Reference Guide · Updated 20 May 2026
How private tutors should structure session packs, expiries, and cancellation policies that are enforceable under the Australian Consumer Law — plus the common-but-illegal terms that quietly expose tutors to refund claims, Fair Trading complaints, and unfair-contract-term findings.
Step 1 — Pack Structures
Five pack structures dominate Australian private tutoring. Each has a different cashflow profile, commitment level, and ACL exposure. Most tutors mix two or three — a casual rate for first-time families, a 5- or 10-pack for the steady run, and a term-block for exam-prep specialists.
| Pack type | Price | Commitment | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casual pay-per-session | $80 / session | No commitment | Paid each lesson, parents drop in and out. Lowest commitment, lowest tutor cashflow predictability. Common for first 1–2 sessions before a longer arrangement is agreed. |
| 5-pack | $380 (5% discount) | 5 sessions over a term | Parents commit to a short block but flexibility is preserved. The most common structure for newly-formed tutoring relationships — large enough to lock in a routine, small enough to be a low-risk trial. |
| 10-pack | $720 (10% discount) | 10 sessions over a term / semester | Cashflow advantage for the tutor, modest discount for the family, retention boost. The workhorse pack for established tutors with a steady weekly cadence. |
| Term subscription | $640 / term ($40 effective) | 16 sessions, auto-renew | Highest revenue predictability but creates ACL complications around unilateral cancellation and unfair-contract-term risk. Auto-renew terms must be clearly disclosed and easy to cancel. |
| Term-block flat fee | $1,200 / term | 8–10 sessions delivered through term | Used by HSC / VCE-prep specialists where the value is the curriculum and outcome rather than the per-session count. Pricing is outcome-anchored; cancellations are typically rescheduled within the term rather than refunded. |
Prices shown are illustrative. Discount tiers, GST treatment, and session lengths vary by tutor and subject area.
Step 2 — The Law
The Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Six provisions do most of the work for tutoring pack and cancellation terms — they are the lens to read your own engagement letter through.
General prohibition on misleading or deceptive conduct in trade or commerce. Catches misrepresentations about refunds, pack value, expected outcomes, or what a parent is actually buying.
Standard-form consumer contracts cannot contain unfair terms. Single-side termination, automatic forfeit, or one-sided variation clauses are presumed unfair and unenforceable.
A term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance, is not reasonably necessary to protect the tutor's legitimate interests, and would cause detriment to the parent if relied on. Short expiries on long packs trip this test.
Specifically prohibits false claims about the existence, exclusion or effect of a guarantee, right or remedy. 'No refunds under any circumstances' is the classic example — it misrepresents the consumer guarantees that cannot be excluded.
Statutory guarantee that services are rendered with due care and skill. Applies automatically to every tutoring session — it cannot be contracted out of.
Any term that purports to exclude, restrict, or modify the consumer guarantees (including s60) is void. Refund and remedy rights survive contract drafting that tries to remove them.
Step 3 — Cancellation Templates
Three template structures drafted to sit comfortably inside the ACL. Pick the one that matches your subject, student age, and tolerance for last-minute changes — then make it part of the written engagement.
General private tutors, primary and high-school
Cancellation more than 24 hours before the session: no charge, session credit returned. Cancellation within 24 hours: 50% of session fee retained (genuine pre-estimate of loss including the locked-out replacement opportunity). No-show: 100% of session fee retained.
Why it works: Aligned with the dominant industry standard. 24 hours is enough notice for most tutors to take a replacement booking; the 50% mid-tier rate matches the partial harm caused.
HSC / VCE intensive tutors, exam-prep specialists
Cancellation more than 48 hours before the session: no charge. Cancellation 24–48 hours before: 50% retained. Cancellation under 24 hours or no-show: 100% retained. Reasoning: limited HSC / VCE coaching availability means cancelled slots cannot be re-filled at short notice.
Why it works: Defensible because the fee structure mirrors a genuine business loss — these slots cannot realistically be re-sold at short notice. The 48-hour window must be disclosed in writing before pack purchase.
Tutors of younger children, families with multiple kids
Cancellations more than 4 hours before the session are no-charge. Cancellations under 4 hours, or no-show, retain the session credit (the pack is decremented but no extra fee is applied). No additional fees, no forfeit — the credit is simply consumed.
Why it works: Tutors who value retention over short-term cashflow lean here. It still protects against repeat no-shows (credit is consumed) but never adds a punitive charge beyond what was already paid.
Step 4 — Enforceability
Five practical levers. Hit all five and your policy holds up; miss two or three and even a reasonable-looking fee becomes hard to defend.
