| Top Tip - Gym Memberships - how to cancel for free 10:55 - May 5 with 728 views | uefacup81 |
Three words - "Frustration of Contract"
Those of you who have 12+ month gym contracts will probably have had them frozen for the period during which they're prevented from opening. If yours are anything like mine (Bannatyne), the frozen period won't count towards your initial contract length, and will only be valid whilst closure is enforced (even though, to my mind, you cannot safely run a gym whilst social distancing is in place).
Likewise, given everything is so uncertain at the moment, who knows if some of us will be able to afford outgoings such as gym memberships going forwards.
That's where the principle of 'frustration of contract' comes in. A contract is frustrated if:
1) An unexpected incident
2) Outside the parties' control
3) Makes performance impossible or radically different from that which the parties contemplated at the time of entering into the contract
In the event of frustration, the contract becomes voidable at the point at which the frustration occurred. I don't think that anyone could argue that the current restrictions do not fit the three criteria above.
Long story short, I contacted Bannatyne about this and put my case to them. They agreed to cancel my contract as of 17th March (the date at which social distancing was introduced), and also agreed to refund the portion of my March payment covering 17/03-31/03. Interestingly enough, their response to me kindly asked that I not tell anyone about this - which leads me to believe that:
a) They know it's a valid reason
b) They're sh*tting themselves lest people find out they have an absolute right to cancel
Even if you're looking at keeping your membership, it might be worthwhile going down this route. I wouldn't be surprised if, once they're allowed to open again, gyms start throwing out some juicy new-member offers. |  |
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| Top Tip - Gym Memberships - how to cancel for free on 11:04 - May 5 with 699 views | sparks |
Arguably- the performance of the contract is just delayed rather than frustrated.... |  |
| The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.
(Sir Terry Pratchett) | | Poll: | Is Fred drunk this morning? |
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| Top Tip - Gym Memberships - how to cancel for free on 11:09 - May 5 with 685 views | uefacup81 |
| Top Tip - Gym Memberships - how to cancel for free on 11:04 - May 5 by sparks |
Arguably- the performance of the contract is just delayed rather than frustrated.... |
I wondered that myself, and half expected Bannatyne to refuse to cancel it on those grounds. A brief skim over a related article does state that a delay can amount to frustration though.
Using wholly uneducated reasoning, my train of thought is that, given how gyms in particular tend to use any method at their disposal to enforce a contract, Bannatyne's pretty-instant climb-down suggests they know they can't do anything here (particularly given their keen-ness that I don't tell anyone about it!). | |
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| Top Tip - Gym Memberships - how to cancel for free on 11:20 - May 5 with 668 views | NotSure |
So during this Covid period, football clubs could get rid of players they don't want anymore due to "Frustration of Contract". |  | | |
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