Tutor Took Your Fees and Didn’t Deliver? How to Demand a Refund

You paid $1,600 for a term of Year 12 maths tutoring. Ten sessions. The tutor cancelled the second one, “rescheduled” the fourth and fifth, then stopped replying in week six. Your kid has trials in a month, and you have $960 worth of lessons that never happened.

Or the tutoring centre took $2,400 for the year, and the shopfront is now empty with a “closed” sign.

Both are simple.

Money paid for lessons not delivered is a debt

Tutoring is a service under the Australian Consumer Law. Lessons must be delivered within the agreed time or a reasonable time (section 62). When they are not, you are entitled to a refund for the sessions not provided. If the tutor made promises about qualifications (“qualified teacher”, “99.95 ATAR”) that were false, that is also misleading conduct under section 18.

It does not matter that:

• There was no written contract, only a text conversation
• You paid cash or bank transfer
• The tutor is a university student
• The “terms” say “no refunds for cancelled sessions”

A “no refunds” line cannot override the ACL (section 64). And a term that lets the tutor cancel without refund while charging you for your cancellations is a textbook unfair contract term.

Calculate the exact figure

Sessions paid for: 10 at $160 = $1,600. Sessions delivered: 4. Owed: $960. If you have had to book an emergency tutor at a higher rate to catch up before exams, the difference is claimable as foreseeable loss too.

If the tutoring centre closed

Check ASIC to see whether the company has gone into liquidation. If it has, you register as a creditor with the liquidator, but be realistic about recovery. If the company is still registered and just shut the door, the director is still running a business that owes you money, and a Letter of Demand to the registered office works. Also try a chargeback if you paid by card, within 120 days.

Evidence

1. Payment records
2. Messages agreeing the number of sessions and the price
3. Calendar or messages showing each cancellation
4. Screenshots of the tutor’s ad or website with their promises

The Letter of Demand

Send it to the tutor’s email and, if you have it, their address. Set out the agreement, the sessions delivered and not delivered, the calculation, the sections of the ACL, and a 14-day deadline. State that you will file at the tribunal and that a judgment can be enforced against their bank account.

Tutors rely entirely on word of mouth from parents. A formal letter is often the first time they realise that ghosting a parent has legal consequences.

If they say “I’ll make up the sessions”

Only accept that if it is in writing, with dates, and it is actually useful to your child before the exam. Four make-up lessons the week after trials are worthless. If the offer does not fix the problem, decline politely in writing and restate the refund figure. You are not obliged to keep a tutor who has already let you down.

Claim Done drafts your Letter of Demand for $49. Done in about 5 minutes. You approve it before it is sent.