Terms & conditions

01 Who you're booking with

MK Driving School is a local, sole-trader driving school specialising in automatic tuition across East London.

I've been teaching people to drive in this area since 1996. For most of those thirty years, I worked for the major national driving schools — including BSM and the AA — using their cars and routes while teaching the pupils they sent me. In 2026, I decided to teach under my own name.

The standard of instruction remains exactly the same — professional, patient, and focused on helping you become a safe, confident driver. What has changed is the experience: you now book directly with me, the instructor who will be sitting beside you. No call centres, no middlemen. The terms and conditions you agree to are mine, straightforward and fair.

• Phone: 07490 199499
• Email: mk.drivingschool@hotmail.com
• Address: 1123 Newham Way, London E6 5JJ
• DVSA Approved Driving Instructor number: [your ADI badge number]

Throughout these terms, "I" and "me" means MK Driving School, and "you" means the pupil, or the parent or guardian paying for a pupil under 18.

02 Booking a lesson

A booking is confirmed once I've agreed a time with you by phone, text or email — not when you submit the enquiry form on the website. The form just starts the conversation.

Every lesson is a full 60 minutes of driving time. The clock starts when we set off, not when I leave home. Pick-up and drop-off within Tower Hamlets and Newham is free.

I teach in an automatic car, and every price, package and guarantee in these terms applies to automatic tuition only.

If you want to learn in a manual, tell me at the outset and I'll refer you to another instructor rather than take a booking I can't fulfil. Where I refer you on, your agreement is with that instructor and not with me: their prices, their availability, their terms and the standard of their teaching are theirs, not mine. I make referrals in good faith to instructors I rate, but I can't guarantee them and I'm not responsible for them.

If you're under 18, a parent or guardian needs to agree to these terms and make any payment.

03 Prices and payment

The test day fee of £150 covers use of my car for your practical test, a warm-up drive beforehand, and me accompanying you to the test centre. It is charged separately from lessons and is payable before the test date. It is not charged to pupils on the Granted Pass Programme, whose test day is already covered by the programme price.

The £150 fee, and the free test day included in the Granted Pass Programme, apply to the Wanstead and Chingford test centres only. I'm happy to take you to a different test centre, but the price for that is agreed between us in advance, in writing, before you book the test.

Your DVSA theory and practical test fees are not included in any price above. You book and pay those directly to the DVSA.

Single lessons are paid at the end of each lesson, by cash or bank transfer. Blocks and the Granted Pass Programme are paid in full in advance, before the first lesson of that block.

Prices can change, but never for hours you've already paid for. If I change my prices, any hours already in your account stay at the rate you paid.

The 15-hour block gives you a sixteenth hour free. The free hour is used last, after the fifteen paid hours, and has no cash value if you stop early.

04 The Granted Pass Programme

The Granted Pass Programme is 40 hours of tuition for £1,500, paid in full in advance. Payment in advance is what reserves the block of hours in my diary.

The DVSA's own guidance is that the average learner needs around 45 hours of professional tuition, alongside private practice, to reach the standard of a safe and competent driver. This programme is built to get you there in 40, by planning the hours as a sequence towards a target test date rather than booking them one at a time. It is an aim, not a promise — which is what the guarantee below is for.

The programme is for automatic tuition only. It isn't offered for manual, and neither is the half-price guarantee below. That isn't a sales decision — it's because manual learners are referred to a different instructor, and I can't guarantee an outcome for teaching I'm not doing myself.

