Opening a studio in New Hampshire: $100 a year, a $50,000 bond, or monthly only

October 14, 2026

This is for anyone opening a Pilates, yoga, barre or boutique fitness studio in New Hampshire. The state's health club law, RSA 358-I, lists “instructional classes” as a health club service. So you register with the Attorney General for $100 a year, and you post a $50,000 bond unless you take membership fees monthly only or show the Attorney General your refund liability is $5,000 or less. Our reading is that selling one class pack ends the monthly-only route.

We read RSA 358-I in full on the legislature's site. The Department of Justice's consumer protection pages refused our requests, so we could not check the Bureau's forms, its rules or how it applies the chapter today. What follows is the statute's text and our reading of it.

RSA 358-I reaches a class studio

A health club is “an establishment which provides services or facilities which purport to improve or maintain the user's physical condition or appearance through weight control, exercise, dieting, or a combination of these.” The terms it lists include “exercise club, exercise gym, health studio.” Services include “exercise instruction, exercise programs, and instructional classes.”

The exclusions are nonprofit schools and colleges, government, nonprofit religious, ethnic, community or service organizations, and businesses that do not have health club services as one of their primary purposes. None is for a studio that only teaches classes.

Register with the Attorney General

Anyone “operating or intending to open or operate a health club” files a registration statement with the Attorney General. Section 358-I:2 sets what it holds:

• Your name and address, your officers and directors, and anyone holding more than 20 percent.
• “A written list of each piece of equipment and each service” you offer, your square footage, and whether you have a shower.
• Every membership plan and its cost.
• Any lawsuit against the club or its officers or directors in the last 3 years.

The fee is $100. You file a new statement every year by the anniversary of your first one, and a filing more than 90 days late costs a $1,000 administrative assessment. The registration certificate has to be posted “in a conspicuous place,” and members and prospects can ask to see the statement. You also give the Attorney General a copy of your membership contract.

One rule here shapes the price list more than any other. Section 358-I:4 requires “a comprehensive list of all membership plans offered for sale by the health club and the respective price of each plan,” shown to every prospect, and it bars selling “a membership plan not included in this list and in the registration statement.” A holiday pack you invent in December is not in your registration statement. Our reading is that you update the Attorney General before you sell it.

The $50,000 bond and the two ways out

Section 358-I:2, III: “each health club registering pursuant to this chapter shall post a surety bond in the amount of $50,000, or the equivalent in cash, marketable securities, letters of credit, or escrow accounts, with the attorney general.” The Attorney General may lower it if your refund liability warrants.

Paragraph IV gives two exemptions. The Attorney General “shall exempt” a club that:

(a) Provides the attorney general with a statement that the club accepts membership fees on a monthly basis only. (b) Establishes to the satisfaction of the attorney general that its membership refund liability does not exceed $5,000.

The statute defines a prepayment as any payment made before the service is available, and says “It is not a prepayment if a payment for services or the use of facilities is made on the same day the services or use of the facilities is provided.” So a drop-in paid the day of class is fine. A class pack is paid before the classes it buys. Read literally, a studio that sells packs does not accept fees “on a monthly basis only,” and needs either the bond or the $5,000 finding.

The statute does not say how the Attorney General measures refund liability. It tells the Attorney General to adopt rules on the documentation for an exemption. The Department of Justice rules the legislature publishes have no health club chapter, so we found none in force. Our reading is that it means classes paid for and not yet taken. Say 50 members each hold 5 unused classes from a $25-a-class pack: that is $6,250, over the line.

What that means for your products

In Frontmat, memberships bill monthly through Stripe on the member's card, and there is no annual or multi-month membership product. A studio that sells only those memberships and same-day drop-ins fits the monthly-only statement. Class packs grant a number of class credits and expire after a number of days you set, or never. If you sell packs here, short expiries and small packs keep unused classes, and so your refund liability, down. A pack that never expires stays on that liability until it is used.

Prepaid contracts: packs and terms

Every prepaid contract is in writing, is the entire agreement, is signed and dated by the buyer, and is handed over complete at signing. It carries, in at least 10-point boldface:

• “NOTICE TO BUYER: DO NOT SIGN THIS CONTRACT UNTIL YOU HAVE READ ALL OF IT. ALSO, DO NOT SIGN THIS CONTRACT IF IT CONTAINS ANY BLANK SPACES.”
• The statute's notice that the club must register and may have to post a bond, which tells buyers to ask for evidence of the bond or the exemption before they sign.
• “YOU MAY CANCEL THIS TRANSACTION IN WRITING ANY TIME PRIOR TO MIDNIGHT OF THE THIRD BUSINESS DAY AFTER THE DATE OF THIS TRANSACTION.” A buyer who cancels in time gets back all money paid.

The contract must also state the buyer's rights under section 358-I:6. You refund the unused part pro rata within 15 days if the buyer dies or becomes disabled, if you move more than 8 miles or your services are materially impaired, or if you close. If the contracts a buyer has in force with you add up to more than $1,000, they can cancel at any time for a pro rata refund, less a cancellation fee of up to 25 percent of the unused amount and never more than $250, if the contract says so.

