1. Introduction
a. Tutor Master is an agent for the introduction of one or more tutors to the Client. Tutor Master does not provide tutoring services. We are a tutoring agency and we are a party to this contract.
b. You are referred to in this contract as ‘the Client’, and you are the other party to this contract. You agree to the purchase of tutoring services on behalf of ‘the Student’. ‘The Student’ may be yourself or another person. The Student is the person who receives the tutoring service through sessions of tutoring.
c. The Client agrees to these terms and conditions which relate to Tutor Masters’ introduction of a tutor to you.
d. The tutoring services are provided by the Tutor under a separate agreement between the Client and the Tutor. See below on this page for this agreement.
e. The Termination or Conclusion of the Agreement occurs when all of the obligations under this contract are complete or discharged, excluding the on-going undertakings in paragraph 5c and 5d of this contract. Conclusion of the Agreement will typically occur at the end of the final lesson but may occur at another time in accordance with Section 6 of this contract.
2. General
a. The Client acknowledges that these terms govern the legal rights and obligations between the Client and Tutor Master. Tutor Master reserves the right to alter these terms and conditions.
b. No variation or alteration of these terms by the Client shall be valid unless expressly approved in writing by Tutor Master.
c. This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
3. Contractual Relationship
a. Tutor Master provides introductions of Tutors to Clients and vice versa; Tutor Master is an agent for the Tutor. It also collects fees from the Client on behalf of the Tutor together with its own fee relating to its administration and introduction commission. The hourly rate for tuition includes the tutor’s fees and Tutor Masters’ own fee. VAT is applied where appropriate.
4. Agreement with the Tutor for the provision of tutoring services
a. A Tutor will be deemed to have been introduced to the Client by Tutor Master in the event that either the name of the Tutor is provided to the Client by Tutor Master following the request for a Tutor by the Client, or Tutor Master arranges for a Tutor to contact the Client following such request for a Tutor provided by the client to Tutor Master.
b. By booking a Session with the Tutor, the Client agrees to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and by the terms and conditions which govern their relationship with the Tutor.
c. The Tutor is self-employed and engaged by the Client to provide tuition to the Student. Clients should be aware that the Tutor does not have power to bind Tutor Master Tutors in any way.
5. Prohibition of other Arrangements
a. The Client will not agree any alternative fees with the Tutor and agrees not to render any direct payments to the Tutor.
b. The Client is not permitted to enter into any private arrangements with any Tutor introduced by Tutor Master. The Client undertakes to make all bookings with Tutors introduced by Tutor Master exclusively through Tutor Master.
c. A breach of these terms will render the Client liable to account to Tutors for all sums received by the Tutor direct from the Client or from a new Client without deduction and Tutor master shall be entitled to seek injunctions against the Client to prevent further breaches. These obligations continue beyond the termination or conclusion of this agreement.
d. Should you wish to recommend one of tutor Master Tutors to any other Potential or Actual Client, that Client must contact Tutor Master Tutors to make a booking through the agency.
6. Replacements and Termination
a. If the Tutor is unable to complete the Course of Tuition, or the Client requests a replacement Tutor because they are not satisfied with the original Tutor assigned to them, Tutor Master will endeavour to find up to two suitable replacement Tutors with regard to the level and subject for which tuition is required.
b. If Tutor Master is unable to find such a suitable replacement Tutor within a reasonable time to complete the remaining Sessions of the Course of Tuition, Tutor master will refund a portion of the fees pre-paid by the Client representing the number of sessions that the Tutor or any replacement Tutor has been unable to complete.
c. If the replacement Tutors meet Tutor master criteria for suitability for the job in terms of subject and level knowledge and is available at the same time or another time convenient for the Client, then Tutor Master has fulfilled its obligations; if the Client then wishes to terminate the Tuition mid-Course, the provisions of paragraph 6d will apply.
d. If the Client wishes to terminate the Tuition mid-Course for any reason, no refunds can be granted for the balance of sessions that have been taught; furthermore, one week’s notice must be provided. In that week the Client may choose to utilise the Session or Sessions that were planned to occur during that week, or not, but will not be refunded if the Client chooses not to utilise the Session or Sessions during that week. Tutor master will refund all monies prepaid excluding fees for the sessions that have already been taught and those fees for the week following the notification of Termination.