What's included

• 40 hours of one-to-one lessons, structured to the DVSA syllabus and planned from your first lesson through to your test
• Theory test support and revision guidance
• A full mock test on real test routes, taken from within your 40 hours
• One hour of warm-up driving with me immediately before your test slot
• Use of my car for your practical test at Wanstead or Chingford, and me with you at the test centre

What is not included

The programme covers my time, my car and my fuel. It does not cover the DVSA's own fees, or anything outside the two test centres named above. You pay the following yourself:

• Your theory test fee — booked and paid for by you to the DVSA
• Your practical test fee — booked and paid for by you to the DVSA. Note that the DVSA charges more for evening, weekend and bank holiday tests than for weekday tests
• Any retest fee, if you don't pass first time. The half-price guarantee below covers tuition hours only, never the DVSA's fee for the test itself
• Test day at any centre other than Wanstead or Chingford, which is by separate arrangement — see section 10
• Any hours beyond the 40, charged at the standard rate, or at the half-price rate if the guarantee below applies

I never take payment for a DVSA fee on your behalf, and I'll never ask you to send me money for one. If anyone tells you otherwise, it isn't me.

What you're actually buying

This isn't a discount scheme, and I won't pretend otherwise. Booked lesson by lesson, 40 hours at £34 plus the £150 test day comes to £1,510, so the programme costs about the same. What the price buys you is a block of my diary reserved in advance, a plan built around a target test date rather than lessons booked one at a time, and the guarantee below.

The half-price guarantee

To claim it, all of the following need to be true:

• You booked the programme as automatic tuition with me, and I taught all 40 hours
• You've used all 40 hours before your test date
• You took the test on a date I agreed you were ready for. If you book a test earlier than I advise, that's fine — but it doesn't qualify
• You attended lessons as booked. Lessons you missed without 48 hours' notice still count as used hours, but three or more of them means the guarantee doesn't apply
• You did not fail for a reason within your control before the test began — for example arriving without your licence, or the test being stopped for a dangerous fault caused by driving under the influence
• You claim within 3 months of the failed test

The half-price hours apply once, to one unsuccessful test. They are hours of tuition only — test fees, and any further hours beyond the ten, are charged at the normal rate.

05 Your 14-day right to cancel

If you book a block or the Granted Pass Programme over the phone, by text, by email or through the website — rather than face to face — you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days of booking, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. You don't need to give a reason.

To cancel, just tell me by phone, text or email within those 14 days.

• If you haven't had any lessons yet, you get a full refund.
• If you asked me to start lessons within the 14 days and then cancel, I'll refund what you paid minus the lessons you've already had, charged at the standard £34 per hour.

Refunds are made by the same method you paid, within 14 days of you telling me you want to cancel.

06 Cancelling or rearranging a lesson

Give me at least 48 hours' notice and there's no charge — we'll just find another slot.

Less than 48 hours' notice, and the lesson is charged in full, or deducted from your prepaid hours. That's not a penalty; it's because a slot that empties at short notice usually can't be filled, and someone else could have had it.

If you're not there when I arrive, I'll wait 15 minutes and try to reach you. After that the lesson counts as taken. If you're late, the lesson still ends at its scheduled time, since I'll have someone booked after you.

I'll always try to be reasonable where something genuinely unavoidable happens — illness, a family emergency, a bereavement. Talk to me.

07 Refunds on prepaid hours

Outside the 14-day period in section 5, you can still stop at any time and ask for a refund of hours you haven't used.

Unused hours are refunded at £34 per hour, the standard single-lesson rate. Hours already taken are charged at that same standard rate, which means any block-booking or programme discount doesn't apply if you don't complete the block. There is no admin fee.

Worked example. You buy the Granted Pass Programme for £1,500 and take 12 hours, then decide to stop. Those 12 hours are charged at £34 = £408. You're refunded £1,500 − £408 = £1,092.

Refunds are paid within 14 days of us agreeing the figure.

08 How long prepaid hours last

Prepaid hours stay valid for 12 months from the date you pay.

If something serious gets in the way — illness, pregnancy, a move away, a change of job — tell me and I'll pause your hours rather than let them run out. I'd rather you came back and passed than lose money you've paid me.

