Driving School Took Your Money and Won’t Refund the Lessons? Here’s How to Get It Back

You paid $900 up front for a 10-lesson package because it was “cheaper than paying per lesson”. You’ve had three. The instructor cancelled twice with an hour’s notice, once didn’t show at all, and now nobody answers the phone. Or you moved, or your teenager passed their test early, and the school says the package is “non-refundable”, full stop.

Pre-paid packages are where driving schools make their margin, and refund refusals are the cost of that model. Australian Consumer Law doesn’t allow a business to keep money for services it hasn’t provided.

Your rights

• Consumer guarantees (ss 60–62 ACL). Lessons must be delivered with due care and skill, be fit for purpose, and be supplied within a reasonable time. An instructor who repeatedly cancels or doesn’t turn up is failing the reasonable-time guarantee. If the failure is major (you can’t get lessons scheduled at all), you can terminate and get a refund of the unused portion under s 267.
• Unfair contract terms (ss 23–28 ACL). “No refunds under any circumstances” in a pre-paid consumer package is a classic unfair term: it lets the business keep money for nothing while the consumer bears all the risk. Since November 2023 using such terms attracts penalties.
• Misleading or deceptive conduct (s 18 ACL) if the school represented availability, instructor qualifications, or pass rates that weren’t true.
• Instructor licensing. Driving instructors must be licensed by the state transport authority (Transport for NSW, VicRoads, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, the Western Australia Department of Transport, etc.). Lessons from an unlicensed instructor aren’t lawful lessons, and the fee for them is refundable in full.
• If the school has closed. You’re an unsecured creditor of the business, but if you paid by card you can still chargeback for services not provided, and if the school was operated by a sole trader, you can pursue the individual.

What to do right now

1. Add up what’s unused. Lessons paid for, lessons delivered (with dates), lessons cancelled by them (with dates and notice given). The unused amount at the package rate is your minimum claim; if their cancellations caused you to miss a test, add the test fee.
2. Put the school on written notice. Email or text: “I have paid for [X] lessons and received [Y]. The school has cancelled [Z] lessons at short notice. Under the Australian Consumer Law I require a refund of $[amount] for undelivered lessons within 14 days.” If you want to continue, say instead that you require the remaining lessons scheduled within 14 days or a refund.
3. Check the instructor’s licence. State transport authorities have public registers or will confirm on request. An unlicensed instructor changes the claim from “partial refund” to “full refund”.
4. Chargeback if paid by card within 120 days of the payment (or, for some schemes, of the last date the service was due). Reason: services not provided.
5. Send a Letter of Demand. A formal letter citing the ACL guarantees, the unfair contract terms regime, the itemised unused amount, and a deadline before fair trading and tribunal. Driving schools are small businesses that don’t want a fair trading file.
6. Escalate. State fair trading, then the civil tribunal (fees are usually under $100 for this claim size).

The excuses, answered

• “The package was discounted, so it’s non-refundable.” A discount doesn’t turn the ACL off. You’re entitled to the value of the undelivered lessons. A fair method is the package price divided by the number of lessons, times the number not delivered.
• “You cancelled some lessons yourself.” A reasonable cancellation fee for short-notice cancellations by you is fine if it was disclosed. It doesn’t justify keeping the whole package.
• “Lessons expire after 12 months.” An expiry can be legitimate if it was clearly disclosed and reasonable, but not where the school’s own cancellations pushed you past it.
• “We can transfer the lessons to someone else.” Your choice, not theirs. You can insist on a refund.

Booking a test through the school

Many packages include the school booking and supplying the car for the driving test. If the school’s cancellations or unavailability caused a missed test, the test fee and the cost of rebooking (including a longer wait for the next slot) are consequential loss you can add to the claim under s 267 of the ACL. If the school took the test fee from you and never booked it, that’s money for a service not provided and is refundable in full. And if the instructor failed to turn up for the test itself, which happens more than you’d think, the loss includes the test fee, any time off work, and the cost of arranging another car and instructor. Document each of these separately with dates.

Learner logbook hours: in states where professional lessons count for extra logbook hours (New South Wales’s 3-for-1 up to 10 hours, for instance), lessons that weren’t properly recorded or signed off by a licensed instructor don’t count. If the school’s paperwork failure cost you logbook credit, say so in the letter; it’s part of why the service failed.

Who to complain to

Your state fair trading body for the refund. Your state transport authority (Transport for NSW, VicRoads, TMR Queensland, DoT Western Australia, and equivalents) about instructor licensing and conduct. The ACCC for “no refund” terms. Your bank for a chargeback. Your state’s civil tribunal (in WA, SA and Tasmania, the Magistrates Court) for the money.

Start your claim — $49

Claim Done drafts your Letter of Demand in about 5 minutes for $49. Tell us what happened — we handle the legal language.

Start My Claim — $49 →

You approve it before anything is sent.