7. Payment
a. The Client can pay either by bank transfer or in cash at any bank for the first lesson. Thereafter if the Client is paying monthly payment can be made via our online payment system Stripe.
b. The Client will pay on a monthly basis in advance. The Client will be invoiced during the last week of the month in respect of tuition that will be delivered in the course of the following month.
c. Exceptionally we may allow some clients to pay on a weekly payment basis. Invoices will still be issued monthly but will have weekly payment dates. These must be paid two business days before the scheduled lesson. If the invoice is not paid on time, the lesson will be cancelled.
d. Tuition will not begin prior to receipt of payment for the month or period in question.
8. Client’s Responsibilities
a. The Client shall notify Tutor Master immediately and without delay and in any event within 24 hours if the Tutor fails to attend work or notifies the Client that (s) he is unable to attend work for any reason.
9. Expenses
a. Provided the Client gives clear prior consent in writing, the Tutor may obtain educational resources such as textbooks on behalf of the Client/Student. As stated in Prohibition Of Other Arrangements, the Client agrees not to render any direct payments to the Tutor. Tutor master must be informed of any such arrangement to obtain educational resources, and will arrange reimbursement for the Tutor via invoice to the Client.
10. Liability
a. Tutor Master does not accept any liability for any claims by the Client arising out of or related to the provision of tutoring services by the Tutor.
b. Tutor Master does not exclude liability that is not permitted to be excluded by law, and in particular we do not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from Tutor Master’s own negligence.
c. Tutor Master will not be liable to the Client or any third party for any act, omission or error (whether willful, negligent or otherwise) of the Tutor.
d. Whilst every effort is made by Tutor Master to give satisfaction to the Client by ensuring reasonable standards of skills, integrity and reliability from Tutors and further to provide them in accordance with the Client’s needs, Tutor Master is not liable for any loss, expense, damage or delay arising from the negligence, dishonesty, misconduct, accidental or deliberate damage to property during the assignment or lack of skill of the Tutor.
e. The Client shall indemnify and keep indemnified Tutor Master against any costs, claims or liabilities incurred by Tutor Master arising out of any Assignment or as a result of any breach of these Terms by the Client.
f. Tutor Master does not accept any liability for the consequences of tuition, including, but not limited to, exam results and dissertation scores.
g. Tutor Master is not responsible for insurance arrangements in respect of the Tutor providing tutoring services and the Client should note that this is the case.
11. Scheduling and Cancellation
a. Clients should be aware that there can be considerable preparation involved before each Session of tuition, in addition to travel time and cost to the Tutor.
b. Notice of cancellation of a scheduled tutoring Session for any reason whatsoever must be given by the Client to Tutor Master more than five hours prior to the scheduled Session. If notice is given more than five hours prior to the scheduled Session, the Client will not be charged for the Session.
c. If notice of cancellation of a scheduled tutoring Session is given within five hours of the start of the Session, then the Client will be charged with the full payment for that tutoring session, whether it is one, two or more hours, unless the Tutor deems the cause of cancellation to be unavoidable and agrees not to accept payment for the Session.
d. Should the Tutor not be available on the day, the Client will be informed, and a re-arranged time may be offered by the Tutor. If a suitable alternative time cannot immediately be arranged, Tutor Master must be immediately informed and this will be a credit Session that the tutor and client can arrange in the future.
e. If a tutorial falls on a Bank Holiday or other national or religious holiday that either the Tutor or the Client wishes to observe, then an alternative Session must be arranged and Tutor Master must be informed of any new arrangements.
f. If the Student is late for a Session, the Tutor may choose to but is not obligated to work beyond the scheduled end time. If the Tutor stops work at the scheduled end time, the Session will be charged at the usual price. If the Tutor agrees to work beyond the scheduled end time at the Client’s request, the Tutor may choose to charge the Client for the additional time. If a Tutor is late for a Session, then it is the duty of the Tutor to arrange to make up the lost time.
g. If the Student or Client chooses to terminate a Session early (for example, after one hour of a two-hour session), the Session will be charged at the usual price.
h. Prior to Sessions, Clients will receive a lesson reminder from Master Tutors via email on behalf of the Tutor.
i. Cancellations by the Client of more than 3 weeks in succession, or that which Tutor Master Tutors perceive as unreasonable, regular cancellations, will be considered for immediate termination of contract, at Tutor Master Tutors’ discretion.
