Six clauses to check before signing a renting contract
After a few years of reading these contracts, the problems always turn up in the same six places. None of them is the rent: the rent is the only thing everyone compares, and that is why it is the only one with no surprises left.
1. Tacit renewal
The most expensive clause of all. Some contracts renew automatically for successive periods unless the company gives notice a set time in advance, 60 or 90 days before the end of the term. Whoever forgets keeps paying rent on four-year-old equipment that is no longer worth anything.
What to do: check whether there is tacit renewal and, if there is, put the notice deadline in the calendar on the day of signing. Not three years from now: now.
2. Cost of early termination
These contracts have a fixed term. Leaving early means paying the outstanding rents, with or without a financial discount depending on the funder, and the difference between a discount and no discount can be thousands of euros.
What to do: ask in writing for the termination amount halfway through the contract. If the answer is vague, that is a sign it is not favourable.
3. Return condition
"Normal wear and tear" is an elastic expression. Some contracts provide for penalties for scratched equipment, equipment without its original packaging, or without all its accessories. In a fleet of fifty laptops, this can turn into an unpleasant invoice at the end.
What to do: insist that the acceptance criteria are written down and quantified, and keep accessories and boxes when the contract requires them.
4. Scope of the insurance
"Insurance included" can mean very different things. Does it cover theft without forced entry? Does it cover liquid damage? What is the excess? Is there a limit on claims per year? Insurance with a €300 excess on a €900 laptop covers little more than your conscience.
What to do: ask for the policy terms, not the sales summary.
5. Changes to the contract
The company is going to grow, and it will want to add workstations. On what terms? At the initial rate factor or at the rate factor in force at the time? With which end date, the original contract's or a new one? Contracts that do not provide for this force you to open new deals, and the fleet is left with misaligned renewal dates for good.
What to do: confirm that there is an addendum mechanism and that addenda are aligned with the end date of the original contract.
6. Rent adjustment
Most IT renting contracts have a fixed rent. But not all of them: some provide for index-linked adjustment, and in a 60-month contract that changes the total cost significantly.
What to do: confirm in writing that the rent is fixed for the whole term. If it is index-linked, ask for a simulation of the total cost in the unfavourable scenario.
In the quotes we compare, we check these six points in every one. Not because it is an extraordinary service, but because it is often here, and not in the rent, that the best quote stands apart from the worst. Two quotes with the same monthly payment can hide thousands of euros of difference in these clauses.
Ask for compared scenarios, with these clauses side by side →