Written terms in the engagement letter or booking confirmation, with a signed (or e-acknowledged) parent acknowledgement before payment. Disclosure after the fact is too late — the term needs to be part of the contract the parent agreed to.
The fee reflects the slot, prep time, and lost-replacement opportunity — not a punishment. A 100% fee equal to the session price is normal for no-shows. A 300% fee for missing a lesson is not enforceable, regardless of disclosure.
24–48 hours is industry standard. 4 hours is family-friendly. 7 days or longer is presumptively unfair for ordinary one-on-one tutoring and very hard to justify outside HSC/VCE intensive contexts.
Illness, family emergencies, school exam reschedules. A clause that allows late cancellation without fee in these circumstances is both a goodwill win and an unfairness defence — it shows the policy is reasonable, not punitive.
A soft warning before any fee is applied — “just a reminder this falls inside the 24-hour window” — signals good faith and avoids surprise fees. ACCC and Fair Trading officers look kindly on tutors who flag the policy rather than spring it.
Step 5 — Pack Expiry
The shorter the expiry relative to the pack's realistic consumption rate, the higher the ACL exposure. This is the quickest mistake to fix on a tutoring engagement letter.
| Expiry structure | Rating | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| 3-month expiry on a 10-pack | Unenforceable | With a weekly-session cadence, school holidays and ordinary illness mean it is practically impossible to consume 10 sessions in 12 weeks. Presumptively unfair under s23 / s24 ACL. |
| 6-month expiry on a 10-pack | Marginal | Defensible if the tutoring cadence is weekly and the family was warned in writing that holiday weeks count. Risky once school holidays plus one illness eat the consumption window. |
| 12-month expiry on a 10-pack | Safe | The practical safe-harbour for weekly-session packs. Twelve months absorbs school holidays, illness, and family events without forcing rescheduling pressure on the parent. |
| No expiry (credit balance) | Cleanest | Treats the pack as pre-paid credit. Recognise revenue per session delivered. No unfair-term exposure because there is no expiry to be unfair about. Best practice for premium / high-trust tutors. |
| "Use within the school term" | Narrow | Only enforceable if explicit, discussed pre-purchase, and the pack size matches a single term's worth of sessions. A 10-pack with weekly sessions during Term 2 (≈10 teaching weeks) is borderline; smaller packs are safer. |
Step 6 — Refunds
Two layers. The mandatory refund obligation under the consumer guarantees, and the voluntary refund practice that distinguishes reputable tutors.
Every tutoring service carries a statutory guarantee that it will be provided with due care and skill. If a tutor doesn't show, or the session is patently inadequate (didn't prepare, taught the wrong subject, unprofessional conduct), the parent has a right to remedy — re-perform or refund.
Where there is a major failure, the parent gets the choice — refund or replacement. They pick, not you. Patterns of no-shows, undisclosed conflicts, or fundamental misrepresentation about credentials all meet the major-failure bar.
For minor issues (one slightly weak session, a wrong topic for one lesson), the tutor chooses the remedy — typically rescheduling or re-teaching the topic at no charge. A refund is not required.
Pro-rated refunds for the unused balance of a pack — not required by ACL where there is no failure — but offered by most professional tutors as a reputation play. The administrative cost is tiny; the goodwill upside is large.
Required where the service was not delivered with due care and skill and the failure was major. Both elements need to be present. A parent simply changing their mind is not a failure of due care and skill, and does not trigger a mandatory refund under ACL — but the cancellation/expiry rules discussed above still apply to the unused pack balance.
Step 7 — Mistakes to Avoid
Each of these turns up regularly on tutoring contracts. Each one creates exposure rather than protection.
Why it's a problem: Misrepresents the consumer guarantees under s60 / s64 ACL — these cannot be excluded. Also a likely s29 misleading representation.
Why it's a problem: Practically impossible for weekly tutoring. Unenforceable under s23 / s24 unfair-contract-terms rules.
Why it's a problem: Punitive, not a genuine pre-estimate of loss. Likely unfair and unenforceable; capped at the session fee in practice.
Why it's a problem: Single-side termination plus full forfeit is the textbook unfair term under s23 ACL. Even if disclosed, it doesn't bind the parent.
Why it's a problem: Cancellation fees relied on after the fact are extremely hard to enforce. Disclosure pre-purchase is the foundation of every defensible policy.
Why it's a problem: Adding a GST line when you have not registered for GST is a separate breach (ATO + s29 ACL misleading-representation). Don't write 'incl. GST' unless you actually are.