12. Data Protection
a. The Client agrees that they will not disclose any confidential information concerning the Tutor or Tutor Master to any person for the duration of this agreement and for a period of five years after termination of the agreement, save as required by law, court order or any governmental or regulatory authority. More detailed information is available in the Privacy and Data Collection Policy available on Tutor Master Tutors’ Website.
Agreement between Tutors and Clients
1. Status of this Agreement
a. This agreement forms the contract between the Tutor and the Client when Tutor Master has effected an introduction and both the Tutor and the Client have agreed to undertake tuition.
b. By agreeing to teach the Student, the Tutor agrees to this contract. By agreeing to have the Student tutored by the Tutor, the Client agrees to this contract. The Tutor and the Client acknowledge that these terms govern the legal rights and obligations between them.
c. This contract should be read alongside the Terms and Conditions for Clients and Terms and Conditions for Tutors.
d. These terms constitute the whole agreement between the parties and no variation or alteration of these terms shall be valid.
e. The parties agree that this agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales regardless of where tuition takes place.
f. The Client is the person who agrees to the purchase of tutoring services on behalf of the Student. The Student may be the same person as the Client or another person. The Student is the person who receives the tutoring service through sessions of tutoring. The Tutor delivers the tutoring service.
2. Provision of Tutoring Services
a. The Tutor will be self-employed or the Tutor will be working under a zero hours contract and this should be noted by the Client. Tutor Master acts as agent for the Tutor by introducing the Tutor to the Client.
b. The Tutor will carry out the tutoring services professionally, with due skill, diligence and care.
c. The Tutor is responsible for the content of the lessons and will prepare the lessons in accordance with the Client’s instructions and/or a relevant exam syllabus or qualification syllabus as appropriate. The Tutor’s methods of teaching and content of lessons are those of the Tutor alone and are not supervised or controlled by Tutor Master.
d. Tutors are responsible for providing all reasonable teaching materials.
e. The Client and the Tutor are jointly responsible for agreeing a safe and suitable environment for the tutoring to take place. This will usually be the Student’s home.
f. It is the obligation of the Tutor to ensure that their timesheets are accurate and up to date; however, Clients should assist Tutors in carrying out this obligation by signing the timesheets when asked, in order to confirm the accuracy of the information on the sheet. Clients have no obligation to sign inaccurate timesheets and if they believe the information on the timesheet is inaccurate, they should contact Tutor Master.
g. The Tutor will not provide or agree to provide any services or carry out any work for the Client or the Student other than Tuition, save with the prior consent of Tutor master.
h. The Tutor should provide two weeks’ notice prior to terminating tuition services for any Client.
3. Fees and Financial Arrangements
a. Tutor Master, as agent for the Tutor, will agree an hourly rate for tuition with the Client. The Tutor and the Client agree that all payments will be done through Tutor Master as the agent for the Tutor. The hourly rate may not be changed by the Tutor or the Client without written authority of Tutor Master.
b. The Tutor and the Client agree not to make any private arrangements for tuition with each other or with other Tutors or Clients introduced by Tutor Master Tutors. A breach of this obligation will render the Tutor and the Client liable to account to Tutor Master Tutors for all sums paid and received, and Tutor Master Tutors will be entitled to seek an injunction against the Tutor and the Client to prevent further breaches. This obligation continues beyond the end of this agreement and the conclusion of the course of tuition.
c. The Client may instruct the Tutor to acquire particular educational or teaching resources on behalf of the Client/Student. Tutor Master Tutors must be informed of any such arrangement, and we will arrange reimbursement of the Tutor via invoice to the Client. Tutors are not permitted to accept funds directly from the Client for any reason; Clients are not permitted to pay funds directly to the Tutor for any reason. Clients will have to confirm any such arrangement in writing.
