Isabel, please let us know how your doing with your findings and your dancing! 1) don't have any guilt over what direction you want to take with your dance goals. 2) Set a budget. 3) Investigate all avenues of learning 4) don't sign any contracts. Insight, it sounds like the studio has used your $3,000 for bills and is looking for "new" money for overhead. This is a big red flag warning. If I had spent, even at my chain studio, $3,000 in 5 weeks (and money was not a problem for me - then) - I would have been very suspect of the studio, the teacher, the owner and would have left dancing all together figuring it was an expensive hobby/passion. I had great friends, a good message board and the yellow pages and internet to provide other avenues and the truest of true independent teachers and other dance schools. Good Luck with your dancing.

State laws control when contracts are needed or not. In some States, contracts are REQUIRED if a student pre-pays lessons up to a certain amount (which amount can vary by state); and in some States a studio must be BONDED with the State for a certain sum - to ensure that money is available to refund a student's money if the student cancels a contract. If a State has imposed such statutes they apply to BOTH chain and independent studios. Does that seem so bad?

In my experience, chain studios abide by the State laws. Of the several independent studios at which I take lessons, none of them abide by the state laws and none of them are bonded with the State - so at independent studios I pay only AFTER each lesson. Otherwise, if I prepay, and have to move somwhere else or want to stop lessons and want my money back for prepaid lessons, I could have trouble getting my money back from the independents.

Contracts in and of themselves are not always bad - they can protect your rights if you prepay for lessons. The studio may actually be protecting YOU if they have you sign a contract if you prepay lessons. BUT - you DO have to actually READ the terms of the contract, and ASK questions if you don't understand the terms of refunds and cancellations. Is that SO hard??? Just asking some questions - is that SO hard???

Which states? I'm sure there has to be more to it than "forced to by state law."

Our studio is simple: no contracts, you pay by the hour or buy a bundle of lessons. No refunds. We're on the "combination" plan. $175 a month for four private lessons, social parties, and group classes.

WTH would I want to ever sign a contract for dance lessons? I'm not buying a house or a car...

jwlewinson,
At least 3 states that I know that require written contracts for prepaid lessons are Florida, Illinois and California.
One reason to have a contract: to get a refund for prepaid lessons. Why would I pre-pay for a bundle of lessons if I couldn't get my money back for unused lessons if I moved or became ill or something?

I'm actually an Illinois resident, although I take my lessons in Kentucky.

I looked at the IL state law, as well as the FL one, and it appears they were made to counteract the (mostly) chain studios that require customers to prepay large amounts for lessons, and to govern those contracts the studio required. The Illinois law especially mentions several guidelines for how contracts are to be written when required by the studio. In this case, I can see why the law would have been written, since chain studios are notorious for large sums of cash and contractual obligations.

Based on both these laws, studios (like many independents) that operate on a lesson-by-lesson plan and that do not require contracts would not fall under the requirements of the law.

Notice from the Illinois law, that every article begins with the phrase "Every contract for dance studio services..."
Studios that do not require contracts would therefore not fall under the jurisdiction of this law.

As for bonding requirements, from the Illinois law
"Sec. 12. Bonding requirements. Every dance studio which requires or receives advance payment from any customer in excess of $50 or more frequently than once each month shall maintain a bond for the benefit of any person who has entered into a contract for dance studio services with the dance studio."

So, the bonding requirement is again for those studios that require a large advance payment. Monthly plans would not fall under this law, even if they were in excess of $50 due to the wording (the word "OR" as in "or more frequently").

As to the Florida law, again it was apparently made for those chain studios that require contracts and large amounts of payment.

From a Q&A on Florida's governmental website:

Is there a security requirement and if so, what are the requirements?
Yes, each ballroom dance studio that has been in business for less than 3 years and that requires or receives an advance payment from any customer in excess of $250 or enters into retail installment contracts for payment by any customer for dance services or lessons in installments shall establish a mechanism for ensuring customer refunds.

Again, smaller month-to-month payment plans without contracts would not fall under this law.

As you can see, the language of these acts would explicitly exclude those studios that do NOT require contracts and do NOT require large sums of money for lesson plans. They were both made to protect customers from those money-hungry (my opinion) studios that insist on contracts and insist on large payments.

So yes, the independent studios you complained about "not abiding by state laws" ARE in fact abiding by those laws. You can research it yourself if you like, just as you asked that I do.

