Legal Advice for Host Parents | Legal Advice Centre

Questioner

Hello, I have a childminder and my childminder agency was recently declared bankrupt. Question about the payment for January. The requesting parents have stopped the collection and have not yet paid the money for January. I have submitted my time registration. Is it possible for the parents to pay me directly? Or can I submit a correction and then declare fewer hours so that the parents can pay me directly? In concrete terms, what to do now that the money is still with the requesting parent.

Lawyer

If all goes well, the trustee will still recover all outstanding monetary claims on behalf of the childminder agency. This means that the requesting parent who had to pay, must still pay. You must submit a claim to the childminder agency for the hours that you are still entitled to money. A direct claim from you on the requesting parents will therefore not be possible; the childminder agency is your 'employer' so they must pay your 'salary'.

Questioner

Great that you are responding so quickly. Okay, so the requesting parent simply has to pay. When can I, as a host parent, send a claim? In advance, or wait until the payment term has expired or after a letter from the curator, if he or she makes himself or herself heard.

Lawyer

You can only send a claim when payment is not forthcoming. Mere suspicion that you will not be paid is not enough; the other party must really be in default. But what I understand is that the agency has already been declared bankrupt?? Because if that is the case, then you must report to the trustee as soon as possible, since the trustee must know which claims are still outstanding.

Lawyer

To avoid misunderstandings: the requesting parent can only 'pay liberatingly' to the curator. If they pay you, the curator can demand that they pay the curator again. You cannot therefore ask them to pay you 'directly'. Whether you get paid for your hours is a separate question that the trustee will be able to answer for you.

Questioner

Thank you for your response. I had already promised the requesting parent to hold on to the money and possibly refund it. But yesterday afternoon I heard that our childcare agency has been definitively taken over. Does this guarantee that we will now be paid? Or will the requesting parent's money still go to the curator?

Lawyer

But is the childminder agency in the same condition, taken over under the same name? Or has it been declared bankrupt? Because that does make a significant difference regarding the outstanding claims...

Questioner

We received an email yesterday later in the day that the payment is going through! Another existing childminder agency has taken over the bankrupt childminder agency. My problem is solved with this. Thank you for the quick responses to my question.

Lawyer

AH! That’s great to hear! Good luck further!