Consumer Law, Warranties Child care contract

[Swish7613]

In October, I had to fire my home daycare sitter. She had a casual daycare center and I needed her desperately. She gave me a handbook outlining what she would do for my child. I signed a contract after she assured me it was no "big deal" and although I had some concerns with cleanliness and whether she just put the babies in a swing all day-but nothing major.I always paid her on time-Mondays- and she never had a problem with it at all. Then, one day, my husband took my daughter there-He gave her the check (Monday like we agreed to) and she went off screaming and yelling in front of the children about how all the parents take advantage of her. She wanted my husband to fork over $40 for a late fee that we never heard of. I then called her and she yelled and screamed at me. I started to worry about the safety of my child, so I left work and picked her up. The sitter has some problems with paying her bills and was constantly getting collection calls while I was there, so I figured she just had a bad day. But after thinking about it, she had not done anything in the handbook, her place was filthy-smelling with urine on some days, she harbored a nasty turtle which was against DCFS rules which smelled up the entire house. She never helped me with potty training like she promised and for some reason, my daughter developed digestive problems when she was there. Scary. AT any rate, we had just paid her for two weeks on Monday, terminated our contract verbally on Tuesay and mailed the letter. I ended up giving her the stupid $40 that she was owed due to her so-called contract that was never enforced up until that day. Well upon looking at the contract it says that we would owe her 4 weeks pay after we terminate the contract. Because I worried for the safety of my child and because she did not follow any of the guidelines in the parents book and often disregarded DCFS rules, is she entitled to the additional 2 weeks pay that I did not pay her. I paid her two weeks on Monday and terminated tuesday so she got 2 weeks of pay without doing anything.

 

[Swish7613]

I wanted to also know if she can put something on my credit report if she does end up turning this into collections.