Lifetime Gym Membership

ozzw247

I bought a lifetime membership to a local gym back in 2014, all the promotion material and the contract I signed clearly state 'lifetime' membership - actually written in the membership type field by the owner!

They are now saying that it was actually only a 10 year membership, they have not notified anybody of this change and actually compared it to buying  a sofa where a 10 year lifetime would be reasonable. Human average lifetime being around 75 years, hmmm

I can see nothing in the terms and conditions allowing a change to the duration to be made, my reading is it is for the lifetime of myself or until the gym closes - it is doing well so unlikely.

When I challenge them they gave the sofa comparison and said no one would offer a lifetime membership of that type and I must be misunderstanding - but they did! - worse still the original terms allow you to pass the membership on to someone else!

They are now offering new long term deals, but have clearly defined 10 years as the period of the contract, asking for £4500 for that period. To me this kind of implies that this is different to the original lifetime contract.

I like the Gym, the people and its facilities so do not wish to wreck things legally or otherwise. I just want what they (naively?) agreed to.

The_Unready

Judging by the gym's initial response you may not have any options other than to 'go legal' (or at least threaten to).

Aylesbury_Duck

As always with these things, the devil's in the details.  Are there no terms that define "lifetime" in the contract, at all?  If there aren't, then it would ultimately be down to a judge's opinion.

As I see it, unless you're prepared to 'go legal' or imply that you might, you can't enforce your definition of 'lifetime'.

Exodi

This is very similar to a thread I read a while back about a very similar thing.

Out of interest, has the gym changed ownership?

Or has the owner suddenly realized he's not making enough money, and his members all having infinite memberships at no additional cost might have been a bad commercial decision.

If the latter, I'd say this is something that would be relatively easy for a court to rule on (assuming you've still got the agreement and the owner is unwilling to budge).

If (for example) you paid £4500 for a 'lifetime membership', which based on average life expectancy in the UK (about 82) minus your age at the time (lets say 32) means you reasonably expected to get 50 years usage out of it. Therefore if he's not willing to offer you a lifetime membership (you can't force him) then you are reasonably expected to be reimbursed for the unused part. If you used your membership for 10 years, and you could reasonably have expected 50 total years of membership, you should expect reimbursement of 80% of the amount paid (£3600 in this example).

Unfortunately, I'd remove from your mind that it is a possibility for the owner to just honour the original agreement. I expect his decision to do this (rightly or wrongly) won't have come lightly, and is likely in the face of increased costs and a bleak outlook.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Any ambiguity in a contract typically favours the party that didn't write it.

Their sofa analogy is nonsense, you could suggest a fridge lasts 10-20 years or some people have 50 year old cars, a random item that has nothing to do with a gym membership, well has nothing to do with a gym membership. 

I don't know what the legal view of "lifetime" would be, your assessment of you being still alive or the gym in business sounds straight forward to me but I don't know if in legal terms that would be considered absurd. 

I would ask them where the terms of the contract limit or attempt to define the time period and if none what aspect of the terms they are relying on in order to make a variation to the contract. 

Ironically you should live longer if you are going to the gym.

Exodi

Aylesbury_Duck said:

As always with these things, the devil's in the details.  Are there no terms that define "lifetime" in the contract, at all?  If there aren't, then it would ultimately be down to a judge's opinion.

As I see it, unless you're prepared to 'go legal' or imply that you might, you can't enforce your definition of 'lifetime'.

I'm quite suprised about your response on this - is there any ambiguity over what a 'lifetime' means in this context? I think a lifetime = a lifetime isn't just the OP's definition.

I could understand if this was context specific ambiguity (for example "over the lifetime of your washing machine" or "free nandos during your student lifetime") but this doesn't seem to be the case here. Many businesses sell lifetime memberships that do what they say on the tin.

I'm an avid gym-goer, and there's no precedent (that I'm aware of) that a gym-goers lifetime is 10 years? If it applied to how long the average person uses a gym membership, I'd imagine it would be a matter of weeks/months!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Any ambiguity in a contract typically favours the party that didn't write it.

