Legal Question in Business Law in Minnesota

Re: gym membership

Thank you for your question.

You first need to examine your contract with the fitness center. Some contracts are for a fixed term, others are for a month to month term. The longer term contracts are usually tied to promotions, and require a longer committment if you are taking advantage of some sort of reduced fee/waived sign up fee/etc.

You should also carefully examine your contract to determine what type of notice is required to terminate the agreement (usually written), and to whom the notice should be given. Although this is not always specified clearly in the contract, many health clubs will provide that notice must be given to their business office, and that the contract will be terminated thirty days thereafter. (If you give notice in the middle of May, for example, they may charge you for June.)

Finally, I assume that this is a problem because you had a bank account or credit card that was being billed monthly, and that the charge was overlooked. If that is the case, then you may have some difficulty requesting the return of your money, since you continued to make payments long after you expressed an intention to terminate the membership. If, on the other hand, you are now receiving bills for membership dues, you may have a reasonable defense. In either case, what matters is how and when you gave notice, whether it was sufficient and timely under the terms of your contract, and if there is some question about the notice, whether other facts may exist that suggest the contract was effectively terminated.

You should start by carefully examining your contract, and by attempting to recover some evidence of your termination notice. If you have additional questions, my contact information is below.