers strike again, your toddler is crying for hours a day and hates the school but you signed the contract.

[Anonymous]

Even if you break a lease, courts will generally not grant a landlord more than 2-3 months of rent. I doubt a court would hold you to an entire year of tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:asshole lawyers strike again, your toddler is crying for hours a day and hates the school but you signed the contract.

None of that has happened.