Meet your rental and leasing regulatory duties

A. FCA-regulated consumer hire

Hiring goods — a car, recreational or sports equipment, furniture, appliances, media equipment or other personal or household items — to a consumer for more than 3 months, and not under a hire-purchase agreement, is a regulated consumer hire agreement under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and a regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. You must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and follow the FCA's CONC sourcebook — pre-contract information, treating customers fairly, and arrears and repossession rules.

Short-term daily or weekly hire of 3 months or less is exempt. Pure business-fleet leasing to companies is generally outside the consumer regime. Carrying on the activity without FCA authorisation is a criminal offence under FSMA 2000 — up to 2 years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine — and makes agreements unenforceable.

The FCA consumer hire regime applies UK-wide.

B. Motor insurance and roadworthiness

Any motor vehicle used on a road must be covered by at least third-party motor insurance under Part VI of the Road Traffic Act 1988. As a vehicle-rental business — cars, vans, trucks and HGVs — you must ensure cover is in place for every hired vehicle, whether through your own fleet policy or a hirer-arranged policy. Vehicles must be kept roadworthy with a valid MOT or annual test, enforced by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).

You should carry out driver-licence and identity checks before releasing a vehicle, and for goods vehicles verify the hirer's operator licence and driver entitlements. Using or permitting the use of an uninsured vehicle is an offence — a fine, penalty points and possible disqualification.

Northern Ireland has an equivalent duty under the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

C. Work equipment safety (PUWER and LOLER)

If you hire out plant, machinery or equipment for use at work, you are a "person who has control" of work equipment under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). You must ensure equipment is suitable for its intended use, properly maintained, safe and accompanied by adequate information and instructions.

Where you hire out lifting equipment — cranes, hoists, mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) and lifting accessories — the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER) require the equipment to be thoroughly examined by a competent person and certificated before it goes out on hire. You must provide the current report of thorough examination to the hirer.

PUWER and LOLER are enforced by HSE in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has parallel regulations — the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999.

Equipment hire is predominantly business-to-business, so the FCA consumer hire regime generally does not apply to plant and machinery hire.

D. Consumer protection

When you hire goods to consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires that hired goods are of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. You must not mislead customers about the condition, price or availability of hire goods under the unfair trading rules now in Part 4, Chapter 1 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 from 6 April 2025. Trading Standards and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) enforce consumer protection law. Under the DMCCA, the CMA can impose administrative fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover without going to court.