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However, representatives from Childhood Garden told the tv3.lt news portal that they did not agree with SCRPA’s assessment and intended to request the service to change the decision.
The dispute between parents and the kindergarten “Childhood Garden” arose during the quarantine, when parents still had to pay for them after the closure of the institutions.
Office Decision: some of the contract terms were unfair
Irina Martinkevič, Senior Advisor of the Legal Division of the State Service for the Protection of Consumer Rights, commented on the decisions of the service to the news portal tv3.lt.
“In the case under examination, it was established that the contract establishes the kindergarten’s right to unilaterally modify the terms of the contract and the prices for the provision of services without a sufficient basis provided in the contract.
The right to unilaterally terminate the contract for any breach of the contract, even in the absence of a material breach of the contract.
The kindergarten was also provided with significantly shorter notice periods for the termination of the contract than for the consumer, ”said advisor I. Martinkevič.
In other words, the consumer rights experts recognized and declared in the document that certain terms of the contract were unfair to the parents.
After examining the contract for the kindergarten “Vaikystės sodas”, the SCRPA commission reported that 11 clauses of the contract and 2 clauses of the contract annex had substantially violated the balance of rights and obligations of the parties and the rights and interests of the consumer.
More private kindergartens are in the council’s sights
The Senior Advisor of the Legal Department pointed out that, in general, similar conditions exist in the contracts of other private pre-schools.
“The service receives frequent inquiries and requests from consumers for the provision of private preschool education services.
Each application is evaluated individually, in this case the user’s application was also received and the terms of the contract were evaluated (for “Kindergarten” – aut. Past).
This year, according to consumer requests, more contracts from preschool educational institutions were evaluated and the resolutions adopted are available on the service’s website, ”said I. Martinkevič.
SCRPA is currently processing about 16 applications for various private preschool services.
When asked what additional steps need to be taken regarding the contract and the terms itself, the consultant said that a response from the company “Vaikystės sodas” would be expected: “We will continue to communicate about the change in the terms of the contract.”
Parents can claim damages
According to counselor I. Martinkevič, in case of dispute, parents can apply for compensation to the kindergarten and, if they are not satisfied with the decisions, to the VTAT or the court.
“The law establishes the consumer’s right to seek damages. In such a case, however, consumers must prove that it was the abusive conditions that caused the damage.
In particular, the dispute must be resolved between the consumer and the service provider. If it is not resolved, if the service provider does not meet the consumer’s requirements, then the consumer can request the service or directly to the court ”, said Counselor I. Martinkevič.
Kindergarten Marketing Manager – Our contract terms are fair
Rita Meilūnaitė, marketing director of the kindergarten “Vaikystės sodas”, commented on tv3.lt that she did not agree with the conclusions of the service.
“We have not been given the opportunity to make our arguments and are currently preparing and submitting them to service.
We are confident that the terms of our contract are fair and we can justify them all. We hope that after presenting our arguments, the service’s findings will change.
We would have liked to be able to communicate (with the service) before presenting the conclusions. We hoped we could make those arguments.
For our part, colleagues, along with lawyers, are preparing a package of arguments for each point, and I think we should be in the office in the near future, in a few days. We, of course, want to cooperate, only sometimes it is sad that these conclusions are made only by one side, ”said R. Meilūnaitė.
The shareholder of the kindergarten “Vaikystės sodo” is the company “Kibirkštis”, and its shareholder is Austėja Landsbergienė.
He distributed a newsletter to parents during the quarantine.
We remind you that tv3.lt announced in mid-March that the quarantine had a severe impact on the owners of private educational institutions. In order to survive, some kindergartens, such as Austėja Landsbergienė’s Childhood Garden, simply distributed a newsletter about 15 percent. discount, others followed suit, and a third asked for half the kindergarten fee.
Kindergarten kindergartens sent a newsletter to their parents, stating that the kindergarten can only provide 15 percent. discount and 85 percent. parents will still have to pay the kindergarten fee, even if the children do not attend.
It is true that kindergartens offered education in cyberspace, but for young children it is only possible with the care of an adult, which means that parents must stay home with the child or spend more and hire a babysitter.
The starting position of the Childhood Garden is around 15 percent. The discount outraged a significant number of parents who allow their children to attend these kindergartens, the monthly payment for attending this kindergarten 5 days a week without discount is just over 500 euros. They also had a rather brusque tone in the newsletter announcing the discount.
In the wake of a major scandal and media interest in the situation at these kindergartens, Childhood Garden announced that it would not charge fees to parents or operate during the quarantine period.
Kindergarten founder A. Landsbergienė posted a letter to employees on her Facebook account, saying that “Kindergarten” will “pull.”
“Parents, who are now experiencing great uncertainty about the future, are also angry. Angry about the situation, angry about the situation. As a result, we will definitely have to withdraw to Kindergarten. We will shoot as slowly as possible, trying to save both the squad and the home team, hoping to recover again, but we will throw away. Today there is no other way. Starting next week, we estimate that April could represent 25% of our previous earnings. There may be more, but there may not be that 25%. The numbers can change every day, “wrote A. Landsbergienė, the founder of the kindergarten. He acknowledged that the quarantine is a serious blow to business.
A month in this kindergarten costs 527 euros, 100 euros per kindergarten is paid by the capital city.
The news portal tv3.lt wrote that the situation in other private kindergartens in the capital was similar to that of the Kindergarten. They asked parents to pay the full amount for kindergarten services that children do not use or to reduce by 15 percent. In other places, individual payment terms for kindergartens were applied. In some places, prices have been recalculated.
Austėja Landsbergienė was recently interviewed by the program “Against the Current”, in which the woman did not hide her tears:
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