General (Advance Order) Hire Terms and Conditions (B2C)

This template is for use in situations where products are hired out after an advance booking has been made.

Designed for the hire of a range of different product types, these General (Advance Order) Hire Terms and Conditions (B2C) cover a range of important points to allow for smooth and efficient transactions between hire businesses and their consumer customers. (“Consumer” is defined in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 as an individual who receives services for his/her personal use and for purposes wholly or mainly outside the business of that individual or another.) 

However, where the customer of the hire business is not acting as a consumer (i.e. the customer is hiring the product wholly or mainly for business purposes), we have provided an accompanying alternative set of terms, the General (Advance Order) Hire Terms and Conditions (B2B).

Payment in this document takes the form of an initial deposit, followed by the balance of the hire fees and a refundable security deposit. 

Customers might damage hired items, whether accidentally or otherwise. Provision is therefore made for an accidental damage waiver. Damage (or loss) outside of that waiver (i.e. where loss or damage is due to customer fault) should be covered by the aforementioned security deposit.

Cancellation provisions are included, allowing customers to cancel within various time windows before the hire period begins. For each window, different refund and/or payment terms apply, ensuring that the closer to the hire period the cancellation takes place, the more money your business is entitled to – reflecting the level of inconvenience and loss of opportunity to hire the goods out to a different customer.

However, these provisions need to be considered carefully in view of the following points. These terms and conditions are written for use when dealing with consumer customers. Applicable consumer law constrains the extent to which a supplier may limit or exclude their liability, and it also limits a supplier's ability to take and forfeit any amount that the supplier requires as security against loss or damage of items hired and against cancellation of the contract by the customer - see below.  This document contains limits on the supplier's liability (see Clause 12). It also provides for a “Security Deposit” against loss or damage (see Clause 7.5), and a “Deposit” against customer cancellation of an advance booking (see Sub-Clause 7.1 and Clause 8)

Whilst these provisions are intended to comply with the applicable consumer law, users of this template are advised to exercise great care and to take legal advice as to what in the particular circumstances will be legally permissible and enforceable before proceeding. In particular, users will need to focus on the following. 

Firstly, they should consider whether to include Sub-Clause 12.2 (which sets a fixed cap on total liability) and if they do decide to do so so, they should consider whether the proposed amount of the limit under that Sub-clause would be legally permissible and enforceable. Secondly, if they wish to include any limits on or exclusions of liability not already included in this document, they should consider whether such additional limits or exclusions would be legally permissible and enforceable. Liability in this document is limited to a reasonable level. Users are advised to exercise great care should they wish to limit liability further as these terms and conditions are written solely for use with consumer customers. Thirdly, they should consider what would be a legally acceptable and appropriate amount of Security Deposit. 

Finally, they should consider whether the proposed amount of Deposit (Sub-Clause 7.1) and each of Sub-Clauses 8.1.2, 8.1.3 and 8.1.4  would be appropriate and legally permissible and enforceable, and this will involve considering the total to be charged for cancellation in each case and also the stage and time at which cancellation occurs.

As a general purpose template, this document contains many more blank spaces for you to fill in than most of its companions in this subfolder. Space is provided to specify the information customers are expected to provide when ordering. The same clause also allows for rules applying to customers’ use of the hired products to be specified.

Please note that while this template can be placed on a website for hire to Consumer customers only, it is not designed to serve as terms and conditions for e-commerce and has not been written with distance selling and e-commerce laws in mind.

For a walk-up-and-hire B2C scenario (rather than an advance booking) an alternative set of terms and conditions is also available from Simply-Docs.

Optional phrases / clauses are enclosed in square brackets. These should be read carefully and selected so as to be compatible with one another. Unused options should be removed from the document.

These General (Advance Order) Hire Terms and Conditions (B2C) contain the following clauses:

1. Definitions and Interpretation
2. Information About Us
3. The Contract
4. Product Details
5. Your Order and Rules of Hire
6. Hire Period
7. Fees and Payment
8. Cancellation
9. Collection, Hire and Return
10. Accidental Damage Waiver
11. Loss and Damage
12. Our Liability
13. Events Outside of Our Control (Force Majeure)
14. Communication and Contact Details
15. Complaints and Feedback
16. Regulations
17. Information
18. How We Use Your Personal Information (Data Protection)
19. Other Important Terms
20. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
[Schedule - Privacy Notice]
[Schedule - Form of Order]

This document is in open format. Either enter the requisite details in the highlighted fields or adjust the wording to suit your purposes.

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General (Advance Order) Hire Terms and Conditions (B2C) is part of Business Documents. Just £35.00 + VAT provides unlimited downloads from Business Documents for 1 year.