Driving school going bust , help required

Hi everyone , I wondered if anyone can help me with this :

My daughter Molly's driving school has decided to close down just after she had her 1st driving lesson last week. Molly can no longer learn to drive now. To make matters worse , my bank had just paid them 1200 euros from the loan I took out under the "permis a un euro par jour" scheme. In the contract I signed with the driving school there is some kind of gurantee financiere with a local bank.

The owner of the school told me not to worry and he would refund the money in a few days and speak to my bank but that was a week ago and nothing has happened. I think he is delaying me before he closes the business down.

They are still trading and have been in "redressment judiciare" since Mars 2013 , but not for much longer I think, the rumours are they will be closing definetively this month .


I'm not quite sure where to start but need more than just verbal assurances now and probaly need to start writing some formal letters but need help in doing so need to start but have no ideally with how to word a letter and who I can se legally without it costing too much.


re....legal cover. It is a policy on it's own and costs under 100 euros per year.

Sadly never seemed to perform for me at the time when the tiler went bust after

doing a very bad job. Or with getting correct after sales care from C E M in st

Emilion. Their attitude was that I should not expect a good COOKER as I had

only spent 1000 euros.

But you never know when these policies can work. It did work for one person

who had tenant problems so lets see. There is always hope.

That's right, at least 3000km in 3 years with a check at the 18 month stage where they spend 2 hours with an instructor driving around - and they can't drive with just anyone, it has to be parent/step-parent... they aren't allowed on the road until they have done 20 hours of lessons as well as passed the theory test. My daughter is doing it at the moment & will sit the driving test as soon as possible once she is 18.

It's called conduite accompagnée and is tightly regulated. My grandson is doing this now. Before he was allowed to drive with an experienced driver he had first to pass the theory (code de la route) exam and take a certain number of lessons with a qualified driving instructor. He then has to complete 3000 km (I believe) in a given period, three years I think. It's the length of time the theory exam is valid for.

Don't Panic! (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). IF you don't have that there is always assistance juridique which you're entitled to if you are french resident and obviously income dependent. But if you get the consumer assoc. advice first hopefully it won't come to that. In the meantime, what is Molly doing for lessons? Have you checked out whether you can get her the french equivalent of L Plates and let her drive you round? If you live somewhere relatively car free at least she'll have the chance to get used to driving a car with someone else in? My wife did her first bits of driving on an RAF runway in Scotland (near Stirling) with a Royal Engineer in the passenger seat. Experience more important than tuition? Won't solve the financial side but why wait until that's sorted for Molly to carry on?

Thank you Tracy, i shall ring my insurers next week to see if it's included. I can't find my policy conditions at the moment , only my certicate !

Check out your household insurance to see if you have 'assistance juridique' - usually included and contact them. They will sort it for you and wont cost anything.

Thank you both of you , that is a good place to start and is indeed helpful, especially that page of links Terry !!

Paul, check out the Useful Links page www.survivefrance.com/page/useful-links where you'll find links for UFC Que Choisir and other consumer organisations.

Don't think I can be much help but do you know with which local bank the guarantee is? I would suggest contacting your local UFC Que Choisir or similar local consumer association - they'll not only be able to give you advice but also help should letter writing be required.