Contract issue help

wozzza72

Hello
My son signed up to an online fitness coaching company this time last month. Apparently they help get a coaching business off the ground and even (supposedly) send clients your way.

I really don’t know what he was thinking but I think he had a head in the cloud moment and signed up to a 12 month contract at £650 a month. 

He’s just been made redundant and needs to find a job asap. He’s called this company and they’ve told him he can pay £5.5k early release or if he doesn’t pay they will be sending debt collectors around.

Can anyone advise on what his options are? Are they just scaremongering? 

many thanks.

DE_612183

Well if he is in breach of contract, they can go to court and get a court order - if h doesn't pay they get a CCJ, they can then enforce the CCJ which would mean debt collectors.

His best bet is to check the contract - see what it says about early termination.

Also he may have to ask to pay the £5.5k in monthly instalments.

Have you checked the company to see if anybody else has had issues with this - reviews etc?

DE_612183

You also need to check whether the contract is for a fee of £7800, but you are allowed to pay over 12 months ( a bit like insurance or council tax ) - or whether it's a subscription of £650 a month.

MyRealNameToo

wozzza72 said:

Hello
My son signed up to an online fitness coaching company this time last month. Apparently they help get a coaching business off the ground and even (supposedly) send clients your way.

I really don’t know what he was thinking but I think he had a head in the cloud moment and signed up to a 12 month contract at £650 a month. 

He’s just been made redundant and needs to find a job asap. He’s called this company and they’ve told him he can pay £5.5k early release or if he doesn’t pay they will be sending debt collectors around.

Can anyone advise on what his options are? Are they just scaremongering? 

many thanks.

Read the contract and check the termination clauses. 

Sounds like it's a business to business agreement and so there would be no requirement for a statutory cooling off period etc. 

His options are to pay it, negotiate it or call their bluff. £5.5 is not an insignificant sum and certainly some will got to court for a lot less than that. 

Brie

I agree the termination clause needs to be checked to see precisely what it says.  

But no they won't be sending debt collectors around.  That happens very rarely particularly with private companies.  What they will do is make a lot of threats, strut about, say they will take legal action.  And all of that strutting and puffing takes time. 

So tell him to write them a letter (not call, not email, not text) and state that he is checking his options and finances and will come back to them within 60 days.  They might respond and say he's got 30 days or 15. 

Tell them also that he will deal with them by post only and that they should erase any other way to contact him from their records.  Dealing with everything by post gives more breathing space.  

If the termination clause does say that he's got to pay a full year (or whatever) then he can go back to them with a proposal to pay and then he can start paying that.  They might disagree but if they are getting ££ even at a much reduced amount they are unlikely to proceed with any legal bumpf.  Should they decide to take him to court they are unlikely to win if he has shown willing to clear the required amount and has proceeded to do so.  CCJs are normally only awarded if the debtor does not respond or make any effort to contact/negotiate/pay.  

MyRealNameToo

Brie said:

CCJs are normally only awarded if the debtor does not respond or make any effort to contact/negotiate/pay.  

The claimant will get a judgement in their favour also if the debtor admits the money is owed even if they are already making payments towards the debt or the judge agrees the debt is owed. 

It becomes a CCJ if the debt isnt settled within one month of the judgement, including if there is an agreement repayment will take longer. 

ManyWays

Does he have other debts as well? He could benefit from some self-employed debt advice from Business Debtline https://businessdebtline.org/, they cover business and personal debts

caprikid1

Have they fulfilled the agreement so far, what are they committed to do ?

It might be a stronger angle if he can argue they have not delivered on the service.

Brie

MyRealNameToo said:

Brie said:

CCJs are normally only awarded if the debtor does not respond or make any effort to contact/negotiate/pay.  

The claimant will get a judgement in their favour also if the debtor admits the money is owed even if they are already making payments towards the debt or the judge agrees the debt is owed. 

It becomes a CCJ if the debt isnt settled within one month of the judgement, including if there is an agreement repayment will take longer. 

But it takes a long time to get to that point and there would need to be a disagreement about the payments made or that they were being paid each month.  If the creditor agreed to £100 a month and that was always paid they couldn't easily go to court and demand more and get a CCJ.  It wouldn't make sense to try.

x_raphael_xx

wozzza72 said:

Hello
My son signed up to an online fitness coaching company this time last month. Apparently they help get a coaching business off the ground and even (supposedly) send clients your way.

He’s just been made redundant and needs to find a job asap. 

Sorry I have no advise on the contract. But I'm curious as to why he's not using the services to build a coaching business if he needs a job? Does he get a cut of the clients payment?

I know its a tough industry to break into but wouldn't this be a good opportunity to start his own business? Or at least something to work on while he's looking for other work.

sourcrates

They don`t "send debt collectors round" that`s a quote from someone who hasn`t a clue about how debt collection actually works in 2025.

He will likely get a letter from a debt collector, who can`t do anything but write to him, as they won`t own the debt.

They will run through their standard letters with him, then if unsuccessful, return the debt to the client.

Should the client then decide to take matters further and issue a claim against him, it will be possible to arrange a payment plan for him, £1 a week if unemployed, whatever is affordable at the time, if they refused, and it proceeded to court, the same would apply as courts do not issue judgements that are unaffordable to debtors.

So pay no attention to silly comments such as "he can pay £5.5k early release" its just hot air blowing in the wind.