David Lloyd’s membership freeze question

dnicu26

Hi all,

Wondering someone could shed some light on this and I am sure there are other people in this boat too as it’s a general gym enquiry related to the membership freezes. 

I had signed up for one year David Lloyd’s membership in July 2019, fixed term for 12 months. Due to the covid situation, they froze memberships in March. Now they will be reopening end of July and they are saying that because of the membership freeze, they are extending the initial yearly membership by the duration of the lockdown so about 4 months.
Now at this point I do not intend to go back to David Lloyd’s as I have invested a fair amount in home equipment.

2 months ago I emailed and called them to let them know I want to cancel my membership at the end of the initial period which would be August and they said that was fine and will pass my details on to the club when it opens - apparently it is something that needs to be done locally.

However in the latest email it seems that they want to extend the initial yearly membership duration. The terms and conditions Only mention that if I choose to freeze my membership then The initial term will be extended by the frozen duration. However, the membership was frozen due to external factors, which is not covered in the terms and conditions booklet.
What are my rights here? Is anyone else in the same boat?
Thanks

mattyprice4004

Yearly membership = paying for 12 months, so if you've not been paying while everything has been frozen this seems fair to me. 

bradders1983

Gyms can't win clearly. They dont freeze memberships and people moan they are taking money for a service they cant use. They freeze memberships and people moan that it extends the length of fixed term contracts.

Either way, the OP has chosen off his own back to buy his own equipment. That isnt the problem of David Lloyd.

Jeremy535897

I assumed that the issue was that you could cancel in the initial period, but not afterwards (until the membership runs out), so if the initial period expires during the frozen period, and you can't contact them to cancel, you have to pay the rest of the membership year once it is unfrozen. I would have expected that while the membership is frozen, the initial period is frozen too, but the original terms and conditions presumably didn't foresee this situation, and the amendments made to create the frozen period presumably didn't address the issue?

Gyms open in a fortnight, so I suggest OP raises the issue as soon as he can. It may well be that the original initial period hasn't expired yet.

dnicu26

Jeremy535897 said:

I assumed that the issue was that you could cancel in the initial period, but not afterwards (until the membership runs out), so if the initial period expires during the frozen period, and you can't contact them to cancel, you have to pay the rest of the membership year once it is unfrozen. I would have expected that while the membership is frozen, the initial period is frozen too, but the original terms and conditions presumably didn't foresee this situation, and the amendments made to create the frozen period presumably didn't address the issue?

Gyms open in a fortnight, so I suggest OP raises the issue as soon as he can. It may well be that the original initial period hasn't expired yet.

Hi, What I meant by initial period is the initial 12 month contract that I signed up for. I am free to cancel after that but not in the first 12 months which end in August. But since the memberships have been frozen they are now not counting the frozen months which does not seem right to me. I signed up for the first 12 consecutive months. That’s what I wanted to clarify. Anyways, I have emailed them but I wanted to see if others are in the same boat, so wanting to cancel but the gyms making their own rules on reopening. 

Jeremy535897

If you signed up and committed to pay for 12 months, you would presumably have had to pay that if you stopped going after the first week? If they are not charging for the frozen months, you will still be paying for 12 months as you committed to, so I am not sure why you don't think this is right?

adamp87

Objectively

You signed up for 12 months.

Due to COVID they closed & froze payments for 4 months and as they have reopened your period continues for another 4 months.

I think that’s completely fair, you agreed to sign up for 12 Months. If you wish to leave you still have to pay those remaining 12 months.

You don’t get the past 4 for free

unholyangel

OP's consumer rights are not affected by corona. 

The gym were in breach as they did not provide services as agreed. The fact this was outside of their control only affects their liability for damages (ie OP getting another membership or buying home equipment). It does not mean that the gym get to unilaterally vary the terms of the agreement (fixed contract length) to their benefit/consumers detriment and effectively make the consumer their insurer. 

I suspect some think the OP is "benefitting" from it as they were not required to pay for the months the gym was closed. However, not being required to pay the contractual fee because the services weren't being provided is not benefitting (or betterment as the law would call it). Betterment would be receiving the services and not having to pay the money. 

Jeremy535897

Put simply, OP was expecting to pay 12 monthly payments totalling a certain amount, whether he went to the gym or not, over a 12 month period. The variation says he can go to the same gym for the same amount of months for the same price, just not the same months.

Every customer of every gym paying a monthly subscription could argue that the gym was in breach. You then look at the appropriate remedy. In OP's case, he has not lost anything, as he contracted to pay for membership at the gym for 12 months, and that is what he is getting (with a short delay due to an event outside the control of both parties). I am not clear therefore that any court would be likely to award OP anything.

unholyangel

Jeremy535897 said:

Put simply, OP was expecting to pay 12 monthly payments totalling a certain amount, whether he went to the gym or not, over a 12 month period. The variation says he can go to the same gym for the same amount of months for the same price, just not the same months.

Every customer of every gym paying a monthly subscription could argue that the gym was in breach. You then look at the appropriate remedy. In OP's case, he has not lost anything, as he contracted to pay for membership at the gym for 12 months, and that is what he is getting (with a short delay due to an event outside the control of both parties). I am not clear therefore that any court would be likely to award OP anything.

Being tied into a contract until say december when the agreement was until June is a detriment. 

The services weren't provided because the gym were unable to - not because the OP didn't want them. That means they lose the right to charge the OP for those months. Not that they can displace the liability for those months onto other months. 

And yes, everyone with a gym subscription where the gym aren't providing services can argue the gym are in breach - because they are in breach! 

The court wouldn't award OP anything because it wouldn't be the OP claiming. It would be the gym claiming - but the courts wouldn't award them anything either since the agreement was until June and it was the gym who were in breach of their contractual obligations, not the OP. 

Jeremy535897

Not every breach of contract by one party automatically entitles the other party to resile from it.