Daycare Client Refusing to Pay

[Nellie000]

I'm new to this forum, I'm having trouble with an ex-client and getting the remaining payment they owe me.

Unfortunately for me, the parents never returned the signed contract. They were clients for only 6 weeks and I took care of their kids 3 days a week. They paid cash.

They are refusing to pay for the 2 week notice and for 3 weeks of miscellaneous days they did not sent their kids to me.

They did receive a copy of my handbook and contract which clearly states tuition is due in full each and every week regardless of absences and/or illness.

I want to take them to small claims court - they owe me $600. Do I have a chance of winning even though I don't have a signed contract with them? Does a verbal agreement count for anything in small claims court? I do have various texts she sent me saying she doesn't owe for those days because she never returned the contract, she hasn't checked her email so she didn't get anything from me, they don't have any money, good luck getting anything out of her, etc.

I do have a witness who saw me pick up the kids after school that would go to court with me. I have a calendar with all the dates of when I picked up the kids.

And before anyone jumps all over me for not having a signed contract, I know, I know. I'm a softie, they came to me at the last minute needing child care - now I know why. And shame on me for keeping the kids without getting the signed contract.

Thank you for your help on this.

[AmyKidsCo]

I believe that a verbal contract is enough for small claims court. But I've never had to go that route so I'm not positive. Maybe Tom Copeland will chime in; if anyone would know, he would.

[solarismoon]

While you may be legally entitled...

Verbal contracts are usually held up in most states, though not always. But even if yours would be held up, you really have to ask yourself if it's worth closing down your childcare for an entire day (or multiple days if the other party gets extensions) to pursue it. You said you had them for 6 weeks, but they only attended for 3, the rest of the 3 weeks were not paid for but not attended. While you may be in the right, and they in the wrong, sometimes in this business I have learned it is better to just let it go. Not always, but if I had your situation I would let this one go and move on.

While from your perspective this family owes you several hundred dollars, the fact is even with a judgment in your favor, you will not likely EVER see that money. If the family left without notice and without paying what was already due, they are not likely the type of family to honor their debts and obligations or care about their credit rating.

Going to court means:

~You may, or may not, get a judgment in your favor, there is NO guarantee of a win

~If you do win, you may get less than you sue for, significantly less, especially if the family can demonstrate a financial hardship or if the judge feels the agreement for payment was ambiguous or unfair

~You would lose a day's worth of income form current paying families if you close your daycare so you can be in court, and given that you would not likely get paid by this other family even with a judge's order, that is even more revenue lost that can not be recovered, so you would be worse off even than you are now

~you may need to go to court more than once to finalize the issue, which means additional closures and lost revenue

~There is an unseen cost in closing your daycare for a non-holiday or planned vacation, that could have the backlash of some parents feeling like you may not be as dependable as they thought, and may be more apt to look somewhere else when you raise rates or if they disagree with a new policy in the future

~The other party can make claims, even false ones, in court about the quality of care their child received to make a case against having to pay you. This would be on public record and any future family interested in enrollment could find it with a google search in most cases. It doesn't have to be true or proven, the seed of doubt is very persuasive and can ruin a childcare.

~Since there was no contract, the verbal agreement is a he said/she said, and the other party can claim a very different version of their understanding of the 'agreement', giving the judge cause to not rule in your favor.

Weigh these with what you may or may not recover monetarily and decide for yourself if it is worth your time, loss of revenue and stress to pursue it, or simply let it go and move on. Take some small comfort in knowing they will burn their bridges with enough providers in a short period of time to be left without many or any options. THAT is their consequence and a very hard life lesson to learn. And by all means, if you network with other providers in your area let them know about this family and warn them in advance of their dishonest practices so they do not fall victim, too.

And if you do decide to go to court, which is really the only thing you can do officially, then do it on principle and accept that you will not get that money back going in.

Good luck!

