Cancelling my gym membership

yummymummy79

Couple of legal points to make.
When you sign anything 'on trade premises', you do not have an automatic cooling off / change of mind period, the only way you would be able to cancel is if the company had their own cancellation period. If you would be allowed to take the paperwork away and sign it somewhere else (at home or even in a coffee shop, in your car etc) then you may well have a 7 day cooling off period, but in reality they are unlikely to let you take it away to sign!

If you cancel a DD whilst the contract is still in place, then regardless of your reasons, you are considered the one who is in breach of contract and they would be entitled to chase you for the money. If you can show that they clearly breached the contract first, then you may have a better case but it is still dodgy ground so better to leave DD running whilst you sort the problems (obv appreciate this prob goes against your common sense thinking but that's how it is!).

However unecessary or long or annoying it may seem, you should always read the T&Cs, even a quick scan is better than nothing to pick out important points because once you sign it, you are bound by it, even if there is some random clause that you weren't expecting. Obv anything completely unfair and ridiculous may mean it isn't straightforward and it may become unenforceable but assume that you're going to be bound by it for the time period they state.

There is no legally set notice period, again is all down to T&Cs. If you feel the notice period given is unreasonable, then ask the company for an explanation, try and negotiate but if you're still not happy, then call Consumer Direct for advice. If anything seems unfair, it may be able to be referred to Trading Standards for their opinion.