Debt collector threatening me with court but made insufficient effort to contact me re debt

PirateSwan

Hello MSExperts
I have a question about a debt collection agency that is chasing me for a cancelled gym membership.
Long story short, back in Sept 2019, I cancelled a gym membership via a text to the owner (not a great idea but I was in the middle of a horrible personal crisis at the time)
I heard nothing back from them so assumed they'd cancelled the direct debit / standing order (not sure which one it was, I get them confused)
A couple of weeks later I cancelled the DD with the bank
In late January a debt collector wrote to me, demanding 6 months' worth of membership money, and saying they had written to me several times about it (they had been emailing me, not writing to me, and were sending to an email address I had accidentally locked myself out of)
This company has had my phone number and my home address, and made no effort to contact me by phone / writing. 
My question is, are they entitled to the full amount of the money, seeing as they made no effort to contact me by phone / letter?
The gym made no contact with me when the direct debit / standing order was cancelled, and they will have had my email / phone number / home address too. I consider them personal friends so I was surprised to not hear from them personally, if they were unhappy with the way my membership was cancelled
I have phoned the debt agency and they said they would forward me all of the email communications they had sent, asking for the cash (As of yet, they have not sent me anything)
I am wondering if there is a procedure that needs to be adhered to by people chasing debt, as they seem to have escalated this issue without acting in a reasonable way when it comes to trying to contact me to settle the debt several months ago, before it had mounted up
Thanks in advance for any light that can be shed on this
Swan

powerful_Rogue

PirateSwan said:

Hello MSExperts
I have a question about a debt collection agency that is chasing me for a cancelled gym membership.
Long story short, back in Sept 2019, I cancelled a gym membership via a text to the owner (not a great idea but I was in the middle of a horrible personal crisis at the time)
I heard nothing back from them so assumed they'd cancelled the direct debit / standing order (not sure which one it was, I get them confused)
A couple of weeks later I cancelled the DD with the bank
In late January a debt collector wrote to me, demanding 6 months' worth of membership money, and saying they had written to me several times about it (they had been emailing me, not writing to me, and were sending to an email address I had accidentally locked myself out of)
This company has had my phone number and my home address, and made no effort to contact me by phone / writing. 
My question is, are they entitled to the full amount of the money, seeing as they made no effort to contact me by phone / letter?
The gym made no contact with me when the direct debit / standing order was cancelled, and they will have had my email / phone number / home address too. I consider them personal friends so I was surprised to not hear from them personally, if they were unhappy with the way my membership was cancelled
I have phoned the debt agency and they said they would forward me all of the email communications they had sent, asking for the cash (As of yet, they have not sent me anything)
I am wondering if there is a procedure that needs to be adhered to by people chasing debt, as they seem to have escalated this issue without acting in a reasonable way when it comes to trying to contact me to settle the debt several months ago, before it had mounted up
Thanks in advance for any light that can be shed on this
Same difference could be said about you sending a text message and hearing nothing back, so presuming it was cancelled. They could have sent the emails and not heard anything back and take that as you don't want to pay.

They *should* send you a letter before action, giving you an amount of time to pay before starting court proceedings, usually 14 days.

powerful_Rogue

However it seems they could use the same logic as you. You sent a text message to cancel, heard nothing back and thought the contract had been cancelled. They sent emails and heard nothing back thinking you didn't want to pay.

What were the cancellation terms in the contract? How long was the contract for and how long had you been a member before 'texting' to cancel.

A_Nice_Englishman

As the gym owners are personal friends, perhaps the best way to deal with this would be to give them a ring or go round and sort it out between you?

 Perhaps they've already sent you friendly email reminders which you haven't read?

Do they do the admin themselves or is what's happened the result of a staff member following the normal procedure?

hollydays

Them being personal friends is even more reason not to mess them about, and cancel via their t &c s

PirateSwan

Thanks all for your responses. Am awaiting a copy of the contract to be sent to me; I'll check it out when it arrives.

powerful_Rogue

PirateSwan said:

Thanks all for your responses. Am awaiting a copy of the contract to be sent to me; I'll check it out when it arrives.

Where is your copy of the contract?

steampowered

The contract with your gym is not the be-all and end-all.

Gym contracts were subject to a big investigation a few years ago, and the OFT ran around suing gyms for including unfair cancellation clauses in their contracts. See for example https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14590195.

Part of the High Court's finding in that case was that gym contracts which contain unreasonable cancellation terms making it difficult to cancel are in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and not enforceable.

If you texted the owner, and that was a reasonable method of cancelling in the circumstances, then I think you could say that was a valid cancellation regardless of what is in your contract.

pelirocco

steampowered said:

The contract with your gym is not the be-all and end-all.

Gym contracts were subject to a big investigation a few years ago, and the OFT ran around suing gyms for including unfair cancellation clauses in their contracts. See for example https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14590195.

Part of the High Court's finding in that case was that gym contracts which contain unreasonable cancellation terms making it difficult to cancel are in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and not enforceable.

If you texted the owner, and that was a reasonable method of cancelling in the circumstances, then I think you could say that was a valid cancellation regardless of what is in your contract.

This referred  to one gym ,it doesnt explain why they thought the terms of the contract were  unfair. Hopefully the OP doesnt take your advice , and checks their contract
There is nothing unusual in gyms having a contract and you ignore them at your peril  

born_again

>>I consider them personal friends so I was surprised to not hear from them personally,<<

You mean that you speak to them at the Gym when your there? Or you spend a lot of time elsewhere in their company.

steampowered

pelirocco said:

steampowered said:

The contract with your gym is not the be-all and end-all.

Gym contracts were subject to a big investigation a few years ago, and the OFT ran around suing gyms for including unfair cancellation clauses in their contracts. See for example https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14590195.

Part of the High Court's finding in that case was that gym contracts which contain unreasonable cancellation terms making it difficult to cancel are in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and not enforceable.

If you texted the owner, and that was a reasonable method of cancelling in the circumstances, then I think you could say that was a valid cancellation regardless of what is in your contract.

This referred  to one gym ,it doesnt explain why they thought the terms of the contract were  unfair. Hopefully the OP doesnt take your advice , and checks their contract
There is nothing unusual in gyms having a contract and you ignore them at your peril  

If you read the court judgment and the OFT's guidance, you will see exactly what was found to be unlawful in gym contracts in considerable detail. 
https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/ashbourne-management-services-unfair-gym-membership-contracts has a link to the judgment.

A few years ago the OFT dealt with all the large gyms about unfair terms in their contracts. Large chains like David Lloyd and Bannaytnes gave the OFT undertakings to change heir contracts and not to enforce their existing contracts. The OFT sued gyms who forced to comply.

The outcome of the OFT's legal action is that it is now beyond any legal doubt that contract terms which unduly restrict the manners in which consumers can cancel (e.g. by requiring customers to give notice to a management company rather than to the gym they visit) are legally unenforceable. Making that clear was the whole point of the OFT's legal action.

The Op should check their contract but not take it as the "be all and end all" given that there is very very clear legal guidance about unenforceable cancellation terms in gym contracts ! 

I am sure the large gym chains all comply with this basic law now, but small gyms like the one the Op went to may not. Gyms ignore the law at their peril ! If the cancellation term is unreasonably restrictive, not only will that clause be unenforceable but the gym is also opening itself up to regulatory action if a complaint is made.