Jwlinson,
I perhaps see different payment plans than you do. Under your Illinois scenario, if your monthly payment plan is less than $50 and you pay only once a month, then no bond would seem to be required. But what if your monthly payment is $75? Is your interpetation of the Illinois statute that a bond would NOT be required? Also, I've rarely seen monthly payment plans outside of chain studios. More often, I've seen Independents that will typically do something like sell a 10-punch card for, say $600, a $100 savings off of 10 regularly priced lessons. So - there you have a prepayment greater than $50 - I would think that bonding might be required in that instance. What do you think? (I'm not trying to be difficult or snooty with my questions, so please don't take offense - I'm really curious as to how that would work in your state)
Also, if I paid that much in advance, I actually WOULD like something in writing that set out the terms - beyond a little 10-punch ticket. I once came very close to losing money to an independent that unexpectedly closed its doors.
I have yet to run across an independent that will give me anything in writing for prepaid lessons - therefore I pay only as I go, and have had no problems.

JWlinson,
Re: your Flordia scenario - I don't understand your reasoning that "small" montly payment plans are exempt. Your extract states that installment payment plans ARE subject to having mechanisms for refunds - it doesn't seem to specify any threshhold sum. I think that you and I are interpreting "OR" differently.
Again, I'm not trying to be offensive - I'm just trying to understand, having once come really close to being burned by an independent studio.

Jwlinson,
Just one more part of your post that I don't understand: the part about studios that "don't" require contracts. Even if there isn't a written contract, there is still an agreement (a contract) that the teacher supply a service and I pay a fee.
My interpretation of the statutes you addressed is that they do require WRITTEN contracts (maybe the studios dont' want to. . . .) So, the state specifies when a written contract is required, not the studio. Could you explain your reasoning more in depth? (Again, I'm not trying to be contrary, I'm trying to understand - we must sound like a couple of lawyers arguing a case over a single word or comma!)

In any case, once, a long, long time ago I did take one single lesson at a chain studio located in Illinois. Even though I paid after the lesson, the studio owner still had me sign a contract. By the way, that studio was bonded and that studio owner was the one who told me to look out for the various state laws regulating dance studios and to be aware. (Land of Lincoln, yes?)

Re: your point about contracts:
I define any sort of contract as written. Verbal agreements are just that. I'm agreeing to pay them, they're agreeing to fulfill the service I'm paying for. When I pay the person who mows my yard, I'm entering the same type of agreement with no written contract.

The statute is written as thus:
Sec. 4. Contract requirements: written contract. Every contract for dance studio services shall be in writing.

I'm interpreting this as "in the case where a contract is needed, it is to be written and not verbal." If no contract is required, as is the case with a one-hour lesson or a one-month package, then that would not fall under this statute. I don't see myself entering into a contractual obligation when I pay my month-to-month package fee.

Re: Payment plans and bonding:
While rereading, I found another point of argument. It says "for the benefit of any person who has entered into a contract." As the definitions state, any contract must be in writing, and since a verbal agreement for services is not a contract then this requirement is null. I can see where that definition of "contract" as opposed to a simple "verbal agreement" could be called into question if and when this statute were to ever go to court.

Re: Florida:
I'm interpreting this as:
If I have to pay in excess of $250 in advance, then there must be a security requirement. If I enter into an installment contract then there must be a security requirement. If I pay a monthly non-contractual fee of $249 where it's known that at the end of the month neither party is obligated to continue any business whatsoever (verbal agreement) then there is no security requirement. The monthly payments I make to my studio are not contractual installments. If after that month I don't pay, then I don't receive service. If I don't pay my lawn mower guy, then he doesn't mow my lawn. Since we had no contract, that's perfectly acceptable.

Can you agree with me that these statutes were created just for those chain studios where a contract is required, to protect those consumers who could be lulled into actually paying large sums and being trapped by a written agreement? I don't see in the IL law where it specifically states a written contract is required at all. It only lists the requirements that any written contract is to have.

A few studios I've read about online advertise "no contracts" and still have monthly or hourly pay plans. If this statute forced those to have written contracts, I'm sure action would have already been taken against them.

I'm not being snippy either, and I don't believe you are. I actually enjoy an educated debate, especially where legalese is concerned.

jwlinson,
Ah - then our fundamental difference in interperation is actually about what a "contract" is. To me, any agreement, whether verbal or written, is a contract. When it gets written down, it's just more formal than a verbal agreement. So, when you promise to pay your lawn-mower $10 after he mows your lawn, it's a contract - it may be a verbal contract, but it's still a contract. If you don't pay him after he performs the service, he can sue you for failing to live up to your end of the agreement - like a contract. (Makes it easier for him to sue if all the terms of the agreement are in writing, but he can still go forward with his claim even if it's a verbal agreement).
Likewise, if I agree to pay my dance instructor $60 for an hour of teaching, it's a contract (an agreement, a promise) and some state laws require that those agreements be "formalized" into a written form.
Perhaps someone has one of those law dictionaries lying around.. . .