Set clear rules for commercial equipment hire

Equipment hire creates risks that ordinary service terms or simple rental wording often do not address properly. For example, you may need clear rules on who is responsible if equipment is damaged on site, returned late, used outside agreed conditions or not returned at all. A dedicated set of hire terms can also deal with deposits, inspection on return, repair costs, replacement value and suspension of future hires. That gives you a stronger contractual starting point if a customer relationship becomes difficult.

These terms commonly set out the hire period, booking or acceptance process, fees, payment timing, deposits if used, delivery or collection arrangements, customer responsibilities while the equipment is in their possession, and what happens if items are lost, damaged or returned late. They can also address permitted use, maintenance expectations, termination rights and limits around your responsibility for indirect loss. The exact wording depends on what you hire out and how your rental process works in practice, especially for high-value or specialist equipment.

The drafting usually depends on the type of equipment, who your customers are, how hires are booked, whether equipment is delivered or collected, and how much operational control you keep during the hire period. A business renting out power tools to trade customers may need different clauses from one hiring out event equipment, vehicles or specialist tech. We will also look at whether you use deposits, require identification, charge late fees, or need rights to inspect, recover or stop further use of the equipment in certain situations.

After you engage, we gather the details needed for the document, such as the equipment involved, your hire process and any problem areas you want addressed. A lawyer then drafts or reviews the terms and sends you the document for review. You can raise questions and request the included amendment round if needed. Timing depends on how quickly instructions are provided and how complex the hire model is, especially if your business has multiple equipment categories or different customer types.

The fixed-fee is for drafting or reviewing the commercial equipment hire terms themselves. It does not include running a dispute, corresponding with customers about unpaid amounts, or ongoing representation if equipment is not returned or a claim is made. It also does not include tax advice. If a dispute has already started, or you want help with debt recovery, enforcement strategy or related documents, that can be discussed as separate legal work.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Commercial Equipment Hire Terms service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.