I wasn't sure where to post this but as it the answers could be useful for other businesses I thought I'd put it here. Anyway a friend has been contacted by a nursery that her son no longer goes to saying that there was an underpayment made in 2010 for £75. The nursery collected payments via a flexible direct debit so they were responsible for claiming the correct amounts. Where does my friend stand legally?
I'm not sure about the legality, but I'd tell them to whistle. They made a mistake a few years ago and I would think are just chancing their arm. If court papers come through I'd maybe reconsider, but until then I'd simply ignore them.
I agree, ignore until/if something official comes through, or ask them for a break down of all payments and match them to time spent at the nursery and bank statements.
Legally I don't know, but morally, I think the money should be paid after seeing proof that the money is actually owed.
Reasoning: think if it was the other way round. If you had overpaid, i.e. they'd taken too much by mistake, and now someone has noticed, would you want them to say, "oops, we took too much, here's the money back", or would you want them to just go, "oh well, we've got the money now, lets just not mention it".
I know which I'd prefer, so why treat things differently just because it wasn't in your favour?
But I wouldn't simply pay it, I'd have to see proof - which they should be able to provide given that they've spotted the mistake in the first place.
Apparently when they took their son out of the nursery they received a final statement of account showing zero so I have told her to get a breakdown of account and to send them a copy of her final statement and if they prove she really does owe it then to negotiate a discount due to it being their mistake and the amount of time that has passed. I believe you can ask for things like this for up to 7 years (I think - someone else may know the exact number of years) but it must be proved.
