Machine Lease

About this document

This agreement sets out the terms under which you will let out spare plant and machinery to another business.

The duration of the lease could be fixed or or on a rolling basis, short-term or long-term. We include the option for your lessee to purchase the machine after a certain time, allowing the type of arrangement to be a finance lease or an operating one.

As with all Net Lawman documents our drafting notes will guide you what you can change safely, and what we suggest you should not change.

When to use this contract

Because this document does not take account of consumer credit and other consumer protection law it cannot be used for hire machinery to consumers. The lessee must be a company or person in business.

Examples of use might be:

• A sole trader (such as a builder) leasing spare equipment to another sole trader for a specific single job of a fixed time length.
• A business leasing unused plant to another business for a long term contract.
• A company within a group leasing machinery bought under a credit arrangement to a subsidiary that is unable to obtain the same credit terms.

The type of plant or equipment could be anything, from a crane to a machine that forms part of an assembly line.

Important to this agreement is that the plant is movable and will be stored under the control of the lessee.

The law in this document

The advantage of not having to take account of consumer protection law is that you are free to make the deal you want without having to look over your shoulder at government regulations (although, of course, there is a raft of legislation about operation of almost any machine). To make your life easy, we have provided multiple options in many areas including: responsibilities for maintenance, payment of the rent, options for buy-out at the end of the term, and options to extend the leasing period.

This agreement covers every reasonable angle, providing both a statement of the commercial terms and a very firm basis of rights of both parties, but principally protection of the owner and of the machine or plant.

Features

This comprehensive contract has been written in plain English. It has been drawn for maximum flexibility and ease of use.

Key features are:

• The term of the lease can be as long or short as you like, from months to years. We suggest a short period so that the contract can be renewed and terms (such as the rental amount) updated.
• The document allows use of several schedules to record the detail of the agreement. This keeps the "legal" wording of the commercial transaction separate to the "subject matter", creating an agreement that is easier to read, amend and reuse.
• There are multiple options for rent and payment plans. The rent might be a simple monthly or annual payment or may be variable.
• The buy-back arrangement is an option you can include or delete.

Contents

• Options for lease rentals
• Full description of the machine
• Warranties and exclusion by lessor
• Testing and checking of machine by the lessee and conditions of acceptance
• Prohibition on selling and subletting
• Termination and premature termination and its consequences
• Optional provision for deposit by the lessee of additional security in cash or goods
• Option of guarantor
• Repair and maintenance terms
• Insurance: lessee insures in name of the lessor
• Buy-out provision
• Option to extend the term
• Lessor’s right to inspect machine during lease and many other strong provisions on lessor’s rights
• Set of lessee’s obligations
• Lessee to indemnify lessor
• Other important legal and commercial provisions

Alternatives to this document

We recommend other documents if you are leasing other types of equipment and machinery:

• our vehicle lease agreement for renting a car or a van
• our office equipment lease for renting assets such as a photocopier or IT equipment