Regulated Consumer Hire Contracts & Linked Transactions - A Bite-Sized Guide

Introduction

Small businesses in the UK are sometimes offered an arrangement to hire equipment or devices on the basis that the cost of hire will be offset by income from the use of the equipment (e.g. to display advertising or provide printing services).

When it comes to the actual paperwork, they might be asked to sign two contracts with two different companies, a hire contract with a leasing company and a service contract with another company to provide an apparently equal amount of revenue over the same period.

After a few payments the income under the services contract ceases, but the lease company continues to demand the hire payments, attempting to argue that there were two separate agreements that were not linked at all.

The amount of money involved may seem too small to resist the leasing company’s claims, but there may be a basis for doing so.

This new webinar is aimed at small business owners and their legal advisers.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The regulation of hire contracts in the UK
• The different types of protection, depending on the type and size of the business
• The need for certain pre-contract disclosures
• The criteria for a transaction to be ‘linked’
• Relevant rights and remedies, including complaints and super-complaints processes

This webinar was recorded on 4th February 2021