Month-to-month is required, and goes in every ad

Section 358-I:5, II: “Every seller shall offer a month-to-month membership option in addition to any other term contract the seller elects to offer.” Its availability “shall be stated in any written or broadcast advertisement or posting or marketing materials that describe any other membership option.” You must tell a buyer about it orally and in writing before you take payment for a term contract, and it must give the same access. A member can cancel it “with 30 days written notice.”

The rest of section 358-I:5:

• No term contract longer than one year, and no automatic renewal clause “for a period greater than one month.” A renewal must be accepted in writing and paid, and never more than 90 days before the contract ends.
• The yearly price of month-to-month can be at most 25 percent above the yearly price of any term contract you sell.
• A buyer's first term contract can be priced at most 25 percent above later ones.

Section 358-I:2 adds that “Any initiation fee shall not exceed 100 percent of an annualized monthly fee.”

A term contract is one “paid for in advance for a period of time greater than one month.” Whether a class pack with a two-month expiry is one, the statute does not say. Our reading is to treat it as one: put your monthly membership on any page, post or flyer that advertises a pack. In Frontmat, memberships already bill month to month.

Founding members and the escrow

A seller “who solicits or accepts membership fees before a club begins operating shall place all such fees in an escrow account and shall identify the date the club is to begin operating.” Each member gets a written receipt, and the contract by opening day. If you slip more than 10 days, you notify members within 15 days of the original date. If the new date is more than 45 days late, you refund with interest. You can never hold the money more than 60 days past the original date, and you can withdraw it 10 days after you open.

A Frontmat membership can be sold before you open with billing starting on opening day, so a founding member is charged nothing until the doors open. Our reading is that with no fee accepted, there is nothing to escrow. Because the statute says “solicits or accepts,” still put your opening date in writing in the offer. Any deposit you do take before opening goes into escrow.

The founding price itself is a special offer, and section 358-I:7 says specials must be “made in writing” and “made available to all prospective members who have not previously been members.” Offers to groups are the exception. So a founding rate goes to anyone new during the window, not a hand-picked list. A Frontmat founding membership can be capped at a number of spots. The statute defines a special as any offer “at a reduced price or without charge” and says nothing about a limited number of spots. We could not check how the Bureau views a capped offer.

Any violation of the chapter is an unfair or deceptive act under the Consumer Protection Act, RSA 358-A, with all its remedies. A member's waiver of any of these rights is void.

No sales tax

New Hampshire's tax title has a tax on meals and rooms and no general sales tax chapter. There is nothing to charge on a membership or a pack, and Frontmat adds no sales tax line to either.

Your waiver

New Hampshire disfavors releases but enforces clear ones. In McGrath v. SNH Development (N.H. 2009), a ski area case, the New Hampshire Supreme Court said state law “generally prohibits exculpatory contracts” but enforces one that does not violate public policy, that a reasonable person would have understood, and that covers the claim. In Barnes v. New Hampshire Karting Association (N.H. 1986), it held the contract “must clearly state that the defendant is not responsible for the consequences of his negligence.” So say plainly that the release covers the studio's own negligence. New Hampshire does not treat gross negligence as a separate claim, and Barnes refused to carve it out of a release. Neither case was about a fitness studio. We found no New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling on a parent signing away a child's claim. Have a New Hampshire lawyer review yours. In Frontmat the waiver is your own text, signed once at a member's first booking with a typed name, and we store a fingerprint of the exact wording each member signed.

Workers' comp and texts

An employer under RSA 281-A is anyone “who employs one or more persons,” and every employer must secure coverage. Going without can cost a civil penalty of up to $2,500, plus up to $100 per employee for each day, and the person who controls payroll is personally liable for the penalties if they knew. Buy the policy before your first instructor is on payroll.

New Hampshire's telemarketing law (RSA 359-E) says telemarketing “shall not include the solicitation of sales through media other than by telephone calls,” and it does not count a call “in connection with an established business relationship.” Its other part registers anyone using an automatic dialer that delivers a prerecorded message. On our reading, neither reaches a booking text to a member who opted in. Frontmat sends booking texts only (waitlist offers, confirmations and cancellations) to members who opted in, and stores the time and wording of each opt-in.

Before you sign anything

1. Decide whether you will sell packs or prepaid terms. If not, file the monthly-only statement for the bond exemption. If so, budget for the $50,000 bond or make the $5,000 refund liability case.
2. File the registration statement with $100, listing every plan, price, piece of equipment and service. Post the certificate.
3. Write the prepaid contract with the boldface notices and the 358-I:6 rights, and send the Attorney General a copy.
4. Offer month-to-month and name it in every ad for anything else.
5. Put the founding offer in writing, open to every new prospect, with your opening date. Escrow any money taken before you open.
6. Buy workers' comp before your first hire.
7. Have a New Hampshire lawyer write the waiver.

This is our reading of RSA 358-I as of October 14, 2026. It is not legal advice. Confirm with the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau of the New Hampshire Department of Justice, whose website we could not reach.

If you are still choosing where to open, we keep the rules in every state on one page.