Regular care and Teacher care

[Suzie_Homemaker]

I don't have expiring contracts. Not even for teacher's children. When someone comes here, they sign a contract that is based on a master contract but edited to reflect the individual agreement.
If I've agreed to an early drop off, reduced days for higher fee, anything at all that relates to the agreement, it is documented within the contract before signing.

My son is contract lawyer so I been lucky to have his input for my contracts.

If you have an annual contract, the issue is, there is an expiry date. This means when that date comes, either party can walk away, without obligation to the other side. Why would you set yourself up so that a client can just defer signing new contract and then allow first one to expire and you find yourself with space to fill and no notice period?

In this business, it makes no sense to have renewable contracts. You are providing care until such a time that it no longer suits your needs or until it no longer suits their needs. If and when that situation arises, then you just need clear policy about how to end the contract i.e. termination conditions.

My client's sign contract if they want to come. It details who the contract between, what child the contract for, what hours of care are being offered, what days of care being offered, fees, and any special conditions. For a teacher, I don't offer special conditions but if I did accept teacher schedule, this is where I would document that care was not available during school closure days (or what the arrangement is).

I strongly advice against annual contracts unless your province requires you do that. The expectation is that a new client will be here long term unless they move, change jobs, etc, so why not issue a long term contract that just explains the termination process? If your reason for annual contract is merely fee increases or policy changes, just have a contractual clause stating that fees and policy change at times and you will notify any changes in writing # days before the change.

Exactly like any other service - We had e-mail recently from Netflix that just say fees are going up next month to to their rate. That all required. If someone not want to pay that extra dollar, then it the responsibility of that customer to terminate contract in the agreed way.