Were you a New Year’s Resolutioner who recently enrolled with a health club and now have a gym membership? If so, congratulations on committing to a healthier lifestyle and for making it past “National Quitters Day,” which was January 12. Your new contract with a health club comes with a recurring membership, most likely for one year, and chances are there is an “automatic renewal” provision after the initial term ends. If you watch Friends, you might recall the episode when Ross and Chandler struggled to cancel their gym memberships and were unable to “quit the gym.” Hopefully, you are not already thinking of quitting the gym, but we are here to help you avoid the challenges associated with those pesky automatic renewal terms.

In Maryland, there is a law that health clubs cannot impose an automatic renewal unless that is expressly written in the contract with the buyer’s consent. Maryland Commercial Law Article, §14-12-B06 says, in part:

“A health club services agreement may not contain an automatic renewal clause, unless the agreement provides for a renewal option for continued membership which must be accepted by the buyer.” If you have a gym membership, you can check your written agreement to see if there is a renewal clause present. Otherwise, your health club would not be able to automatically renew your contract.

For those with buyer’s remorse, the statute goes on to say that “[a] buyer may cancel a health club services agreement within three business days after receipt of a copy of the agreement after notifying the health club in writing.” While many gyms allow you to cancel your contract in person, § 14-12-B06 makes clear that the consumer can cancel the membership with timely written notice. This means that you need not fear being pulled into a back office like Ross and Chandler were and guilted into keeping your health club membership, so long as you do so timely.

If you live in Washington, D.C., the impact of automatic renewals extends to any contract for consumer goods or services with an initial term of one year and an automatic renewal for a period of one month or more. In DC Code § 28A-201, et seq., in any consumer agreement with this type of clause, the seller must give the consumer notice in writing at least 30 days before the automatic renewal occurs of the seller’s ability to cancel. Similarly, if you have an agreement with an initial free trial period, the seller must communicate to the consumer between 15 and 30 days before it concludes that the free trial period is ending and must then obtain the consumer’s affirmative approval before charging the consumer and commencing the initial term. DC Code § 28A -203. If the seller violates this law, the automatic renewal is void and the contract terminates.

We hope that you are committed to staying the course, but if you find that a health club membership is not right for you, you do have the ability to move on from the gym.

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