Can I dispose of yoga mats belonging to students?
If you are running a yoga studio, you may find your studio is holding a number of yoga mats belonging to students. Whether this originally was intentional storage for regular clients (who may have taken an extended break from yoga practice, and are not using the stored mat), or lost or forgotten mats, after a period of time you probably want the storage space back for your own studio equipment.
Do you have a policy that you will dispose of uncollected yoga mats on particular dates?
This is common practice for yoga studios, and an efficient way to make space.
But …
Before you do so, there are appropriate steps you must take. Otherwise you may find students are perfectly within their rights to demand a replacement mat, or compensation (and as you would know, high quality or designer yoga mats are not cheap.) You will be responsible for covering this cost – and also may lose the business of your student who may feel disheartened by your action of throwing their yoga mat away. Yoga studios rely largely on creating a harmonious and healing experience for students – you want your students to feel loved!
The appropriate steps to take before disposing of yoga mats, legally speaking:
Where goods are worth less than $200 (which is most yoga mats, unless it is by Chanel, and worth $12,430 – and probably not being left at your studio), you need to give written notice of your intention to dispose of the yoga mats to the people who have left the mats at your studio.
The written notice needs to include:
- A description of the yoga mat – include colour, brand if applicable;
- An address where the mats can be collected (perhaps students can collect directly from your yoga studio – it may encourage them to take a class at the same time); and
- A statement saying you will dispose of the yoga mat after the specified date – as per your policy if you have one, otherwise specify a date that gives the student a reasonable amount of time to collect their mat.
How to deliver the written notice to your students:
- You can give this notice to the student in person, or by
- Delivering the notice to the student’s last known address.
Legally, sending the notice via email is not (yet) valid – but if you have the student’s email address send the notice via email as well. It will do no harm, and is a good practice in case the student has moved and not notified you.
Try to make your notice appear like a friendly reminder, so students do not feel like they are getting into trouble with your studio.
After giving the student written notice of your intention:
You then need to retain said yoga mats for a further 28 days before disposal.
If you are unable to contact the student, despite making reasonable attempts:
Perhaps your notice is returned in the mail, the student does not visit the studio, and you do not have their email address or have no idea if they ever received your email, and phoning the student has been unsuccessful.
If this has happened, you only need to wait 60 days after attempting to make contact before taking steps to dispose of the yoga mat.
Disposing of the yoga mats – what are the options? Are there rules?
Your studio is able to sell, recycle, destroy or keep the yoga mats after the relevant time.
Selling:
There are specific rules that apply as to what you can do with the money if you sell the mats, in accordance with the Unclaimed Money Act. You must record the details of the buyer and price, and you must keep this record for six years following disposal and make the record available to the student if requested. The rules that apply are relatively complicated, and for the amount you would likely receive for used yoga mats it is probably not worth the hassle.
Recycling, giving away, binning, or destroying:
If you recycle, give away, bin or destroy the mats you need to once again make a record of this, and note the description of the yoga mat/s, date of disposal and method of giving notice, the name and address of anyone to whom notice was given, and the method of disposal.
There are a range of companies that recycle yoga mats, and this may be a favourable option. Not only does it likely align with your values as a yoga studio and look after the planet, if you do need to dispose of mats you can do so in a streamlined fashion and record accordingly.
Can the studio charge students for having stored their yoga mats?
This is also reasonably complicated (legally) – and does not give students a very likeable impression of your studio business-wise. However, if you are still wanting to do this speak to Jess – it can be done with the right terms and conditions and procedure. You may want to think about having yoga-mat storage as a benefit for special clients as part of a membership program, or an extra up-front cost.
Points to take away:
It is quite a time-consuming process to dispose of uncollected yoga mats once you have them, and best avoided. Try to keep your address records up to date and let students know when they begin with you that it is their obligation to keep their address up to date, and why (because you do not want to have to dispose of their yoga mat, especially without letting them know first!)
A better alternative might be to not allow storage of mats in the studio at all, and have a reminder at the exit of the studio reminding students not to leave yoga mats behind.
To get in touch with one of our lawyers, you can book a free 15 minute chat here.
This is general advice only. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.
Published Mar 5, 2018
Go back