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Guide 6 of 6 · After the week

How long can a gym lock me in?

A prepaid membership stops at twelve months in four of the jurisdictions with a code, and the longest minimum term anywhere in the country is Queensland’s eighteen. One signed membership, run forward against each limit, is the clearest way to read them.

General information about gym membership law, not legal advice. Your state’s fair trading office is linked at the foot of this page.

Queensland: the cooling-off period starts on the day the client enters into the agreement (or on opening day, if signed before the centre opened) and ends 48 hours later. Fitness Industry Code of Practice (Qld), s 14. The end of Queensland's 48-hour cooling-off period: two days of the week, and no more. Western Australia: the cooling-off period for a client entering into a membership agreement starts on the day on which the client enters into the agreement, and runs 7 days (7 days after the day the centre opens, if the agreement was entered into before it opened). Fitness Industry Code of Practice 2021 (WA), cl 3. Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7 16121824 24487296120144168 you sign
Queensland: the cooling-off period starts on the day the client enters into the agreement (or on opening day, if signed before the centre opened) and ends 48 hours later. Fitness Industry Code of Practice (Qld), s 14. The end of Queensland's 48-hour cooling-off period: two days of the week, and no more. Western Australia: the cooling-off period for a client entering into a membership agreement starts on the day on which the client enters into the agreement, and runs 7 days (7 days after the day the centre opens, if the agreement was entered into before it opened). Fitness Industry Code of Practice 2021 (WA), cl 3. Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6Day 7 24487296120144168 you sign
Three months: a membership may not be sold more than 3 months before the agreed services begin (ACT and Queensland). Twelve months: the most that may be paid in advance in Queensland, Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia. Fifteen months: the ACT’s cap on total pre-paid membership when a renewal is offered, other than for a 12-month membership. Eighteen months: the longest minimum term an ongoing agreement may carry in Queensland. Not to scale
  1. 1Three months: a supplier who has not commenced providing the agreed services must not sell a membership more than 3 months before commencement of the services in the ACT, and the same limit is on Queensland’s list.
  2. 2Twelve months: Queensland must not accept prepayment of fees for more than 1 year of the term; Western Australia must not accept prepayment for a period greater than 12 months; the ACT must not sell a pre-paid membership for a period greater than 12 months, nor a periodic billing membership with a fixed term greater than that; South Australia’s fixed term cannot be more than 12 months.
  3. 3Fifteen months: in the ACT a supplier must not offer to renew a membership, other than a 12-month one, where the total pre-paid membership would at any time exceed 15 months.
  4. 4Eighteen months: it is illegal for a gym or fitness centre in Queensland to offer an ongoing agreement with a minimum term longer than 18 months.
  5. The week is drawn back at a quarter: the cooling-off windows the first guides work through. Months past the break are not to scale.

The limits, state by state

The four state codes each limit how long a gym can hold you, in different numbers. Queensland caps the minimum term of an ongoing agreement at 18 months. Around it, the other numbers cluster at twelve months.

