Cancelling Gym Membership with 14 days

munchings-n-crunchings

Just to throw this in for consideration.
Is your son in receipt of all his correct benefits?

With his diagnosis, he should be entitled to Working Tax Credits if he's working 16+ hours a week, and that could top his income up.

Also, there is Disability Living Allowance. He may not be entitled to the care component if he is fairly independent, but if he needs guidance / supervision when out and about in places where he is not familiar, he could be entitled to the Lower Rate Mobility rate.
I would question yourself about the help and support you give him, and consider these options.

Regards

Munchie

4Chickens

A quick update.

The gym called me and said they couldn't cancel the membership and I should write to head office.
So I have written a letter below

I am writing this letter on behalf of my son, *******, to advise you that he does not have the capacity to enter into a contract for your gym membership.

******** has learning disabilities which include severe dyslexia and Aspergers’ Syndrome. Both of these conditions have been diagnosed by his doctor. If necessary written evidence can be provided.

******** had a Statement of Special Needs upon leaving secondary school and receives learning support at college. *******’ literacy and numeracy skills are very poor and he is unable to understand the terms and conditions of your contract. As a full-time student who is not in receipt of any benefits he has no financial capacity to satisfy the financial commitment of the membership agreement.

It therefore follows that as his parent and guardian I must declare his membership invalid and ask you to cancel it with immediate effect. I have informed the bank accordingly.

I would appreciate your acknowledgement and agreement to my request.

My son doesn't qualify for any benefits, we checked when he left school. He goes to college 3 days a week and works part-time 2.5 days a week.
He had a mobile phone contract before he was 18 and to say that was a bad idea is an understatement. I confiscated the phone and sim and took over the contract myself, he's on PAYG now.

I'm not sure what my next step will be if they refuse, perhaps another letter along the lines of:

' I am sorry that your company is experiencing difficulties in recruiting new members that don't have the mental capacity of an eleven year old and that you feel that people with learning disabiliies are the absolute best people to be signing legally and financially binding contracts' etc etc:rotfl:
You get my drift
I'll get my placard ready just in case

shaun_from_Africa

I am sorry that your company is experiencing difficulties in recruiting new members that don't have the mental capacity of an eleven year old and that you feel that people with learning disabiliies are the absolute best people to be signing legally and financially binding contracts' etc etc

Looking at it from the viewpoint of the person who signed your son up for the membership, they may well not have been aware of him having any learning difficulties, but even if they were, they may well have assumed that as he had a running bank account, then he must have understood what he was agreeing to.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't cancel the membership now that they have been made aware of the true situation, simply that they may have been acting in good faith when your son signed up.

DVardysShadow

Dear <gym>

I am writing this letter on behalf of my son, *******, to advise you that he does not have the capacity to enter into a contract for your gym membership.

******** has learning disabilities which include severe dyslexia and Aspergers’ Syndrome. Both of these conditions have been diagnosed by his doctor. If necessary written evidence can be provided.

******** had a Statement of Special Needs upon leaving secondary school and receives learning support at college. *******’ literacy and numeracy skills are very poor and he is unable to understand the terms and conditions of your contract. As a full-time student who is not in receipt of any benefits he has no financial capacity to satisfy the financial commitment of the membership agreement.

[STRIKE]It therefore follows that as his parent and guardian I must declare his membership invalid and ask you to cancel it with immediate effect. I have informed the bank accordingly.

I would appreciate your acknowledgement and agreement to my request.[/STRIKE]

Given the forgoing, there is obviously no benefit to either <son> or yourselves in continuing with a contract which can only end in a dispute over payment, which <son> would be both intellectually and financially unable to resolve and which could only detract from your core activities of providing gym services. I would therefore, without prejudice, be prepared to pay a small sum representing your reasonable administration costs in full and final settlement of the contract. However, you should understand that I do not consider myself to have any responsibility towards your company and this offer my personal offer of good will.

I trust that this explanation is satisfactory for you and that you will accept my offer.

Do you have any legal basis for claiming to be a guardian? If you don't, given that this may need to go to court, it is best to avoid raising the issue.

