Self employed contractor - owner trying to claw back training costs

[chsbt5781]

Hi all,

Wondering if someone could provide me with some assistance. I am a self employed driving instructor. I "sub-contract" i.e. work under the umbrella of an established business as an instructor for them. Originally when I joined the business (also trading as a sole trader for reference) the owner trained me up for no cost and I sub contracted for them afterwards training students, which I have been doing for just under a year now. There have never been any contracts signed or any agreements whatsoever. There was never any mention of money changing hands unless I wanted an intensive training package which I opted not to bother for, instead training over a period of four months. I am now fully qualified in my own right.

Unfortunately myself and the company owner have had a breakdown in our working relationship and he is seeking to recover training costs from me if I leave. Where do I stand on this? I have never signed or agreed to anything of that nature, in terms of a genuine pre estimate of loss I simply observed him carrying out lessons and progressively took parts of them until he deemed me competent, he spent a probably about 10 hours with me one on one. There has also not been a figure mentioned, just "you would have to pay for your training". I hope someone can help me.

Many thanks

[Amethyst]

Tagging Ula for you, but my opinion ( for what it's worth) is he's trying it on to be awkward.

[ULA]

My view is that if there was a requirement for you to repay training costs then an agreement should have been put in place at the time, detailing what the specific training costs to be repaid would be, the value and over what time they should be repaid. Since there is nothing in place then I would suggest he has no basis on which to pursue you for repayment.