Probably going to Small Claims Court...HELP!

[Kidcare]

I'm so happy I found this forum. I'm a family run childcare home in California. I have been doing this for over 11 years and I should have known better but......my bleeding heart got the best of me and now I think to recover $648 of back payments I'll have to take one of my daycare clents to court. Problem is everything is a little convuluted. The parents are divorced and the mother signed the contract for childcare. She has full custody of the children but unlike my other divorced mom's she asked that I bill him separately for his portion of each months payment. Now if I take them to court who do I sue? She has made good on all of her payments but she can't afford to pay up his back payments because he is also not paying her the child support that she is due. He's such a deadbeat!!

Unfortunately I let this get out of hand because she kept pleading with me that she would never leave me high and dry if he didn't make good on his end. So now after pointing this out to her for the third month in a row that I was uncomfortable with how far in debt he's gotten with me, she said that she can't make him pay and so she had no other choice but take her son out of my daycare. Oh and by the way, she's sorry but she doesn't have the money to pay me what he shorted me even after promising me over and over. I know that she's a single mom but she has had several things work in her favor lately to give her more income.

Anyone out there had to deal with this type of problem? Is their any free legal advisors out there for daycare providers? I need to know how to proceed with this so I can get the money back that is owed to me. I'd appreciate any advice.

KC

[Chickenhauler]

Free legal advice falls into that category of "You get what you pay for", but here's my .02 (and probably over-valued at that).....


IMHO, you have no case against the father, being that he didn't sign any contract with you. The mother signed the contract, therefore it's her obligation to pay for the contracted services that were rendered, and which she promised to pay for (which it states in the contract).

Where you went wrong, was to even bother trying to be nice....I know it ****s to have to be a jerk, but business is business, and the meek do not inherit the earth, they get screwed. I would not have even bothered to bill the father, I would have told her that's her problem, not mine.


And, I'm going to bet that the mother has little to no assets, so taking her to court won't do much besides waste a day of your time, waste court costs, and get a nice little piece of paper that says you won.......and fat chance actually collecting on that one if she has nothing of value.

[jen]

I agree with chickshauler that you will have to go after the mom; I don't agree that it isn't worth your time.

She may not have any assets but she may have a good credit score that she wants to protect...

It may be that if she ends up having to go to court that she is more willing to push her ex into paying or that she has a few extra dollars to at least reach a settlement that isn't a complete loss for you.

Maybe she needs to take her ex to court and have his share of the childcare included in her child support....

[seashell]

I agree you should be going after mom. She signed the contract. She will make dad pay if she ends up with a judgement against her.

[Kidcare]

thanks for the help

Thanks for all the advice. I did have a talk with her that other day and she is going to pay his portion. She is then going to take it to the divorce court and try to get it back along with the child support payments his owes her. Thankfully she is a woman of her word and has already given me money towards it. That will be the first and last time I ever let someone do this to me. It's just not worth it.

[Unregistered]

Thats good that the mom is paying, she probably realized that she was legaly responsible since only she signed the contract..I have my seperated parents each sign a different contract stating what their portion is if they each have to pay, I have a family that both parents use me, they do custody every other week and they have seperate contracts and billing, that way i dont get caught up in the middle of disputes, if they change weeks or one parent has them more than the agreed time they each still have to pay for what they contracted for..

[tinytotzdaycare]

That's good that the mom is paying, she probably realized that she was legaly responsible since only she signed the contract..I have my seperated parents each sign a different contract stating what their portion is if they each have to pay, I have a family that both parents use me, they do custody every other week and they have seperate contracts and billing, that way i dont get caught up in the middle of disputes, if they change weeks or one parent has them more than the agreed time they each still have to pay for what they contracted for..

We do this as well, saves headaches later and keeps peace with the parents. I do have one couple that is married and both have signed different contracts. They have seperate accoutns and they rotate who pays each week...as long as Im paid I don't care