We have all made New Year’s Resolutions. This year I will start exercising, eating healthy and spend less time at the office and more with the family. In order to fulfil this resolution, you join the local gymnasium as soon as you return from your December holiday. It does not bother you whether the agreement is for two, three or four years. This year you are going to keep that resolution!
Then winter arrives and you spend more time at the office and at the fireside and less time in the gymnasium. By August you recognise the debit order of the gymnasium on your bank statement, knowing full well that you have not been there for at least two months.
The Consumer Protection Act (“the act”) has limited the effect of fixed-term agreements containing automatic renewal clauses for a further fixed term. As the legislator has given a wide definition to the words “goods” and “services”, most fixed-term agreements will fall within the scope of the act. Section 16 of the act provides that any consumer may cancel a long-term agreement with twenty business days’ notice, which notice must be in writing, unless both parties to the agreement are juristic persons.
The act then provides that the supplier may be entitled to a “reasonable cancellation penalty” payable by the consumer for cancelling the fixed-term agreement. What constitutes a reasonable cancellation penalty will depend on the type and nature of the contract.
Lester Timothy of Deneys Reitz Attorneys uses the example of a mobile phone contract, an analogy most of us will understand. A consumer enters into a two-year contract with a mobile phone service provider and simultaneously purchases a handset to be paid by monthly instalments in the course of the two-year contract. The service provider will thus have incurred expenses regarding the handset. Therefore, in the event of the consumer cancelling the contract, it will be acceptable for the mobile service provider to charge the consumer for the outstanding balance of the handset to recover the expenses incurred.
Where a supplier incurs no significant additional cost as a result of the cancellation of the contract, the supplier will have more difficulty to establish the reasonableness of any cancellation penalty unless a discount is given.
You may therefore approach that gymnasium and notify them in writing of your intention to cancel the agreement after twenty business days. Depending on the remaining period of your contract and the wording of the agreement, you will have to pay a reasonable cancellation penalty. However, as the gymnasium did not incur significant additional costs as a result of your cancellation, you will be entitled to a discount on the remaining balance of the agreement.
Negotiate the cancellation penalty fee with the gymnasium. You may be surprised what the offer of an immediate payment as cancellation penalty can do.
And next year, rather buy running shoes, even expensive ones. They will wait patiently in your wardrobe till the following New Year’s Day …
This article is a general information sheet and should not be used or relied on as legal or other professional advice. No liability can be accepted for any errors or omissions nor for any loss or damage arising from reliance upon any information herein. Always contact your legal adviser for specific and detailed advice