If you like the idea of offering admin costs, don't alter the sentence in bold - particularly you need the words "without prejudice" and "in full and final settlement".

unholyangel

If they dont respond in a favourable manner, you could try a visit to your local MP/Councillor. Some are as much use as a chocolate teapot but others do go above and beyond.

Does he actually have control over his own finances etc or do you have any part as a legal guardian/power of attorney etc for him? If not, while i understand it is important for your son to be as independant as possible, sometimes this is the best course if there is significant risk of his learning difficulties being open to abuse (such as undertaking a financial obligation he cannot fully understand). I cant remember the exact details (ie if it can be used) surrounding cases such as these but it may be worthwhile researching it to stop him possibly being exploited in the future. You'll have a better idea than me (a stranger) as to what capability your son has and if you think he is at risk.

Theres a site here:
http://www.publicguardian.gov.uk/concerns/what-is-abuse.htm

bris

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Looking at it from the viewpoint of the person who signed your son up for the membership, they may well not have been aware of him having any learning difficulties, but even if they were, they may well have assumed that as he had a running bank account, then he must have understood what he was agreeing to.

I'm not saying that they shouldn't cancel the membership now that they have been made aware of the true situation, simply that they may have been acting in good faith when your son signed up.

I think this is right, if he is capable of holding down a job then clearly he is not as bad as you seem to be making out and he can make decisions for himself.
OP I am only playing devils advocate here because this is the way they will look at it. 90% of people who sign up for a gym want to cancel within a short period of time this is why the gym's sew you up so tight.

PZH

bris wrote: »

I think this is right, if he is capable of holding down a job then clearly he is not as bad as you seem to be making out and he can make decisions for himself.
OP I am only playing devils advocate here because this is the way they will look at it. 90% of people who sign up for a gym want to cancel within a short period of time this is why the gym's sew you up so tight.

I'm sorry, but I disagree. It depends on the job and how much support he gets to do his job. And even then, it does not mean that he makes decisions. And besides, it is irrelevant what he does. The issue is that he does not have the capacity to understand what he signed for - and hence the contract would be unfair.

Even having a bank account is not conclusive as this depends who reads and explains the T&C's for him and helps him to understand what he is doing or signing for.

Also he ticked the 'off-peak' box which means he can only attend the gym between 9.00am and 5.00pm, when he is either at college or work.

IMO, Clearly does not understand what he ticked

tiny_tear

another option, Duncan Bannatyne is on twitter and fairly active, so might be worth contacting him there if things don't get resolved. he might not want the bad publicity...

4Chickens

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and comments. I am sending the letter today with the ammendments suggested by DVardyShadow.

Just to clarify some points.
I generally have control of his bank account in as much as I withdraw all his wages on a Friday and he has to ask me for any money he needs and if I think he is being foolish with his spending, I refuse to give him any money. This is only a recent development as he has proved he has no understanding of the value of money, even to the extent that he will often leave himself so short of cash that he can't put petrol in his scooter to get to college or work.

He has a lot of support at work and they understand, up to a point, his learning disabilities, he doesn't make decisions and needs help filling in his timesheet. He only got this job because his employer is one of my husbands customers and he worked along side my husband for a period of time.

I have no power of attorney, so no, I'm not his legal guardian thus I shall take that part out of the letter.

In terms of the person who 'sold' him the membership, they probably wouldn't immediately think he has any problems but if you were to see the form he filled in, it is quite apparent that his literacy is very poor.

unholyangel

bris wrote: »

I think this is right, if he is capable of holding down a job then clearly he is not as bad as you seem to be making out and he can make decisions for himself.
OP I am only playing devils advocate here because this is the way they will look at it. 90% of people who sign up for a gym want to cancel within a short period of time this is why the gym's sew you up so tight.

So anyone with learning difficulties shouldnt be employed then? While years ago they may have been treated differently, it is now the "norm" that they are encouraged to be as independant as possible.

Like i said, the OP knows better than me (and anyone else posting on this forum) just how capable her son is. Its not for us to make judgements. We dont know enough to even contemplate this.

In some cases it would be similar to a company giving me a contract in Latin. I may understand a word here and there but the general gist - never mind the semantics - would be completely incomprehensible to me.