Gym membership reaching 12 months in lockdown

Hctap

Hi everyone, I've lurked these forums for a long time but just signed up because I couldn't find the answer to my specific question (i spent ages lookin !). I know, i kno , another gym question, but I could use some help here.

During corona my gym did the honourable thing of stopping payments and I am very grateful that they did. However, i stopped using the gym in December and was just waiting for my year contract was up so I could cancel my membership.

My year was up in June, so i got in touch with the management company that handles memberships and they say I can't cancel because I still have 3 monthly payments to make, citing that i signed up for 12 monthly payments. I asked for proof and they showed me something that says: 12 month rolling direct debit.

Now, am I wrong for interpreting that to mean the terms are over a 12 month duration? Or is that 12 individual months regardless of which months they may be?

If I have to pay the remaining 3 months, fair is fai . But the way I see it, my 12 month period is over.

I'd love to hear some opinions on thi . 

Mrsn

12 month rolling direct debit to me would mean 12 monthly direct debit payments, which by your own admission you haven’t made yet. 

They have so far been fair by the looks of it with pausing the payments as they couldn’t offer the services but now they can I would expect the contract to need to finish with what you agreed too.

Jonesy1977

This has certainly been a topic on other threads recently.  Without  knowing the gym, I don't know what was communicated but I believe your membership was suspended (paused) and therefore rightly or wrongly it will pick up where you left off i.e you will have three months to pay/use.  

es5595

There’s a very similar question on this thread; https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77383283#Comment_77383283

In my opinion, this comment sums it up;

unholyangel said:

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. 

Hctap

es5595 said:

There’s a very similar question on this thread; https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77383283#Comment_77383283

In my opinion, this comment sums it up;

unholyangel said:

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. 

Thanks for pointing that out , much appreciated