Is lifetime membership ambiguous?

ozzw247

I have read back through all the terms and conditions and there is nothing referring to the contract length and the possibility of them changing it, just some notes on cancelling or terminating the contract if they feel there are reasonable grounds. I see myself as a 'good user' so feel they will have no issue there.

The Gym is still owned by the same owner and trading under the same name, I still have all the original paperwork, promotion leaflets for it. The original offer was made to 100 people out of a membership of around 5000 at the time, the gym now claims 6000 members - most of its competition vanished with Covid.

This was the first deal of this kind they have made and I believe they did not lock it down very well e.g. pass on to your family if you can no longer use it! 

I intend to see the club manager and ask for the terms they used to change it from lifetime - I think reasonably assumed to be my lifetime, not my sofas! - to 10 years, and as I said their latest offer clearly states 10 years, suggesting they have caught the issue now.

The thing is I understand they need revenue to keep things going, and that offering long memberships can be a sign of cash flow issues, but I would have been open to paying something extra as I appreciate the place, just £4500 for 10 years gambling they stay open is not much of a bet to me.

DullGreyGuy

ozzw247 said:
my reading is it is for the lifetime of myself or until the gym closes - it is doing well so unlikely.

How do you know they are doing really well? It could be rammed full of people that havent paid them a penny for 20 years. That would be a busy gym thats doing really badly.

Exodi said:
I'm quite suprised about your response on this - is there any ambiguity over what a 'lifetime' means in this context? I think a lifetime = a lifetime isn't just the OP's definition.

A contractually defined term can mean whatever the contract states, if its not defined in the contract then it reverts to plain english.

So here is an example of a contractual definition of lifetime that is different to the natural lifetime of the person:

Lifetime means the time that the Owner owns the single family detached residence on which the Product was installed. For any other type of building or structure that is not a single family detached residence, Lifetime means a period of 30 years from the date of Product installation on the Property.

They've introduce a cap of 30 years by making it a defined term in the contract


Personally I'd be asking the gym to confirm which clauses it is relying on to either state the limit is 10 years or that allow it to change the term to 10 years.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Exodi said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Any ambiguity in a contract typically favours the party that didn't write it.

Is lifetime membership ambiguous?

It is and it isn't.

It would be much easier for the gym if they'd defined the period, although how you define that I don't know as a short(ish) period of 10 or 20 years isn't lifetime so the advertising would be misleading. 

OP it's very difficult as if you agree to something else you are probably relinquishing your rights under the original contract, if you stop going to the gym they probably won't care (for want of a better word) as you aren't paying monthly.

Other than being a thorn in their side, refusing to pay extra and insisting upon access to services the contract covers I don't see any good situation for yourself and I appreciate you don't want to cause upset ending in a negative atmosphere in a place you go for leisure.

No easy answers really but from what you've said I can't see the gym has a leg to stand on.

Do you know if any of the other 100 or so lifetime members still going to the gym? Do you know any of them and their thoughts on this? 

ozzw247

Exodi said:

Is lifetime membership ambiguous?

Reading back through all the paperwork they only ever use the terms 'life membership' or 'lifetime membership', in my mind that is very clear and refers to my lifetime - expected or otherwise. I also believe their new offer re-enforces this.

ozzw247

DullGreyGuy said:

How do you know they are doing really well? It could be rammed full of people that havent paid them a penny for 20 years. That would be a busy gym thats doing really badly.

Fair point, busy does not equal doing well, in fact I guess offering more long term deals - always a gamble - may suggest the opposite

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Do you know if any of the other 100 or so lifetime members still going to the gym? Do you know any of them and their thoughts on this? 

I am not really aware of who else has the deal, I tend to keep pretty much to myself or with a handful of other members who do not have the deal. I would think it likely others may feel the same.

After 8 years using the membership I have had good usage, so do not want to go legal and I would be open to a good deal, but more resent that the original deal and contract were very clear and they are back pedalling without (at this time) being open to give a deal to go forward with.