Step 8 — Worked Example
A 10-pack ($720 paid upfront, $72/session effective) with weekly sessions and a 24-hour cancellation policy. Here's how the accounting and the policy interact across a term.
| Week | Event | Revenue recognised | Pack balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase | Parent pays $720 for a 10-pack | — | $720 (deferred) |
| Week 1–8 | 8 sessions delivered, on time | +$576 ($72 × 8) | $144 (2 sessions remaining) |
| Week 9 | Parent cancels morning-of (inside 24hr) — no-show tier applies | +$72 (100% retained) | $72 (1 session remaining) |
| Week 10 | Final session delivered | +$72 | $0 |
| Total | 10-pack fully consumed | $720 | $0 |
Notes: The Week 9 cancellation consumes the pack credit and retains 100% — but only because the policy was disclosed in writing pre-purchase and the fee equals (does not exceed) the session price. Stacking an additional fee on top would be double-charging.
It is the industry standard, parents expect it, and it is the easiest position to defend if a fee is ever challenged. Anything longer than 48 hours starts to look unreasonable for ordinary one-on-one tutoring.
Clean and unimpeachable. It absorbs school holidays, exams, family events, and illness without ever forcing the family into a rescheduling crunch. Twelve months is the line you almost never get sued over.
Email confirmation or e-sign of the engagement letter. The disclosure happens before the parent pays — that is what makes the terms part of the contract. Verbal disclosure alone is fragile.
Sessions delivered, balance remaining, cancellation history, and expiry date — all visible to both tutor and parent. Auditable, transparent, and the single best protection against billing disputes.
Yes, provided three conditions are met. (1) The cancellation policy was disclosed in writing before the pack was purchased — it is part of the contract, not announced after the fact. (2) The fee is a genuine pre-estimate of the tutor's loss (the slot, prep time, locked-out replacement booking) and not a punitive penalty. (3) A reasonable notice window applies, typically 24–48 hours. Most tutors charge 50% within 24 hours and 100% for no-shows, which courts and the ACCC regard as reasonable. A fee well above the session fee, or one with no notice window, is likely unenforceable under s23 ACL.
There is no statutory maximum. The question under ACL s23 / s24 is whether the expiry is reasonably necessary to protect your legitimate interests, given the size of the pack and the realistic consumption rate. A 10-pack on a weekly-session cadence needs at least 12 months to be unimpeachable — school holidays, illness, and family events consume calendar weeks that can't be billed. Shorter expiries (3, 6 months) are risky once realistic disruptions are factored in. The practical safe-harbour is: 5-pack — 6 months; 10-pack — 12 months; larger packs — 18 to 24 months; no expiry at all is cleanest of all.
Not strictly, but it is best practice. The consumer guarantees (s60 — due care and skill) do not give a right to refund simply because the family changed their mind. However, where you cannot identify a specific failure to perform, voluntary pro-rated refunds for unused sessions are normal industry practice and a reputational win. Where there has been a major failure (no-show by you, demonstrably inadequate teaching, undisclosed conflict), s260 ACL gives the parent the right to choose between refund and replacement — the choice is theirs, not yours.
No. A blanket 'no refunds' term misrepresents the consumer guarantees and is unenforceable under s60, s64, and likely a misleading representation under s29 ACL. The consumer guarantees cannot be excluded by any contract term. You can write your cancellation and refund policy carefully (24-hour notice, 50% mid-tier, etc.) but you cannot say 'no refunds at all' — that line on a tutoring contract creates ACL exposure rather than protection.
Yes. A 100% retention for a no-show or last-minute cancellation is generally defensible because the slot, prep, and the lost replacement opportunity are all genuine losses for that session. The fee must equal the session fee (not exceed it), the no-show definition must be in the written terms, and a reasonable notice window must precede the 100% tier (typically you charge 50% inside 24 hours, 100% only for true no-shows or zero-notice cancellations). Stacking a 100% fee on top of the session credit being consumed would be double-charging and is not enforceable.
Practically, yes. ACL doesn't require a particular form, but enforceability collapses without a written record. Standard practice is to include the cancellation policy in the engagement letter or pack-purchase email, and to have the parent acknowledge it (a reply email, a tick-box on the booking form, or an e-sign). Without a written, pre-purchase disclosure you can still ask a parent to pay for a missed lesson, but you cannot really enforce it — and any forfeit or expiry terms are almost certainly unenforceable. The written policy is what converts a polite request into a contractual right.
OneBookPlus is the AU-built workspace for private tutors. Pack-balance tracking, ACL-aware cancellation rules, written policy disclosure on every booking, and an audit trail you can show Fair Trading if it ever comes to that.
Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha