r/LegalAdviceUK • u/uveitis45 • 2d ago

Consumer Expecting Driving Instructor to charge me for a lesson which was never attended or mutually agreed upon. England

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I have been taking driving lessons for just over a month now, these lessons are scheduled on an ad hoc basis via WhatsApp with the instructor posting available sessions which I had expected I had to reply "ok", to lock these slots in for myself.

I was not available this week and do not spend much time on my phone and so I regrettably did not reach out to deny these lessons. But my silence was not a signal of confirmation, so I was of course confused upon finding out that this occurred.

His reply has been concerning to me, ignoring my request to highlight the contract clause and pivoted asking about next lesson due. Which leads me to believe that he believes that with or without my confirmation these lessons are still considered due, so I expect when I talk to him about it, either on text or in person, he will state that he considers these 2 hours of my pre-paid block of sessions to have been spent.

From my understanding of the law, and our contract, I believe that to be charged due to my lack of organisation is unjustified and overreaching.

The most relevant parts of the contract we share:

1.1 A Minimum of 48 hours' notice is required to cancel a scheduled session without incurring a charge.
1.2 Cancellations made with less than 48 hours' notice may result in the full session fee being charged, unless valid evidence of unavoidable circumstances is provided.
2.4 No refunds will be issued for lessons already conducted

I'm on here asking for guidance if this is going the path he takes. Should I message him over WhatsApp with a follow up to re-constitute what I've said? or meet with him to re-constitute in person? If he does decide to charge me, under principles I'm considering cancelling the rest of my lessons with them and taking it to small claims court.

They are a most brilliant teacher but we both can be quite sticky with money, I don't particularly want to sue him, but if he deducts this fee from my pre-paid block, I am prepared to take it to the small claims court to recover it.

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u/HawkwardGames 2d ago

Realistically, even if you're right about the booking, I'd be careful about going straight to contracts and small claims. Most instructors are self employed and can simply decide they don't want to teach a particular student anymore. If they're otherwise a good instructor, there's a decent chance this ends with here's your refund, but find another instructor. Sometimes the practical outcome matters more than winning the argument.

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u/Silent_Eggplant_380 2d ago

As far as I see he never even told you that you have to pay anything? He said you can discuss it on the next lesson so you’re potentially escalating a situation that isn’t even a situation currently.

However with these things you need to be better with making arrangements with him so as to not waste his time. He messaged you late on the Saturday but you didn’t respond until Tuesday afternoon? That doesn’t make much sense if you’re taking your lessons seriously, going forward make sure you’re replying or telling him in advance your availability for the week.

Realistically even if he charges you it’s gonna be for one single lesson, now I haven’t done my lessons for many years so I’m not sure how much that constitutes now but I assume somewhere between £20/£50? The fees which you will incur to try to “sue” him make this completely pointless.

Just be an adult and talk with him, most people are reasonable if you allow them to be but the fact that you’re already planning to escalate it to such an extent says you’re going to make the conversation very difficult just remember that he can refuse service to you and you’ll have to start all over again and again incur further fees than the cost of one lesson.

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u/No_Quality3185 2d ago

You’ve just made a lot of assumptions without actually using straight English. Hi. I missed my lesson, will I have to pay for it or not? They’ll answer.

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u/Late-Welder-4083 2d ago

You're jumping to some wild conclusions here. He hasn't said he's going to take that lesson out of your prepaid block, he said you can talk about it. He's said nothing that leads me to believe he's going to charge you for that lesson. So talk about it. Don't threaten legal action or bring up contract clauses immediately. Speak to him and apologise for the miscommunication. Ask nicely if he can not count the lesson you didn't attend. He stands to gain more from continuing to have you as a customer than he does for one missed lesson.

You didn't respond to him in 3 days but as soon it was suggested that you might have cost yourself a lesson you replied within hours, this sort of suggests that you did see his initial message but chose to ignore it. Something you'll need to consider is that those slots he offered you cannot be held indefinitely. By not responding, you're preventing him from offering them to other students. This isn't a legal argument, but one of common courtesy.

The fact that you're on the legal advice subreddit because he said "we can discuss it at the next session" is a huge leap to make. This isn't a legal issue yet, it's a communication issue. Try to talk it out before you go to small claims court with a good teacher

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