Parents wanting deposit back HELP !

[Lee-Bee]

Depending on the exact wording on your paper work it may very well be illegal.

I personally (while looking into if you worded it right so you know for next time) would tell them you will attempt to fill the space and if you fill it with a suitable family before their original start time you will refund the money. If you find you can't fill it and the other families that you turned away have moved on and found care then it will be fair to keep the money in lieu of lost funds.

As noted, professionally if you can fill the space you are likely best to return the money. IF your wording was done very carefully to cover you in this case (I can't remember what the wording required is but I do recall it had to be worded very carefully to be legal) and you are willing to risk the bad word of mouth that may follow then you are in the right to keep the deposit.

Technically you can't take paid vacation days as a self employed person and if Canada Revenue finds out you have you would have to refund all money made from paid vacations...this is another case of having things worded VERY carefully. You CAN have paid time off...just can't refer to it as vacation time. Again, I don't recall the exact do's and don'ts and it may vary on province but it is important to ensure you have your basis covered before refusing to refund the deposit because in some cases, depending on wording, it can in fact be illegal and certain types of parents will call you out on it.