WhereThe longest prepaid periodThe longest termThe letter before the end
QueenslandA supplier must not accept prepayment of fees for more than 1 year of the term, and a prepaid agreement cannot expire more than 12 months after the purchase date. If you sign up for over 12 months, you pre-pay the first 12 only. An ongoing agreement’s minimum term cannot exceed 18 months. A supplier entering into an on-going agreement with a client must ensure that at least 2 months before the end of the initial term, the client gets written notice stating when the initial term ends and that the agreement continues after it unless the client terminates.
Western AustraliaThe code continues to limit the length of pre-paid memberships to 12 months, and the supplier must not accept prepayment of fees for a period greater than 12 months. Consumer Protection says the agreement should state whether it is a fixed-term contract of no longer than 12 months. Where an ongoing agreement’s initial term is more than 6 months, the supplier must, at least 2 months before the end of the initial term, give the client written notice stating when the initial term ends and the procedure for terminating the agreement.
The ACTA supplier must not sell a pre-paid membership for a period greater than 12 months, and for memberships other than 12-month ones, a renewal may not take the total pre-paid membership past 15 months. A periodic billing membership may have a fixed term of no more than 12 months. A renewal may not be offered, for a 12-month membership, until less than 4 months remain. The pre-paid or periodic membership cannot run past the unexpired part of a lease with less than 12 months to run.
South AustraliaGyms cannot ask you to pay more than 12 months in advance. A fixed period cannot be more than 12 months, and a periodic agreement cannot be longer than three months; a further fixed-term contract can only be negotiated when less than three months remain on an existing one. Members receive a notice one month before the end of an initial fixed period to remind them of their options to continue or cancel.
New South WalesCheck your contract for how much it asks you to pay in advance; the contract and the fair trading check on its terms are what a member has. A membership means a binding agreement, and you may have difficulty cancelling early. Where payment is by direct debit, you will often need to give the gym 30 days written notice to stop the deductions.

One signed membership, run forward

Take a membership signed on 1 March 2026, paid upfront for a year, and run it forward against each state’s limits. Nothing below is invented: each date is the arithmetic of a number above.

  1. 1 March 2026, signed and paidThe longest a prepaid membership can run is 12 months in Queensland, Western Australia, the ACT and South Australia, so no more than 12 months can be paid in advance in any of the four code states. Four codes
  2. 2 November 2026In the ACT this is the earliest a renewal of a 12-month membership may be offered, because a renewal may not be offered until the current membership has less than 4 months before it is due to expire. ACT only
  3. 1 January 2027Two months before the year ends is the last day for the letter. In Queensland and Western Australia, a supplier must give the client written notice at least 2 months before the end of the initial term. Qld, WA
  4. 1 February 2027South Australia’s letter comes later in the run, one month before the end of the initial fixed period, reminding the member of the options to continue or cancel. SA
  5. 1 March 2027, the year endsThe prepaid year runs out. In Queensland, a prepaid agreement cannot expire more than 12 months after the purchase date, and it is illegal to continue taking payments without authority after the end of a fixed-term agreement. Qld
  6. 1 September 2027, if it rolls onIn Queensland, an ongoing agreement’s minimum term cannot be longer than 18 months, so the latest it can end here is 1 September 2027. In South Australia, a periodic agreement cannot be longer than three months. Qld, SA

The doors out before the term ends

A term is a ceiling, not a sentence, and each code leaves at least one door in it. Western Australia cancels the agreement on a written notice, with the end no later than 30 days after the supplier receives it, and a client can terminate at any time by giving written notice. New South Wales says a membership means a binding agreement and there may be fees for cancelling early, so the terms to read are the cancellation ones. South Australia points members to the new code’s flexibility: it allows traders to offer an agreement that continues beyond a fixed 12-month period, so memberships can continue on a periodic basis without a new contract, while existing rights under fixed-term and periodic agreements remain, with consumers entitled to cancel at the end of an initial fixed term without penalty. And where an agreement is signed with a fixed period of three months, South Australia allows it to be terminated at the end without a penalty.

Where the contract is silent, the unfair contract terms law still sit over it: a term that makes cancelling hard or costly is on New South Wales’s list of terms that may be unfair, and the guide here on unfair terms walks through what a court can do about one.

The lease under the term

Two of the codes tie the length of a membership to the life of the building it is performed in. In Queensland, fitness centres cannot sell or renew a prepaid membership if the lease on the premises expires before the membership period would end. In the ACT, a supplier cannot sell a pre-paid or periodic billing membership where a lease has less than 12 months to run, for a period exceeding the unexpired part of that lease. Western Australia puts the same rule on any supplier who requires a lease or permit: the term cannot exceed the unexpired period of the lease or permit. A five-year membership in a building with a one-year lease is not a long membership; it is a short lease, and the codes say so.