Ask about childcare termination rule

thuydan80

Dear Sir/Madam,

We would like to ask for your advice about my situation as follows.

We live in Maynooth and have two sons, 7 years old and 3 years old. In May, we was looking for a creche to send both of them. But we only found one creche at Maynooth for afterschool care for the elder son and another creche at Liffey valley for the younger one. This is of course inconvenient but we have no choice.

Around two weeks a ago, there was another creche (also in Maynooth) informing us that they might have a place for both of them, which was finally confirmed earlier today. This is great news for us and we informed the current creche of my elder son that he will move to the new creche the following day. We understand that we will lose the deposit but the manager also wants us to pay fee for the whole month of September. It doesn't make sense to us. So we would like to ask if there is any rule that I can not terminate a creche for my son right way after we give them a notice without any additional charge (besides the deposit)? In our normal thought, we think we have a right to stop their service anytime. Please give us any advice on this matter.

Many thanks,

tobsey

Do you have a contract with them which states what the process is? If the contract says that you should pay a month in advance then that's what you owe them. If they are asking for payment that you haven't given them yet then you don't really need to pay them. If there is a contract in place then they might be entitled to chase you for it but they probably won't bother for one months payment.

Moonbeam

Check your contract, loosing your deposit is usually enough.
Is the 3 year old in the ECCE scheme?

thuydan80

Thank you for your advice.

I just checked all the document related. They just gave me an enrollment form and there is no any information or policy about termination. They did not give us a policy to sign. When I came there for viewing , they just told me that I have to give them one-month notice if I want to stop using their service. Now, when I sent them an email to inform them about termination for my kid, they told me that I have to give them two-month notice.

Clearly, there is something abnormal in this creche. Moreover, there has another thing making me feel this creche has a problem. That is when I asked a place for both of my kid, they kept saying that there is no place for my younger son this year, they only have a place for the elder one. I also told them to put the younger one in waiting list, and they also told me that the waiting list is now very long. Two days ago I emailed them I want to move my elder son to the same creche as my younger son, they told me now they have a place for the younger one if I want to send both of them to her creche and she will offer me the reduced price. This makes me think that the creche might be overflowed.

thuydan80

Yes, my 3 year old son is in the ECCE scheme

Moonbeam

I am in Maynooth too.
That is very odd,maybe they have less kids then expected this year.
1 months notice is sufficient if that is what was agreed.
when mine went to creche once you gave 1 months notice you did not loose your deposit,