Gyms in Santa Fe

The Texas Health Spa Act covers businesses that sell memberships for exercise instruction or facilities. Each location needs its own certificate of registration, posted conspicuously, and the number must be in your contract. The SOS health spa search shows registration and whether security is posted.

Security rises with a location's prepaid memberships, from $20,000 to $50,000, as a surety bond or certificate of deposit. Gyms that never require a contract or prepayment over 31 days, financing, bank drafts or initiation fees can be exempt. A contract signed with an unregistered gym is void, as is one where you relied on willfully false or misleading information.

The SOS also posts a PDF list of registered locations, updated every Wednesday. Registration costs the gym $100 and lasts one year, so confirm on the SOS search that the registration is current. The Act doesn't cover tax-exempt nonprofits, member-owned private clubs or studios that only teach dance or aerobics, so those protections may not apply at every place you work out.

A Santa Fe member gets three business days to back out for a full refund, with the notice sent by certified mail. Contracts can't run more than three years. If a gym closes without a replacement within 10 miles, or moves more than 10 miles, you can cancel for a partial refund; if a storm leaves it unusable for 30 days or more, it must extend your contract by the same time.

If you die or become totally and permanently disabled, you or your estate can cancel and get unearned payments back. The contract must spell out the three-day right and the closure rights in conspicuous 10-point type.

Financed memberships can't require payments for more than five years. Before a gym closes or relocates, it must post notice inside and outside each entrance at least 30 days ahead and notify the Secretary of State, unless fire, flood or another act of God forces the closure.

New gyms opening in Santa Fe

A gym that sells memberships before it opens must keep the money in an FDIC-insured escrow account until 30 days after opening, unless exempt. If it doesn't open within 180 days of its first sale, or stays open less than 30 days, prepaying members are generally entitled to a full refund.

Forbes Health, citing Statista, put the average U.S. membership at $28.58 a month in 2021, within a range of about $10 to $300. Fixr puts a basic membership at $15 to $40 a month and better-equipped gyms at $50 to $100 (January 2025). Ask for the total first-year cost, fees included.

Health Spa Act violations count as deceptive trade practices, and members can't sign away the Act's protections. A Santa Fe member with a dispute can call the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division at (800) 621-0508.

See the Texas gyms guide, the Santa Fe local guide or gyms in League City.