4. Cancellations and Scheduling
a. The Tutor will provide to the Client notice of any proposed holiday dates and request the same from the Client, in order to schedule lessons at a convenient time for both parties. In the event of cancellation of a scheduled lesson, Tutor Master Tutors must be informed and an alternative date agreed between Client and Tutor.
b. Clients must give notice of cancellation of any scheduled lesson more than five hours before the session is due to begin. If notice is given by that time, there is no charge to rearrange the session, and we do not charge for the session on behalf of the Tutor.
c. If notice is given within five hours of the start time of the session, then Tutor Master Tutors will charge for the session on behalf of the Tutor unless the Tutor views the reason for cancellation to be unavoidable, and they choose not to charge for the session.
d. If the Student is late for a session, the Tutor may choose to but is not obligated to work beyond the scheduled end time, and the session will be charged at the usual price, whether or not the Tutor works beyond the scheduled end time. If a Tutor is late for a session, then it is the obligation of the Tutor to arrange to make up the lost time.
5. Liability
a. Tutor Master Tutors is not responsible for insurance arrangements in respect of the Tutor and their provision of tutoring services, and the Client should note this.
b. Tutor Master Tutors does not accept any liability for any claims by either the Client or the Tutor relating to the provision of tutoring services or any related matters.
c. Tutor Master Tutors does not exclude liability that is not permitted to be excluded by law.
d. The Tutor is engaged by the Client only to provide tuition and is not responsible for the safety, wellbeing, welfare and care of Students or for the protection of any person’s property. Clients who choose to leave the Student alone with the Tutor during the tutorial do so of their own free choice and at their own risk.
Terms and Conditions for Tutors
1. Status of Terms and Conditions
a. Tutor Master Tutors reserves the right to alter these terms and conditions.
b. This agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of England and Wales.
c. No variation or alteration of these Terms and Conditions by the Tutor shall be valid unless approved in writing by Tutor Master Tutors.
d. The Tutor and Tutor Master Tutors acknowledge that these terms govern legal rights and obligations between them.
2. Status of Tutors
a. If the Tutor is a self-employed tutor then nothing contained within this Agreement shall constitute the relationship of employer and employee and/or worker or a partnership between the Company and the Tutor. Tutor Master Tutors acts as an agent for the Tutor by introducing them to suitable Clients.
b. Once a tutoring position has been confirmed, you are entering into a contract between you (the Tutor) and the Client (the Student, or the Student’s parent/guardian). This contract can be found above on this page.
c. The Terms of contract entered into by you with the Client shall be in the form provided by Tutor Master Tutors. Save where expressly provided for in these Terms, the Tutor has no power or authority to increase, reduce, or vary the tuition as set out or referred to in these Terms or to alter or waive any of these Terms or to bind or commit the Company in any way.
3. Tax
a. The Tutor undertakes to duly and promptly pay all income tax and national insurance contributions in relation to all charges and sums payable to the Tutor by the Company and shall be responsible for completing and submitting all relevant assessments, returns and other information to HM Revenue & Customs in relation to such charges and sums and to taxation affairs generally.
b. The Tutor shall indemnify the Company and keep the Company fully and effectively indemnified against all income tax, national insurance contributions and related penalties and/or interest in respect of any charges paid or payable by the Company to the Tutor for the Tuition, and any reasonable costs incurred by the Company in recovering any such sum due by the Tutor to the Company under this paragraph.
