When a club cancels your membership...

Manxman_in_exile

I've read it several times too.  You might be right, but in the way the OP has written it I haven't the foggiest idea what he's going on about.

elsien

Vetting of staff and volunteers, yes.
Vetting of members - if anyone has  known of this to happen, I’m intrigued as to what for, so please share. 

I’d be expecting  anything more specialist (as it were) to be charging more then £200 a year. 

steampowered

What sort of club. Is this a private members' club?

If we are talking about a business, they will be subject to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations which may render certain terms unfair. There is lots of information out there about this - principally in relation to gyms, as the OFT (now the CMA) brought court cases against the big gym changes to force them to change their contracts.

If this is a non-profit organisation, then the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations will not apply.

There is very little legislation governing private members' clubs. For those sorts of clubs, the membership application is just governed by basic contract law - the club is free to impose (almost) whatever terms it wishes, as long as you agree to them!

For voluntary organisations, DBS checks don't cost a fee anyway.

Op needs to provide more specific information if they want meaningful input.

Manxman_in_exile

steampowered said:

...
Op needs to provide more specific information if they want meaningful input.

I doubt they'll be back - to busy trying to find the Membership of Clubs and Associations Act... 

unholyangel

steampowered said:

What sort of club. Is this a private members' club?

If we are talking about a business, they will be subject to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations which may render certain terms unfair. There is lots of information out there about this - principally in relation to gyms, as the OFT (now the CMA) brought court cases against the big gym changes to force them to change their contracts.

If this is a non-profit organisation, then the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations will not apply.

There is very little legislation governing private members' clubs. For those sorts of clubs, the membership application is just governed by basic contract law - the club is free to impose (almost) whatever terms it wishes, as long as you agree to them!

For voluntary organisations, DBS checks don't cost a fee anyway.

Op needs to provide more specific information if they want meaningful input.

Non-profit doesn't stop it being an unfair term or from any consumer legislation applying. Even being a charity doesn't stop it.

UTCCR was also repealed by CRA, although it's more or less the same. 


I also haven't raised this point as op has yet to clarify whether it is actually an association or not, but if the fee is a processing fee, it can be legitimately kept. Similar to how a deposit can be kept if it's genuinely a deposit (aka reservation fee) and not an advance payment under the contract.