Unprecedented numbers of private schools are engaging lawyers to help them to claim unpaid fees, as they struggle to make ends meet in the recession, The Times has learnt.
Solicitors report a huge surge in the number of legal actions brought in the past year against parents who have defaulted on fees. Such measures are usually a last resort but are now being employed by schools at an earlier stage. Pupils can also face expulsion if their parents do not pay up.
Yesterday one group of parents obtained an injunction to stop a £21,603-a-year independent school excluding their children over fee payments. Parents at St David’s School in Ashford, West London, want to pay weekly because the school is set to close in July, arguing that they cannot be sure the school will remain open all this term. But the school is threatening exclusion unless fees for the full term are paid immediately.
Wellington College, Berkshire, is hosting a seminar on “fee recovery” in June that will give tips to private school heads and bursars on excluding children for non-payment of fees and recovering debts through the courts. The seminar, which was advertised only in the last week, is already almost half full.
Veale Wasbrough, the leaders in school fee recovery, have seen a 33 per cent increase in the number of active claims brought by schools against parents in the last year. Tabitha Cave, head of school fees recovery at Veale Wasbrough, said the “unprecedented” rise was a direct result of the economic crisis. “Schools are being more effective with their credit control,” she said. “Any business in the recession will tighten up on credit control and schools are no exception.”
The firm is now fighting 2,468 cases against parents — up from 1,846 in 2008. The number of claims had remained static in previous years.
Nicholas Marten, chairman of the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association, said: “If parents are in difficulty we do all we can to help them. At some stage there has to be an acceptance by parents that they are paying for a service, and if they can’t pay — and schools have used up all their bursary funds — they will have to withdraw their child.” But, he added: “The last thing we want is to lose parents.” Lawyers say there has been an increase in the number of schools seeking guidance on the legality and etiquette of excluding pupils if their fees are not paid.
Most independent schools include a clause in their contract with parents stating that pupils can be excluded if their fees are not paid. But parents are fighting back. One school has been served with an injunction preventing it from taking such action against certain pupils.
In the case of St David’s School, which has existed for 300 years, Wendy Ransom has served it with a High Court injunction to prevent her daughter Grace, 14, being expelled. It will also force the school to provide the families with references for pupils should other schools request them — the Bursar of the school had refused to do so without full fee payment.
“We are doing this to protect our daughters,” Mrs Ransom said. “The stress is huge and because [the school] has withheld all these references we still haven’t got an offer of a place anywhere else. The girls are all upset and bewildered.”
Angela Langston, who is paying her daughter Georgia’s fees a week in advance and also obtained an injunction against the school, said: “The stance the school has taken has been aggressive.
“We didn’t pay the full term’s fees because we had concerns that we couldn’t get assurances that the school was going to stay open until the end of the year. “It is a traumatic and uncertain time.”
“Our only priority is to ensure that our daughter’s education is not damaged and that she achieves her full potential in GCSEs.”
Ann Dent, the Bursar at St David’s, said: “The contract with parents states that fees must be paid a term in advance.”
Source:The times
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