4. Tutor’s Responsibilities
a. The Tutor should carry out the tutoring services in a professional manner with due skill, diligence and care.
b. The Tutor is responsible for the content of lessons. These are to be carried out with proper preparation in accordance with a particular course of study, and in accordance with the Client’s instructions and/or relevant exam syllabus.
c. Although Tutor Master Tutors has some teaching resources and may be able to support Tutors by providing suitable materials, Tutors should be aware that they are responsible for providing all reasonable teaching materials.
d. Provided the Client gives clear prior consent in writing, the Tutor may obtain educational resources such as textbooks on behalf of the Client/Student. Tutor Master Tutors must be informed of any such arrangement to obtain educational resources, and will arrange reimbursement for the Tutor via invoice to the Client. Tutors are reminded that in accordance with section 6 of this agreement, they agree not to accept funds directly from the Client for any reason.
e. Tutors are responsible for keeping their time sheets up to date. This is a standard record of all lessons taught, which is to be signed by the Client after each lesson. If you are late in submitting these time sheets (see section 6 for details) or there is incorrect information on them, your payment may be delayed. If a Client disputes hours and the Tutor does not have a signed time sheet for the hours in question, we will be unlikely to be able to pay the Tutor for those hours.
f. The Tutor will write an assessment for the Student prior to their first lesson with the Student, and submit it to Tutor Master Tutors prior to the first lesson so that it can be checked and approved. The Student will carry out this assessment during the first lesson. Within 24 hours of the first lesson the Tutor must write a detailed critical analysis of how the Student did on the assessment, particularly focusing on areas of strength and weakness and what should be worked on during the course of tuition.
g. If the Tutor ceases to work with Tutor Master Tutors during a course of tuition, or ceases to work with a particular Student, either at their own behest or the behest of the Client, and the Student is continuing with their course of tuition from Tutor Master Tutors, the Tutor will draft a final report. This report will describe the work that the Tutor has done with the Student, and the work that remains to be done. It will describe the Student’s areas of strength and areas of weakness. The aim of the report will be to enable a new Tutor to pick up where the old Tutor stopped.
h. Tutors are expected to be responsive when contacted by Tutor Master Tutors. If you persistently fail to respond to communication from Tutor Master Tutors (via email or telephone or both) then we reserve the right to remove you from our books.
i. We also reserve the right to remove you from our books for breaching this agreement in any way, including but not limited to breaching section 11 (truthfulness of information given to Tutor Master Tutors). In addition we reserve the right to remove you from our books due to unreasonable, inappropriate or rude behaviour such that we feel we are unable to act as your agent.
5. Private Arrangements
a. In consideration of Tutor Master Tutors providing you with Students, you are not permitted to make private arrangements for tuition with Clients introduced by Tutor Master Tutors or with new Client introduced by Tutor Master Tutors’ Clients. Should you breach this obligation, you will be liable to account to Tutor Master Tutors for all sums received by you from the Client/new Client without deduction and Tutor Master Tutors shall be entitled to obtain an injunction against you to prevent further breaches. This obligation shall continue notwithstanding termination or completion or other discharge of this Agreement.
b. Any work referred to a Tutor by a Client of Tutor Master Tutors must be billed through Tutor Master Tutors on your behalf. Tutor Master Tutors is willing to negotiate on commission for new Clients referred to you by our Clients but Tutor Master Tutors must process the billing and bookings must be through Tutor Master Tutors.
c. The Tutor will not provide or agree to provide any services or carry out any work for the Client or the Student other than the Tuition, save with the prior consent of Tutor Master Tutors.
6. Payment
a. Tutor Master Tutors will agree the fee structure with the Client and this may not be changed by the Tutor or the Client without written authority of Tutor Master Tutors.
b. Tutor Master Tutors collects fees due from Students/Clients and passes them on to you, net of a commission. Payments will only be made after payment has been received from the Client.
c. You will not be paid directly by the Client. You will not be entitled to receive your fee until Tutor Master Tutors has received payment from the Client. If Tutor Master Tutors does not receive payment in reasonable time, Tutors may obtain written permission from Tutor Master Tutors to invoice the Client directly.
d. You must not accept any payment direct from the Client without written permission from Tutor Master Tutors. Should you do so, all sums received by you will be immediately payable to Tutor Master Tutors and shall be actionable through the Courts without further notice to you.
e. Completed and signed time sheets must be submitted to Tutor Master Tutors monthly, after your last tuition session of the month or in any event by 4pm on the first day of the following month, for the lessons during that month (e.g. on or by 1 April at 4pm for lessons during March). If we receive correctly completed timesheets on time, payment will be made to you on the first working day of the following month (e.g. 1 April, or first working day of the month if later).
f. If you submit your timesheets late, you will not be paid until the next Payment Date. Our only Payment Dates are the first working day of the month and the fifteenth of the month or first working day after the fifteenth if the fifteenth is not a working day.
