Hi all, Received 2 letter from our friends at CRS last month, the first stating that as per my membership agreement, point 4 "Irrespective of attendance or change in personal circumstances, this agreement cannot be cancelled." The fact that the gym informed me this was not so at signing and subsequently cancelled it finally in February make that point irrelevant. They said "The Gym agreed the reduced figure with you as purely a goodwill gesture, and can be revoked", now surely such a term constitutes an unfair agreement, on the first and secondly the gym had already agreed to and cancelled the membership so what are these people on about. Today I received the second letter, with another DRAFT county court claim form, where on the front it says the value is £185 TOTAL, but on the back they put an amount that would amount to the full 12 months membership minus the 3 months I paid plus a severely inflated debt collection fee of £171.50 plus tracing fee of £35. Should I bother responding to them as this is surely now classed as harassment and infringing upon my basic human rights, when I previously sent a letter asking them to cease and desist. What amount can I counter claim for as my time and effort invested in proving they are wrong, and undue stress caused, should they really wish to take this to court. As previously stated in this thread this all stems from an alleged debt of £25 I assumed I owed as I have given 30 days notice when I signed up and then followed up on it the month I was leaving 15 days before my next instalment was due of £50 which seems to be from when they are saying I cancelled contrary to me informing them on sign up, but after reading further in my T&C I did not need to give any notice of cancellation.

Oki attached is the T&C for my membership, and upon a more full read of it, I have noted that nowhere does it state I must give notice to my gym upon wishing to leave, verbally or otherwise, it does state that 'This renewal monthly mebership fee may only be amended if we advise you in writing giving 30 days notice', but nothing stating I must give 30 days, emphasis has been placed on the verb giving by me as it was was not given which to me implies they give me 30 days notice for changed to be affected, not ammending my membership agreement given 30 days notice from me. I think this is where I got the whole 'I must give notice by writing in 30 days' confusion from. Does this mean I can tell them to go jump or am I reading it wrong and getting excited over nothing. s.pdf

Hi jamesbrown8808, I believe that it does state to provide in writing I will check tonight, however on both occasions I provided verbal notification, only the second time the gym got me to sign a cancelation form which I dated the date I cancelled not 15th February. I no longer have any documents proving cancellation on either occasion as it’s just not reasonable to expect someone to keep this if they were informed their membership was cancelled. Is it worth just telling them to take it to court and then let the court decide if I should only pay a maximum of £50, as I will attend the hearing. Would I be liable for any court fees at all? As it stands I have nothing to prove I cancelled on either occasion and I believe that the T&C states it must be in writing to the debit collection agency themselves (which I did not provide, but they acknowledge cancellation on my second cancellation request given only to the gym), I have offered what I believe is the maximum I could owe which is half a month at £25, they rejected this and want more. Possibly worth noting also is that as per standard gym T&C these days it states that if unable to recover debt they will 'pass on' collection to a debt collection agency and all fee associated will be borne by the debtor including tracing fees. Is what you stated about not being allowed to charge for debt collection still valid in this instance?

I have been contacted by these friendly fellows again. I cancelled a membership back in October '08 (the beginning of my membership - doing it all months in advance to be clear) verbally and showing proof in the form of a tenancy agreement that I was moving out of the area, I subsequently followed up at the end of January when I was leaving the area, at this point they got me to sign a piece of paper. Now to my understanding I have given a good 4 months notice, then on the follow-up 5 days before I left the area they got me to sign something, and never told me to wait an additional 30 days. Fast forward 4 months to June and the first CRS letter arrives stating I owe approx £700, I kindly inform them I cancelled my membership due to leaving the area, 2 months later they send another letter this time demanding £185, reduced as the gym confirmed I cancelled but did not give a full 30 days notice, thus want 1 months membership at £50, plus 2x default charges at £20 each, plus £35 tracing, and £60 for CRS. Now as far as I am aware if they are only counting my termination from the end of January then I could only owe them £25 as my membership is charged on the 15th of each month and I cancelled 15 days before then next payment was due, thus I was paid up until February 15th, so could only possibly owe until February 28th, not the £50 they state. They sent me another letter today saying their charges are correct as they contacted the gym who said I gave notice on the February 15th (note I was not even in the area at this time, not did I correspond with the gym) and they want the money now as they see no further discussion necessary for this debt, so surely a £60 fee is disproportionate to the debt, plus £35 the tracing fee can surely not stand up as it costs less than that to get a credit check which reports your last known address plus I informed the gym of my forwarding address. The 2x default fees at £20 each are also suspicious as even though the membership agreement says that its chargeable if they fail to collect payment, they never informed me that they failed to collect payment, nor that the debt was being passed on, and sent 2x default letters, all these letters were sent to the old address which I had already vacated, and had all mail forwarded, and none came from CRS or the gym until they started demanding £100s at my current address. Any suggestions, as these people are really starting to become annoying. Please note I have a copy of my membership agreement from CRS, obtained using the standard template I have seen in this board, and they noted it’s not a credit agreement but a membership agreement, as well as the breakdown of charged, they have also sent at least 1 fake court form to me, I have tried to pay the only fee I could possibly owe which is £25 and they have rejected it and want the full amount.

Thanks for the response Ellie. I will ask them for this and keep you updates as I go along.

Hi all, I am now in receipt of a second letter from Harlands Group's CRS informing me I owe then money in this case £185 down from their previous letters amount in excess of £600, the first bit of randomness on their part. I had a membership with a gym who stated that as long as I inform them I am leaving the area I could cancel at any time. I informed them on initial sign up, and again in the month I was leaving, the second time they asked me to sign a form stating I was canceling. 5 months later I receive a letter from the Harlands Group's CRS, note that Harlands Group deal with the usual DD for the gym and the CRS is their credit resolution services department. I was told I owe in excess of £600 for canceling my membership, I informed them that I had informed my gym of this and they were fine with it and referred CRS back to my gym. They send me another letter today now asking for £185 stating that I was suppose to pay another months membership and that I failed to respond to Harland Groups initial default letter, letters I never received as I was no longer at the address. Now as far as I am aware I owe the gym nothing as I informed they on 2 occasion that I was canceling, on initial sign up and again at the beginning of the month I was leaving where they finally got me to sign a cancellation form. my final payment to the gym was in January 15th which payed me up to February 15th, I signed the form on the 1st February, so even if they say I owe then for the month of February which I don't believe I do as I informed them several month in advance of this that I was canceling surely I could only owe them for half of February not another months installment which would pay me up to March 15th. Below is a sample letter I have drafted which I was going to send, does it seem appropriate. Thanks for any advise.