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Unreasonable late fee recoverable?

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BarbaraB

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? South Carolina

Hi!

I had a person taking care of my children in her home, and I paid her biweekly, in advance, $150 per week ($300 per period). At the beginning of the month, and due to circumstances beyond my control, I was 10 days late with a payment, which she accepted, and continued to watch my children. Yesterday, I received a letter stating she no longer wants to care for my children because of the problem with the payment earlier in the month. However, I had already paid in advance for next week. She said she was keeping that money as late fees, and will not return any of it.

I never received written notification of any late fee schedule, so I believe the fees are unreasonable, if not illegal. Can I recover my $150 in small claims court?

Thanks for any advice!
 


justalayman

Senior Member
Do you have any written contract regarding this? If so, that would/should answer your questions.

If no written contract exists, then it would (obviously) be a verbal contract. Now it becomes you against the provider. If you had never been informed of any "late fees" and you can convince the judge of this, you should be able to recover.
 

BarbaraB

Junior Member
No written contract nor even a "parent handbook" was ever provided to me.

Are there limitations as to how high a late fee can be? It seems to me that a fee equal to one week's payment is high.

Thanks, again!
 

justalayman

Senior Member
My "tag" is the truth so take this as such.

If there was no prior notice of a late payment fee, I would tend to think any late payment fee would be unreasonable.

Hang tight though. Hopefully one of the real legal eagles will chime in and give an absolute answer.
 

badapple40

Senior Member
Most states view this type of "penalty clause" as unenforceable, even if it is in a contract. Here there was no contract, but, instead, this person apparently made it up after-the-fact to try to claim that you forfeited your advance payment.

I do not think that person has any chance of keeping the payment, and you should, indeed, take them to small claims court.

Did you have any contract with this person whatsoever?
 

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