Cancelling monthly rolling Gym contract

muhandis

Hi,

I have a monthly rolling membership at a gym where they take a fixed amount through DD at the beginning of every month.

Cancellation requires 30 days written notice, so I sent them an email on 1st Jan requesting that they cancel my membership and stop taking any further DDs after the one for January.

They replied on 2nd January saying that as per their T&Cs for stopping automatic monthly renewal sent to me in their welcome email, I will need to make the payment for February as well.

I checked the T&Cs and this is what they say -

Your membership will be extended automatically by one month for each payment (“Renewal Period”). You may prevent the Automatic Renewal at any time by giving written notice to the club (you should give us not less than 30 days’ notice). When the final minimum period payment has been taken you should also cancel your Direct Debit mandate directly with your bank.

Based on the above, I think -

I emailed them on 1st January. Even if you don't include that day itself, 30 days notice would take us to 31st January, thereby providing as much notice as required under the terms and conditions.

The payment for January was taken on 2nd January, thus paying for a whole month after I had given my notice period, can't see why they think I need to pay for all of Feb as well.

Please, any thoughts on whether what I say makes sense?

Thanks in advance,

K

DoaM

Do the T&Cs allow an email to be the "written" notice? (I presume yes).

What do the T&Cs say in respect of public holidays? (If they are silent on this then this works to your advantage).

If public holidays aren't excluded/mentioned then your determination is correct ... 30 days notice takes you until 31st January, therefore no payment for February is required.

The term Contra Proferentem applies to any contract ... this basically means that any term which can be construed in more than one way must be found in favour (to the benefit of) the party that did NOT write the term. Therefore in a consumer contract any ambiguous term must fall in favour of the consumer.

steampowered

You are assuming that your membership starts on the 1st of each month.

If for example you started your membership on the 15th, and have only paid full months rather than an initial half month, then your monthly membership would run from the 15th of each month.

Aside from that, your logic is correct, and giving notice on 1st January would be perfectly adequate to terminate before February.

Perhaps the person you are dealing with is getting confused. I can see how an admin person at the gym might think the notice requirement is one calendar month, when in fact it is only 30 days. Refer them to the T&Cs and see what they say.

DoaM

Good point about the contract start date. Assuming it isn't relevant ...

Dear Whoever,
Thanks for your reply to my cancellation notice. I believe you may be misunderstanding your own T&Cs regarding cancellation ... they state that 30 days notice must be given, NOT that 1 calendar month's notice must be given. Accordingly, notice given on 1st January will apply from 30 days later - i.e. 31st January. (Day 1 is 2nd, day 2 is 3rd .... day 30 is 31st). As such no payment for February will apply.

Please take this response as formal notification that the contract is terminated per the T&Cs at the end of January 2018, and that I have cancelled the direct debit as the last payment required has already been taken.

Your faithfully,
muhandis

muhandis

Thanks for your responses

At least in the membership T&Cs that they linked to in their email, there isn't anything about public holidays or what they mean by "written notice".

I did in fact start around the 20th but the first upfront payment was prorated to the end of that month followed by DDs at the beginning of each month.

I will now reply to their email politely giving them my interpretation of the T&Cs and a request to confirm that this is indeed the case.

Cheers,

K

DoaM

I'd be minded to state the situation, not request they confirm.

From what you've said then the contract is for full calendar months payable from the 1st of each month, yet the cancellation is 30 days. Therefore go ahead and cancel the DD, and be sure to inform them that you've done this in compliance with their own T&Cs.

pmduk

DoaM wrote: »

I'd be minded to state the situation, not request they confirm.

I agree, asking for their confirmation is almost asking for a protracted argument.