Updated Hire and Rental Terms template documents

The template Terms and Conditions that deal with hiring out various types of goods and venues have now been reviewed and updated. These include hire of clothing, bicycles, marquees/gazebos/tents, office furniture, office and other equipment, computer equipment, tools, plant, venues (e.g. conference/function/wedding halls or rooms), as well as general purpose templates for hire of goods.

You can continue to use the previous versions of these updated documents since they all still accord with current law and practice, but these new versions now include new and improved clauses.

Advance Orders/Same Day Booking Hire

Where relevant, each template provides expressly for either advance orders or same day/walk-up booking hire. Those dealing with advance orders provide for an up-front deposit to be paid (as part of the hire fees) at the time of order or before hire begins, and those dealing with same day hire provide for payment of hire fees in full on commencement of the hire. In the case of advance orders, the templates include provisions dealing with customer cancellation in advance of the hire period, with levels of refund of fees according to how far in advance the cancellation occurs. There are also provisions covering payment of a security deposit which is refundable unless the goods are lost or damaged during the hire period.

Business and Consumer Customers

Where appropriate, these templates are in two versions, one for use with business customers, and one for use with consumer customers. The consumer versions in particular have been revised and expanded. Consumer law requirements protecting the consumer apply to the hire contracts as a matter of law whether or not they are set out in the hire terms and conditions or hire agreement but they have now been added in to the document so as to give both parties a fuller understanding of those requirements. 

There are also other refinements which improve both the business and consumer templates. For example, in some cases they now more comprehensively deal with the customer’s responsibilities, including where there is a defect in, damage  to, or loss of, the goods due to customer fault or where the damage is accidental. They also now have updated, more comprehensive, supplier liability clauses.