Property and premises
Equipment lease
The paper for having somebody else's equipment for a period without buying it. It names the items, the hire charge and the term, and then does its real work on risk: who maintains and services the equipment, who insures it, what happens if it is damaged, lost or stolen, and what condition it comes back in. Where the arrangement is really a purchase in instalments, that is a different animal and is usually written as one.
- In the catalogue
- Property and premises
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Businesses hiring machinery, vehicles, cameras or production kit.
- Rental companies letting equipment to trade or public customers.
- Companies leasing equipment rather than buying it outright.
What you are deciding
- Which items, identified by serial number where possible
- The hire period, and whether it rolls on
- The charge, and what happens if the equipment is returned late
- Who maintains and services it
- Who insures it, and for what
- What happens if it is damaged, lost or stolen
- Where it may be used, and by whom
- What condition it is returned in
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The parties and the equipment
- 2Hire period
- 3Charges and deposit
- 4Delivery and collection
- 5Maintenance and servicing
- 6Insurance and risk
- 7Permitted use and location
- 8Damage, loss and theft
- 9Return condition
- 10Ownership
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- equipment lease
- equipment rental agreement
- machinery hire agreement
- plant hire contract
- vehicle lease agreement
- kit rental agreement
Questions people ask
- Who owns leased equipment?
- The lessor keeps ownership throughout; the lessee has possession and use. Agreements of this kind usually say so plainly, and often prohibit anything that would suggest otherwise to a third party.
- Who insures the equipment?
- Commonly the hirer, because it has possession, but the arrangement varies. The paper names who insures, for what value, and who claims when something happens.
- Is a lease with an option to buy different?
- Yes. Hire purchase and finance leases are treated differently in law and accounting, and often carry their own regulation. Ask a lawyer if the arrangement is really a purchase in instalments.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds