demanding money - do we have to pay her ?

Question

hired a childminder 3 days a week for after school care, paid 1 month in advance, after 3 days i found out that this women was leaving my 4yr old in a locked car & going into schools to get other children, obviously took daughter out of her care straight away & reported her to ofsted who are investigating - child minder has now sent invoice for a 4 week notice period that we obviously didn't give her - do we have to pay her more money or are we justified to say she has had 1mnths money for 3 days care & we will not pay her anymore money ?

thank you for all the advice, i am in england where sueing & counter sueing is not the norm, i think i signed a contract of sorts but never recieved a copy so i'm not sure what termination clause was in place, i thought i should ignore the letter & let ofsted do their investigation & then see if she ask's again ?

Answer 1

get your things together, and let her take you to court for it.

if you must pay , let a judge tell you so, not her.

Answer 2

English law:

You're not bound by the notice period.

Under her contract (whether it was written down or not) she had an obligation to carry out her job with reasonable skill and care. You found out that she wasn't, and to such an extent it was endangering your child. You realised her conduct was such that she wasn't fulfilling her obligations, and you immediately announced that the contract was over. This is known by lawyers as "accepting a repudiation of contract". She didn't keep her end of the contract "a repudiatory breach" so you ended it "accepted the repudiation". This means it came to an end there and then. She's not entitled to the notice.

Practically, where does this leave you? If she brings court proceedings then you'll receive a claim form from the court. You should fill this in saying exactly what happened and MAKE SURE YOU RETURN IT ON TIME. If the amount she's chasing is less than £5,000 then it'll eventually proceed to a trial in front of a judge. Describe the situation and I'm fairly confident he or she will throw the case out based on what you say.

You don't need to "counter-sue" (or counterclaim as it's known in England) but you could if you've overpaid her past the last day she had your son. Don't be afraid to visit a CAB with any court papers you receive, or even a solicitor. Choose a local friendly solicitor, but bear in mind you're unlikely to recover your legal costs from this woman.

Answer 3

Did you have a contract? That is the first issue. If everything is verbal, it is your word against hers and a judge would recognize child endangerment as an extenuating circumstance that would render any verbal contract null and void.

If you did have a contract, is there any clause on termination for just cause? Even without it, proving breech of contract should be easy. Unfortunately it will cost you time in small claims court representing yourself or legal fees to have someone else represent you. I doubt she will push the matter with an attorney, as any income she would get would be quickly eaten by legal fees. I think you should call her bluff.

As there is an investigation, I think you have ample proof for not paying. If it reaches the papers, you may want to tip off the newspaper staff that she is now claiming you owe her - sympathies would be easily on your side.

If the investigation does not prove anything and you had a contract that did not include any sort of clause in it for termination outside one of you needing to give four week's notice, you would at the most only be responsible for three days' care.

Answer 4

Do not pay this woman another penny !
Any contract you had with her would in fact be declared void if what you are saying is true ,
Tell her you will not pay any further money to her until the pending investigation by ofsted has been concluded, and that You will be seeking to recoup any monies`s that are owed to you as a result in her being over paid .
should the investigation prove that she has been neglect full in her duties as a child minder hopefully she will not be allowed to work with children again !

Answer 5

Most likely they are demanding the money prepratory to a small claims court action (which is required in most places prior to filing a legal action)

All I can say is you better have your ducks and proof in a row.. you had a contract, YOU are going to have to prove that they did NOT fulfill the contract pretty much as your reason for dismissal

She said he said stuff likely isnt going to work either.. You need live witnesses in court (best), or at the very least sworn affidavits.. anything else is just hearsay and opinion basically, even the burden of proof in small claims is perponderance of evidence.. If thats the case its gonna come down to who does the judge believe.. and was the actions unreasonable for a reasonable or normal person...

Leaving a kid in a car when picking up a kid at school isnt all that unreasonable .. its done all the time.. depends on the time it takes to do so...
My educated guess.. is yer gonna loose this one

PS (and important) if you are gonna go to court. DO NOT RESPOND AT ALL TO THE DEMAND prior to court.. if you do That response can be used as evidence against you IN COURT.
If you want to go to court, DO NOTHING, present your evidence in court, and the court will decide (or maybe she will do nothing at all.. its up to her to file or not) Responding to the demand is a BIG MISTAKE.. either pay her or remain silent until the hearing

Answer 6

You've already the nasty little cow her notice period. You don't need to pay her a penny more.

You paid her one month in advance, so you paid her for 31 days. You used 3 of those days, leaving 28 unused days paid for. 28 days = 4 weeks. Removing your child from her care was more than enough indication the notice period had started, so those 28 days already paid for are her notice period.

Send her invoice back with that calculation on and ignore anything else she sends you.

Answer 7

#1 -- Send her a letter, certified mail, return receipt requested, telling her in no uncertain terms that you refuse to pay because your failure to provide proper notice was a direct result of her failure to provide appropriate care and supervision as agreed.

#2 -- Go to court and sue her for the money you already paid her along with some damages. I don't know where you are, but in my state in the US, it would cost me less than $20 to file the papers. Your grounds are that a) she did not provide any care beyond the 3 days and b) the services she provided over that 3 day period did not constitute appropriate care and supervision. Did you miss work because you had to go find new child care? Sue her for lost wages. Ask for a small sum for emotional distress. As long as you don't go bonkers and get greedy, a judge is likely to be sympathetic.

Answer 8

If you signed a contract that states you must inform her when leaving ____ days prior to leaving, or if she must be paid for so many weeks if you cancel your contract with her, then yes you will have to pay, but I would then take her to small claims court, and tell them what she did, and that she is being investigated. She endangered your child, I would have left her too...A judge will then decide if she should reimburse you or not....hopefully they judge will see it your way and give you all but 3 days worth of money back. Talk to a lawyer first though...many have "free" consultations

Answer 9

I wouldn't pay her. You may have given her a written contract but she clearly breached it by being gulty of gross misconduct.
You should however write to her informing her that she may appeal against your decision and that she may be accompanied at the appeal by anyone of her choice.
She may still have grounds to take the matter to a tribunal in which case you should inform her that you will ensure a member of the press will be present at the tribunal. The publicity would not be good for someone running a business as a childminder.
Should it proceed it is very unlikely that you would be ordered to make a payment of compensation because she had already received a months pay.

Answer 10

I don't think you have to pay her a penny if she's not looked after your child properly - after all she is breaking her contract with you by not keeping your child safe. Wait and see what happens from the Ofsted investigation is what I would do.

Answer 11

This is one for the courts.. send her a letter stating that you will not pay her and the reasons why.

Have all documents to support your position in case it does escalate, be aware that if this body does investigate and finds nothing then you will have a very poor position from which to defend your case.

Then let her do what she feels she has to.

Be aware that if you have a contract and you do not pay regardless of circumstances she may be inclined to list your account as a default with a credit reporting agency which will affect your credit rating.

Thats not right I know but it does happen.