[Laurel]

Verbal contracts are usually held up in most states, though not always. But even if yours would be held up, you really have to ask yourself if it's worth closing down your childcare for an entire day (or multiple days if the other party gets extensions) to pursue it. You said you had them for 6 weeks, but they only attended for 3, the rest of the 3 weeks were not paid for but not attended. While you may be in the right, and they in the wrong, sometimes in this business I have learned it is better to just let it go. Not always, but if I had your situation I would let this one go and move on.

While from your perspective this family owes you several hundred dollars, the fact is even with a judgment in your favor, you will not likely EVER see that money. If the family left without notice and without paying what was already due, they are not likely the type of family to honor their debts and obligations or care about their credit rating.

Going to court means:

~You may, or may not, get a judgment in your favor, there is NO guarantee of a win

~If you do win, you may get less than you sue for, significantly less, especially if the family can demonstrate a financial hardship or if the judge feels the agreement for payment was ambiguous or unfair

~You would lose a day's worth of income form current paying families if you close your daycare so you can be in court, and given that you would not likely get paid by this other family even with a judge's order, that is even more revenue lost that can not be recovered, so you would be worse off even than you are now

~you may need to go to court more than once to finalize the issue, which means additional closures and lost revenue

~There is an unseen cost in closing your daycare for a non-holiday or planned vacation, that could have the backlash of some parents feeling like you may not be as dependable as they thought, and may be more apt to look somewhere else when you raise rates or if they disagree with a new policy in the future

~The other party can make claims, even false ones, in court about the quality of care their child received to make a case against having to pay you. This would be on public record and any future family interested in enrollment could find it with a google search in most cases. It doesn't have to be true or proven, the seed of doubt is very persuasive and can ruin a childcare.

~Since there was no contract, the verbal agreement is a he said/she said, and the other party can claim a very different version of their understanding of the 'agreement', giving the judge cause to not rule in your favor.

Weigh these with what you may or may not recover monetarily and decide for yourself if it is worth your time, loss of revenue and stress to pursue it, or simply let it go and move on. Take some small comfort in knowing they will burn their bridges with enough providers in a short period of time to be left without many or any options. THAT is their consequence and a very hard life lesson to learn. And by all means, if you network with other providers in your area let them know about this family and warn them in advance of their dishonest practices so they do not fall victim, too.

And if you do decide to go to court, which is really the only thing you can do officially, then do it on principle and accept that you will not get that money back going in.

Good luck!

[RosieMommy]

I'm new to this forum, I'm having trouble with an ex-client and getting the remaining payment they owe me.

Unfortunately for me, the parents never returned the signed contract. They were clients for only 6 weeks and I took care of their kids 3 days a week. They paid cash.

They are refusing to pay for the 2 week notice and for 3 weeks of miscellaneous days they did not sent their kids to me.

They did receive a copy of my handbook and contract which clearly states tuition is due in full each and every week regardless of absences and/or illness.

I want to take them to small claims court - they owe me $600. Do I have a chance of winning even though I don't have a signed contract with them? Does a verbal agreement count for anything in small claims court? I do have various texts she sent me saying she doesn't owe for those days because she never returned the contract, she hasn't checked her email so she didn't get anything from me, they don't have any money, good luck getting anything out of her, etc.

I do have a witness who saw me pick up the kids after school that would go to court with me. I have a calendar with all the dates of when I picked up the kids.

And before anyone jumps all over me for not having a signed contract, I know, I know. I'm a softie, they came to me at the last minute needing child care - now I know why. And shame on me for keeping the kids without getting the signed contract.

Thank you for your help on this.

I agree with other posters on here. Taking someone to court isn't a guarantee that you will get paid even with a judgement. A judgement isn't useful if you aren't going to try to get it enforced and THAT costs even MORE time and money. I used to work for a collection law firm -- it can be VERY expensive to get people to pay judgements.

[Little Star75]

You might want to look into "provider watch" you can send their bill to collections. I believe there is a thread on this, I had the same issue and signed up with provider watch and reported the DCP that left owing me close to $500.

Good luck