Terms & Conditions

You must be legally entitled to drive the vehicle used, meet the applicable minimum age and eyesight requirements, and follow any licence restrictions. Most people can begin learning to drive a car at 17; different rules can apply in specified circumstances.

Tell us before booking if your entitlement is restricted, suspended, revoked or otherwise uncertain. Refresher learners and overseas licence holders must also have valid entitlement for the proposed driving. An instructor may postpone driving while eligibility or safety is checked; any resulting charge must be assessed fairly under these terms.

See the current GOV.UK rules for learning to drive.

If you are learning under provisional entitlement, you must hold the appropriate valid provisional licence. Be ready to show your licence and provide any necessary information for an authorised entitlement check before driving. Tell your instructor about changes during training.

You must use any required glasses or contact lenses and meet the legal eyesight standard. Licence and identity information should be checked through an agreed appropriate process, not sent unnecessarily through an ordinary website message field.

Lessons depend on suitable instructor and vehicle availability. Sharing a preferred time does not guarantee it, a particular instructor or an immediate start. Manual and automatic availability must be checked separately.

We will discuss a material instructor, vehicle or timing change rather than treating an alternative as automatically accepted. You do not have to accept a materially different service; any cancellation or refund will be considered in light of the agreement and your consumer rights.

Request collection from home or another suitable location in our confirmed service area. We cover Romford, Havering, Collier Row, Harold Hill, Gidea Park, Hornchurch and other agreed locations.

Provide an accurate address and postcode so we can check coverage, safe stopping and travel arrangements. Pickup and return points form part of the booking confirmation. Contact us before changing them; an alternative location is subject to practical agreement, not guaranteed.

Any additional travel charge or effect on booked tuition time must be explained and agreed before the relevant booking. There is no public office to attend for your lesson.

Please give at least 48 hours’ notice before the agreed lesson start time to cancel or request a change. Contact Barka by email, telephone or the established WhatsApp route. Include your name and the lesson date/time, and keep a record of your message. Request acknowledgement if you do not receive one.

Where less than 48 hours’ notice is given, a charge up to the lesson price may be due only to the extent it fairly reflects the loss caused by the cancellation. We must take reasonable steps to reduce that loss, allow for costs saved and replacement bookings, and avoid charging twice for the same time. We will explain the calculation on request.

At least 48 hours’ notice means no late-cancellation charge for that lesson under this policy. A new appointment remains subject to availability. Illness, emergencies and other circumstances will be considered individually; no unapproved blanket exemption or absolute “no refund” rule is stated.

This notice policy does not override a statutory cooling-off right or a remedy where we have failed to supply the agreed service. See section 12.

Service standards and remedies

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be supplied with reasonable care and skill. Relevant information about the service can form part of the contract. Where the law provides a remedy, it may include repeat performance, an appropriate price reduction or refund. These terms do not replace those remedies.

Online and distance-contract cancellation

For a qualifying distance or off-premises service contract, you normally have a cooling-off period ending 14 days after the day the contract is made. You can cancel without giving a reason. Missing required cancellation information can extend the statutory period.

If you want tuition to start during that period, an express early-start request is needed. If you then exercise a statutory cancellation right, you may owe only a lawful proportionate amount for service actually supplied, where the required request and information were provided. Simply selecting a preferred date is not treated here as blanket consent to lose cancellation rights.

The statutory right is lost after full performance only where the legal conditions are met, including the required early-start request and acknowledgement. Where those conditions or required information are absent, the law may prevent a charge for early services. Any genuine exception must be assessed for the actual contract; a fixed lesson date does not itself establish one.

Where a statutory cancellation refund is due for a service, it must normally be made without undue delay and within 14 days after notification, using the original payment method unless you expressly agree otherwise, without a refund fee. Other remedies have their own applicable deadlines. The 48-hour policy does not impose a penalty on lawful statutory cancellation.

How to cancel

Send a clear cancellation statement to info@barkadrivingschool.co.uk or contact us on +44 7300 364607. You can use the wording below, but you do not have to. For statutory cancellation, it is enough to send the notice before the deadline; Barka acknowledgement is not a condition of the right.

Any 10-hour, 20-hour or other block package must have a written quotation before purchase, identifying transmission, total hours, total price, any genuine saving and the arrangements for booking lessons. No unconfirmed package price or discount is created by these terms.

Expiry dates, start/completion periods, transfer conditions and cancellation arrangements must be clearly disclosed and agreed before purchase, and must be fair. No undisclosed expiry or automatic forfeiture of unused lessons applies under these terms.

