Contract question

[candy cat]

Following on from my last thread ' parents'.......I need to query......if only Mum signed contract then it is between myself and her?? At signing time I did everything to get Dad to sign, but he didn't! He only signed policy form and permissions.

So Dad is being quite rude, so can I just tell him any more correspondence is between myself and mum?

On a positive On mm contracts it states:
' i am not responsible for and will not accept any additional costs or expenses that may be incurred by you or on your behalf as a result of me not being able to look after your child.'

The legal team told me parents could claim for loss of earnings and costs etc

Anyway roll on 9th x

[Simona]

Following on from my last thread ' parents'.......I need to query......if only Mum signed contract then it is between myself and her?? At signing time I did everything to get Dad to sign, but he didn't! He only signed policy form and permissions.

So Dad is being quite rude, so can I just tell him any more correspondence is between myself and mum?

On a positive On mm contracts it states:
' i am not responsible for and will not accept any additional costs or expenses that may be incurred by you or on your behalf as a result of me not being able to look after your child.'

The legal team told me parents could claim for loss of earnings and costs etc

Anyway roll on 9th x

A contract must be signed by all those who are responsible for the child and also liable to pay fees.....mum and dad usually (there are exceptions)....it should also have that clause included in it...'if, for whatever reason, one parent cannot pay the other must cover the fees'...if unsure ask your association or whoever provides your contract, as 'off the shelf' ones do not have that cover.

If dad does not want to sign you need to say : 'no signature, no care'....it happens quite a lot that one parent usually does all the administrative tasks with the provider while the other just very little....there is a survey recently released where mum does all the work when it comes to looking at childcare!

The wording on your contract are ok..ish...you can add your own Terms if you wish.
Yes parents could sue for loss of earning if you do not give the appropriate notice or pay the fees in lieu....however if you contract is not signed by dad it could be invalid....check it out

It is legally acceptable that, we can either give the agreed notice...4 weeks or whatever....or fee paid in lieu...that is standard practice

I can tell you for sure as it was stated by a solicitor when looking at a contract...also you can google 'contracts' and read what makes them valid and legal or the opposite....having all signatures is the most important step.

Good luck!

[AliceK]

Oh dear. None of my contracts over the years have ever been signed by dad, all have only mums signature on them

xxx

[bunyip]

Simona is absolutely right that we should get both parents to sign a contract.

In this case, you can only deal with things as they are, and that is that only mum has signed. The main consequence is that makes it harder (though not necessarily impossible) to pursue dad for unpaid fees, as he is not a signatory to the contract. It does not remove or affect dad's PR rights in respect of information/decisions about the child's care.

You could insist on no more correspondence from dad, but I guess that'll just inflame things further and achieve little, as dad's views will just be passed on by mum.

The line you quote from the MM contract,

' i am not responsible for and will not accept any additional costs or expenses that may be incurred by you or on your behalf as a result of me not being able to look after your child.'

is a general disclaimer. Whether it 'sticks' will depend entirely on whether you can prove it was legally reasonable to issue immediate notice. If the parents dispute that and want to go down the legal route, that may be up to a judge and not you, not mum, not dad, and not the MM legal team.

[Dragonfly]

I have never ever in 20 years got both parents to sign contracts.Sorry, where does it say both parents should sign?

[bunyip]

In this day and age there are plenty of cases where you could only get both parents in the same room to sign if you were prepared to hire security staff.

[loocyloo]

The majority of my contracts are only signed by mum.

[Simona]

Mmmm..very interesting replies.

I would suggest any cm not sure should ring whoever provides their 'off the shelf' contract and check on whose signatures are required on our contracts.

In the last 23 years only once I had just one parents signature because that parent had parental responsibilities
All my contracts are signed by both parents...often the father had not signed but I requested this be done..no problems so far.

It will be interesting to hear what cms are advised to do.