Are you planning to or did you recently join a gym or a weight-loss clinic? Do you know your rights? For example, when and how you can cancel your membership?
Taking out a membership
Sometimes, we don’t realize that taking out a membership at a gym or weight-loss clinic is a formal commitment. Yet a membership is a contract. It’s best to know what to check during sign-up.
Check the gym or clinic’s permit
Anyone running a gym or a weight-loss clinic must obtain a permit from the Office de la protection du consommateur (“OPC” or consumer protection bureau).
Before taking out a membership, check the OPC website to make sure your gym or clinic does indeed have a permit and that it’s still valid.
Check the membership contract
Your contract must respect certain rules. First, the length of the contract can’t exceed one year. Furthermore, the contract can’t renew automatically.
Next, your contract must always mention certain mandatory information, including:
- the services included in your membership,
- the date on which the gym or clinic will start to offer you these services,
- the length of the membership,
- how much it will cost you in total, including taxes as well as fees for registering, opening a file, administration, etc., if any,
- the possibility of cancelling the contract, and how to do it.
Finally, the gym or clinic must provide you with a copy of your contract once it’s been signed.
If the contract doesn’t contain the required information and you suffered some harm as a result, your contract is considered nonexistent (that is, as if you never signed it). You must inform the gym or the clinic by registered mail if you wish to cancel your membership for this reason. In case of disagreement, you can go to small claims court to enforce your rights.
If you take out a membership online
Certain rules apply if you take out a membership online:
- You must receive a copy of your contract within 15 days of the day on which you enrolled. If you haven’t received your contract within this timeframe, you can cancel your membership within 30 days of the day on which you enrolled.
- Before you finalize your enrollment, you must have access to all the information that is required to be included in the contract. You must also be allowed to correct any errors in this information before confirming your membership. Finally, the gym or weight-loss clinic must give you a way to reach them online, such as by email.
If one of these rules was not followed, you have seven days from the date of receipt of your contract to cancel at no cost.
Paying for your membership
You don’t have to pay until you’ve had access to the services listed in your membership contract. For example, your gym can’t require payment if it hasn’t yet given you access to the weight room.
If the total cost of the membership is more than $100, you must have the option to pay in at least two instalments. The payments must be of relatively equal value and spread out over the length of the membership. If you have a one-year membership and plan to pay in two instalments, you could pay in January and July, for example. On the other hand, the facility couldn’t require you to make the payments in January and February.
Does your membership start off with a free or reduced-price period, and then the price goes up? The gym or clinic must send you a written notice before the end of this period. This notice must clearly indicate:
- the date on which the free or reduced-price period ends,
- the price you will have to pay after that date.
Renewing your membership
Your membership contract can’t say that it renews automatically when it expires. Your gym or your clinic has two options when your membership ends:
- invite you to sign a new contract,
- offer to renew your contract, while following certain rules.
An offer to renew from your gym or clinic must:
- be sent to you in writing 30 to 60 days before the end of your membership,
- indicate the length of the renewed contract,
- tell you the total cost of the renewed contract. This cost can’t be higher than the previous one, even if the membership is for a longer period.
You must then communicate your agreement in writing to your gym or clinic before the end of your membership for your contract to be renewed.
Cancelling your membership
You can cancel your membership in three situations. See the section that applies to you to learn which rules apply.
You can cancel the contract, without providing a reason and at no cost or penalty if the gym or clinic has not yet given you access to the services offered or if the equipment is not available to you.
If you cancel your membership while you have access to the services or facilities, there are two possible situations:
- You cancel your membership within a timeframe less than or equal to one-tenth of its total length,
- You cancel after one-tenth of the length of the membership has passed.
When you cancel within a timeframe less than or equal to one-tenth of the total length of the membership, the fees charged by the gym or clinic cannot exceed one-tenth of the total cost of the contract.
For example, if you have a 10-month contract with a weight-loss clinic and you start receiving services the day of your registration, the timeframe for cancelling your membership is one month (1/10 of 10 months).
If the total membership fee is $400, the clinic can’t charge you more than $40 (1/10 of $400).
If you cancel your membership after the timeframe equal to 1/10 of the total length of the contract, the gym or clinic can require you to pay an amount for the services already provided as well as an additional amount if it can demonstrate that it suffered some harm from the cancellation of the membership.
In case of disagreement over this additional amount, you can go to small claims court to enforce your rights.
If the gym or the clinic didn’t respect its obligations at the time of the signing of the contract, you can cancel your membership if you’re in one of the situations listed in the section above,
How to cancel your membership
To cancel your membership, you can use the cancellation form included with your copy of the contract. You can also send a written notice you write yourself. The membership is cancelled as soon as this form or notice is sent (ideally by registered mail). Important: a phone call isn’t enough.
If you took out a membership online, you can cancel it right on the gym or clinic’s website. The gym or clinic must include an easy-to-spot cancellation button on its website.
The gym or clinic must return any advance payment you made within 10 days following the cancellation of the contract. It can deduct the amount you owe for the cancellation.
The gym or clinic closes
You could receive a refund if your gym or clinic closes during your membership.
See the Compensation section of the Office de la protection du consommateur website for more details. The Office de la protection du consommateur is the government agency responsible for informing consumers in Quebec of their rights and protecting them.
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Important! The information in this article does not apply if
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