On cancellation, we will account for lessons supplied and any lawful, justified deduction, and refund the remaining balance where due. We will not retrospectively reprice completed lessons or remove a discount unless a clear, fair and previously agreed term lawfully allows it. Your statutory rights continue to apply.

Barka’s stated test vehicle hire fee is £110, plus any separately booked tuition before or after the test. The services included will be set out in your individual test-day quotation. Any additional lesson hours are charged only as separately agreed, with a clear total quotation before commitment.

The written test-day agreement must identify the vehicle/transmission, date and test centre, reserved time, what the hire fee covers, any accompanying instructor service, separate tuition and any travel/waiting arrangements. Do not assume these items are all included in the £110.

The DVSA test fee is separate unless your written agreement expressly includes it. Instructor agreement, vehicle suitability and learner safety must be checked. The test-related payment deadline stated for confirmation is at least one day before the test.

Cancellation or withdrawal of vehicle use must be considered under the agreed terms, fair-loss principles and consumer law. There is no automatic forfeiture of all test-related money in every circumstance.

DVSA controls test appointments, examiner availability and its own cancellation/rebooking policies. Tell Barka promptly if DVSA changes or cancels your test so we can review the associated tuition and vehicle reservation.

A DVSA cancellation is not automatically Barka’s fault, but that does not justify a blanket exclusion of all refunds or liability. We will consider the service actually supplied, costs saved, opportunities to reduce loss and any applicable rights when handling your Barka payment.

DVSA may reimburse specified expenses for certain short-notice cancellations, subject to its current criteria and evidence. It does not reimburse every cost or necessarily a school’s flat test-hire fee. See DVSA’s expense-claim guidance. A DVSA claim does not replace any remedy owed by Barka.

If a vehicle becomes unavailable, we will contact you promptly and consider a suitable lawful alternative or rearrangement. You do not have to accept a materially different vehicle or service without agreement.

Where tuition or an agreed test-related service is not supplied, we will consider an appropriate refund and any further consumer remedy. A breakdown does not automatically remove our obligations, particularly if reasonable care and skill or vehicle maintenance is at issue.

Nothing excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. We do not use a blanket “not responsible for mechanical failure” disclaimer. Any claim for additional loss must be assessed under the law and facts.

Both parties must behave respectfully. Threats, harassment, violence, discriminatory abuse and deliberate dangerous conduct are unacceptable. An instructor may stop a lesson or end a continuing arrangement for a serious safety or conduct breach, giving reasons and notice appropriate to the circumstances.

Unused prepaid tuition and any deductions must be accounted for fairly. No arbitrary penalty, automatic loss of an entire block payment or unlimited damage charge is created. Responsibility for damage or other loss depends on the evidence, insurance arrangements and applicable law.

The stated Barka policy is that children under 15 are not permitted as accompanying passengers during lessons, subject to final confirmation. This concerns accompanying passengers, not the legal minimum age for a learner.

Any other passenger or observer must be discussed and agreed before the lesson, taking account of safety, available seats, insurance and the learner’s needs. Applicable seat-belt/child-restraint law still applies. Reasonable adjustment requests should be considered individually; no passenger is automatically authorised by this page.

Paid driving tuition must be provided by a legally authorised approved or licensed trainee driving instructor, with the appropriate badge displayed. We must provide the agreed tuition with reasonable care and skill, use a suitable lawful vehicle and communicate professionally.

Your instructor should explain the lesson focus, give relevant feedback, treat you with respect and discuss safety/readiness concerns. Changes to agreed services and charges must be explained rather than hidden. You can ask about your instructor’s registration status before booking.

We use relevant contact, pickup and learning information to handle requests and arrange tuition, as explained in our Privacy Policy. An ordinary enquiry does not automatically create a confirmed appointment or opt you into marketing.

Provide only necessary information. Do not send card details or unnecessary identity/medical documents through ordinary message fields. Contact info@barkadrivingschool.co.uk with questions about your personal information.

Contact Barka using the details in section 29. Explain what happened, the lesson/date concerned and the outcome you seek; relevant receipts or messages may help. You may raise a concern by phone or in writing. We will consider it fairly and explain our response. Raising a complaint does not remove your legal rights.

For advice about a consumer dispute, visit Citizens Advice. Instructor service or conduct concerns can also be raised through DVSA’s instructor complaints process. DVSA does not recover tuition money on your behalf.

If a complaint cannot be resolved, we will provide information about an appropriate certified ADR provider and whether we are obliged or willing to use it where the law requires. No scheme membership, compulsory arbitration or fixed response guarantee is asserted here. You retain access to the courts and applicable statutory remedies.

For Barka’s England-based tuition, any choice of English law operates without taking away mandatory protections or any right a consumer has to bring proceedings in the appropriate courts where they live.