Gym membership increase

Chilli_Heeler

Hi I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice. My local gym announced last week they were increasing the monthly price from £20 to £27 from 1st September. There is nothing in the contract that states anything about price increases, only that if we were to leave we have to give 2 months notice. However this price increase will come into effect within that 2 months meaning I would have to pay the higher price. They are insisting that we must give 2 months notice & pay the higher price for the last month. Can they do this?

pbartlett

are the gym's T&C online? if so we can look and advise.

Ectophile

No they can't.  Unless it's specifically stated in the T&Cs that there will be price rises, and how much those price rises will be.

Chilli_Heeler

pbartlett said:

are the gym's T&C online? if so we can look and advise.

No they’re just a local independent gym, I have the T&Cs on the app they use. On memberships all it says is “if for any reason you wish to terminate this contract you can provide ‘gym name’ with a 2 month notice in writing to do so”

I quoted the Consumer rights act 2015 in my first email to them explaining that as they’ve increased the price I had a right to cancel without penalty but they came back with lots of businesses have increased prices with immediate effect, they have given us plenty of notice & they will terminate the membership in 2 months time as agreed in the contract. But as I said, the contract mentions nothing about price increases & I agreed to that when the price was £20, not £27. 

Ectophile

Some companies seem to think that laws don't apply to them, or that T&C's override the law.

The other option that would be legal is if they insisted you pay the 2 months, but at the old rate.

Sandtree

Chilli_Heeler said:

pbartlett said:

are the gym's T&C online? if so we can look and advise.

No they’re just a local independent gym, I have the T&Cs on the app they use. On memberships all it says is “if for any reason you wish to terminate this contract you can provide ‘gym name’ with a 2 month notice in writing to do so”

Is there no "variation of terms" clause?

May be easier to say the name of the app and gym so people can read the T&Cs for themselves.

Chilli_Heeler

I’ve screenshot the terms and conditions from the app. It’s Quoox they use so not sure if you could go on and see if you weren’t a member. 

user1977

It's not clear to me that you even need to give 2 months notice if the initial 6 months membership has already elapsed.

jon81uk

user1977 said:

It's not clear to me that you even need to give 2 months notice if the initial 6 months membership has already elapsed.

I would agree, that contract reads like if you have made the six payments you can walk away.

Chilli_Heeler

Would you agree that as they don’t mention price increases in the T&Cs they are in breach of the contract & therefore I can cancel it immediately?

Aylesbury_Duck

Chilli_Heeler said:

Would you agree that as they don’t mention price increases in the T&Cs they are in breach of the contract & therefore I can cancel it immediately?

How long have you been a member?  If you're already at the 6 month point or beyond, it doesn't matter if they've breached the contract, you can cancel with no notice anyway.

If you're paying by direct debit, don't think that cancelling the DD cancels the contract.  It doesn't, it needs to be cancelled properly with the provider.