09 What I need from you

Before every lesson, you must:

• Hold a valid UK provisional (or full) driving licence and bring it, or have a photo of it on your phone
• Be able to read a number plate from 20 metres, with glasses or lenses if you need them
• Not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, including prescription medication that affects your driving
• Tell me about any medical condition that could affect your driving, and about anything you're legally required to declare to the DVLA
• Wear footwear you can drive safely in — no flip-flops, no heavy boots

If any of these isn't met when I arrive, I can't legally or safely teach you. The lesson will be cancelled and charged in full. This one I can't be flexible on: it's my licence, my insurance and my car.

10 Using my car for your test

My car is available for your practical test at Wanstead or Chingford for £150, which covers the car, a warm-up drive before your slot, and me accompanying you to the test centre. Pupils on the Granted Pass Programme do not pay this fee, as their test day is covered by the programme price. Everyone else pays it in advance of the test date.

Those two test centres are the only ones covered by that price or by the Granted Pass Programme. Any other test centre is by arrangement: tell me before you book your test and we'll agree a price in writing. If you book a test at another centre without agreeing this with me first, I may not be able to take you.

If your test is cancelled by the DVSA, or you rearrange it with at least 48 hours' notice, the £150 carries over to your new test date. If you cancel with less than 48 hours' notice, or don't attend, the fee is not carried over, because the time is blocked out in my diary.

I'll only provide the car if I believe you're at test standard. If you book a test against my advice and I don't think you're ready, I can decline to provide the car — I'll tell you as early as I can, so you have time to make other arrangements.

You are responsible for booking and paying your own DVSA theory and practical test fees. If the DVSA cancels your test, that's between you and them, but I'll do my best to move your lessons around at no cost.

Any damage to my car during a test or lesson is covered by my insurance, except where it results from you deliberately ignoring instruction or driving under the influence — see section 13.

11 If I have to cancel

If I have to cancel a lesson because of illness, a vehicle breakdown, severe weather or anything else, I'll give you as much notice as I can and rearrange at no cost. You're never charged for a lesson I cancel.

If my car is off the road on the day of your practical test and I can't arrange a replacement, I'll refund your DVSA test fee.

12 Behaviour and ending tuition

Lessons should be good-humoured and safe for both of us. I can end a lesson immediately, or stop teaching you altogether, if you:

• Drive dangerously on purpose or refuse to follow instruction
• Turn up under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Are abusive, threatening, or harass me in any way
• Damage my vehicle deliberately

If I end tuition for any of these reasons, that lesson is charged in full, and any remaining prepaid hours are refunded at the standard rate as set out in section 7.

You can stop having lessons with me at any time, for any reason, with no explanation needed.

13 Insurance and responsibility

My vehicle is fully insured for paid driving tuition, and you're covered while driving under my instruction.

You may become personally responsible for damage or costs if it results from you driving under the influence, driving without a valid licence, deliberately ignoring my instructions, or deliberate damage.

Nothing in these terms limits my liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that can't legally be limited. Your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 — including the right to have services carried out with reasonable care and skill — are not affected by anything written here.

14 Your personal information

I collect your name, phone number, email address, pick-up address, and notes on your progress. I use them to arrange lessons, teach you, and keep in touch about your bookings. Nothing more.

I don't sell your details or pass them to anyone else, except where I'm legally required to. When you contact me through the website you do so by WhatsApp or phone, so your message reaches me directly; WhatsApp messages are also handled by WhatsApp under their own privacy policy.

Records are kept for as long as you're a pupil and for 12 months afterwards, then deleted. You can ask me at any time to see what I hold about you, correct it, or delete it — just ask.

15 If something goes wrong

Tell me first. Call or text 07490 199499 and I'll do my best to sort it out — most things are a misunderstanding that takes five minutes to fix.

If we can't resolve it, you can contact the DVSA about the conduct of an Approved Driving Instructor, or take the matter to Citizens Advice for guidance on your consumer rights.

16 Changes to these terms

I may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to you is the one on this page when you booked, and I'll tell you directly about any change that affects hours you've already paid for.

17 Law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and any dispute can be brought before the courts of England and Wales.