7. Cancellation Policy
a. The Tutor will provide to the Client notice of any proposed holiday dates and request the same from the Client, in order to schedule lessons at a convenient time for both parties. The Tutor must notify Tutor Master Tutors of the schedule agreed.
b. In the event of cancellation of a scheduled lesson, Tutor Master Tutors must be informed and an alternative date will be agreed between Client and Tutor. The notification of Tutor Master Tutors of the cancellation and alternative Session date will speed up administration and prevent delays to your payment.
c. Tutors should be aware that Clients must give notice of cancellation of any session more than five hours before the session is due to begin. If notice is given by that time, there is no charge to rearrange the session, and the Tutor is not paid for a session that has not been taught.
d. If notice is given within five hours of the start time of the session, there are two options. If the Tutor views the reason for cancellation as being unavoidable, and they choose not to charge for the session, then Tutor Master Tutors will not charge the Client for the Session on behalf of the Tutor. If the Tutor does not deem the reason for cancellation to be unavoidable, or requires payment nonetheless, Tutor Master Tutors will charge the Client for the Session on behalf of the Tutor and will pass on the Tutor’s fees net of commission as usual.
8. Liability
a. Tutor Master Tutors does not accept any liability for any claims by the Client arising out of or related to the carrying out of the tutoring by you and you agree to indemnify Tutor Master Tutors without limit in respect of any such claims.
b. The Company shall have no liability to the Tutor for any loss, damage, expenses, payments or injury which the Tutor may incur arising from the security or state or condition of any premises in which the Tuition is provided or from any act or omission of the Client, the Student or any third party occurring on any such premises or otherwise during the course of or in connection with the provision of the Tuition.
c. The Company shall have no liability for any loss or damage arising directly or indirectly from any act or omission of the Tutor. The Tutor shall indemnify the Company and keep the Company fully and effectively indemnified on demand against any actions, claims, costs, losses, damages, expenses, liabilities and payments which may be brought against or suffered or incurred by the Company as a result of or in connection with, directly or indirectly, the provision of the Tuition by the Tutor, any act or omission by the Tutor, and any breach or non-performance of these Terms or the Terms of the Agreement between the Tutor and the Client by the Tutor.
d. Tutor Master Tutors does not exclude liability that is not permitted to be excluded by law, and in particular we do not exclude liability for death or personal injury arising from Tutor Master Tutors’ own negligence.
9. Confidentiality
a. The Tutor undertakes that they will not at any time during or after the conclusion of this agreement, disclose to any person any confidential information concerning the business, affairs, customers, clients or suppliers of Tutor Master Tutors, except that you may disclose Tutor Master Tutors’ confidential information as may be required by law, court order, or any governmental or regulatory authority.
b. The Tutor undertakes not to make use of confidential information encountered through association with Tutor Master Tutors for any purpose other than to perform your obligations under this Agreement.
10. Data Protection Act
a. Tutor Master Tutors uses tutor data for the purposes of the services that it provides. Tutors providing personal data consent to the use of that data by Tutor Master Tutors for the purpose of effecting introductions to Clients, for billing and fee collection purposes and to enable Tutor Master Tutors to contact the Tutor from time to time. If you would like additional information, we encourage you to read our Privacy and Data Collection Policy on our website.
11. Truthfulness and Accuracy
a. The Tutor warrants and represents to the Company that all written and oral statements and information provided by the Tutor to the Company for the purpose of or in connection with the Tuition, including (but not limited to) personal information about the Tutor and/or your qualifications, credentials, references and suitability for providing the Tuition were when provided, and remain, true, complete and accurate.
b. If anything occurs which materially changes the information originally provided, such as but not limited to you being convicted of an offence subsequent to your DBS check, you must inform the Company of this information in order that the information provided to the Company about yourself remains truthful and accurate.