Terms of hire

1. Our details

Squires Plant Hire is the trading name of Squires Group Limited, registered in England and Wales under company number 12742592. Our registered office is Bramblewood, Hurn, Christchurch BH23 6AT. Our VAT registration number is shown on every quote and invoice.

The hire desk is on 07788 288137, by phone or WhatsApp, and at hire@squiresplant.co.uk. We are open Monday to Friday 07:30 to 17:00 and Saturday 08:00 to 12:00.

2. These conditions

Your contract is your quote, your booking confirmation and these conditions. If you are a consumer, it also includes what we told you before you booked. Your booking confirmation governs the price, the dates and the machines. It never raises the total or any other figure on your quote, or changes the dates or machines without your agreement. These conditions govern everything else. Nothing in these conditions or a booking confirmation takes away a consumer's legal rights.

We means Squires Group Limited. You means the person or business named on the quote. You stay responsible if someone else pays for, receives or uses the machine. The machine means each digger, dumper or attachment you hire, with every key, bucket, hose, tool and manual supplied with it. Your operator means anyone you let use the machine except our staff. A working day is Monday to Friday, except bank holidays.

You are a consumer if you are an individual hiring wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession. Otherwise you are a business customer. If a quote in a business name is not for your trade or business, tell us before you confirm. If you are a consumer, the consumer rules apply whatever the quote says. It is for us to show you are not one.

Telling the hire desk by phone, email or WhatsApp counts as telling us. In writing means an email, a letter or a WhatsApp message.

3. Prices and charges

Our rate card prices each digger and dumper before VAT for one, two, three, four and seven days. The shortest hire is one day. Five or six days cost the seven-day price. Longer hires are full weeks at the seven-day price, plus the days over at the price for that number of days. Five or six days over count as another week. Attachments are £50 a day before VAT.

Delivery is £20 in zone 1 and £25 in zone 2 before VAT, and collection is the same again. Your quote confirms the zone and the number of journeys. Outside the zones, delivery and collection are set out on your quote, as is any charge for a yard pick-up.

Your quote shows the hire, delivery, collection and VAT, and one total including VAT. You pay that total for the hire as booked, and more only where these conditions say so.

The fixed charges cover hours over any daily limit set out on your quote, fuel, cleaning and waiting. They also cover failed deliveries and collections, a second delivery attempt, late return, cancellation, hire while a damaged machine is repaired and any waiver excess. Each is charged only at the rate set out on your quote, or not at all if none is shown. If you are a consumer, no fixed charge exceeds our actual loss.

Any refundable deposit set out on your quote is not part of the price or a limit on what you owe. We return it within the time set out on your quote, less any sum due that we explain in writing. It goes back by bank transfer to the account it came from.

For any later charge, we promptly send an invoice with the rate or cost and the evidence. A reasonable cost is no more than our actual cost, shown by a repair quote or a supplier's invoice. You pay by bank transfer by the date on our invoice, which falls after the query period set out on your quote. If you query it in that period, you need not pay until we reply in writing with a new date.

Refunds go by bank transfer to the account the payment came from. Where a refund is due on a sum you have not yet paid, we reduce or cancel that invoice instead. If you are a business customer and pay late, we may charge interest and compensation under the law on late payment of commercial debts.

4. Booking

The estimate on our website covers the hire charge only, before VAT, delivery and collection, and is not an offer. A quote holds its price until its expiry date. It is not an offer, and no machine is reserved until we send your booking confirmation.

Before you confirm, tell us accurately about the site, the job, the ground, the access and any overhead or buried services. Tell us who will receive and operate the machine. Check the machine's size and weight on our website, or ask the hire desk.

If you are a business customer, choosing a suitable machine is your responsibility, unless we recommended it in writing for the job you described.

To book, confirm the quote by email, WhatsApp or phone. Confirming a quote is your request to book. We then email your booking confirmation and an invoice for the total. The contract is made when we send the booking confirmation, and we hold your delivery slot or pick-up time from then. We offer no credit or trade accounts.

Pay the invoice by bank transfer. The full amount on the invoice must reach our account by 17:00 on the working day before delivery or pick-up. If we send your booking confirmation after that, the full amount must reach our account by the time set out in it. That time is before your delivery slot or pick-up time. Either way, that is your payment deadline. Your booking invoice shows it as the due date. We deliver or release a machine only once the full amount has reached our account. If the full amount has not reached our account by the payment deadline, we may cancel the booking at any time until it arrives. We tell you as soon as we do, and before the delivery slot or pick-up time if it is still to come. You then pay nothing. We refund anything you have paid without undue delay. That includes a payment that reaches us after we cancel. If we do not cancel, we deliver or release the machine once the full amount arrives. The hire then starts when we do and runs for the days you booked. We confirm any new dates in writing.

If we agree to change the dates or machines before the hire starts, we send a new quote. It replaces the old one once you confirm it. We then send a new booking confirmation and a new invoice for the new total, less anything you have paid. It replaces the old invoice. It is due by the payment deadline for the new dates. If that has passed, it is due by the time set out in the new booking confirmation. If the new invoice is not paid in time, the change lapses. Your original booking and its invoice then stand, if its start date is still to come. Otherwise the paragraph above applies. We refund anything you have paid over the new total without undue delay. A change is not a cancellation. If you are a consumer, your 14 days still run from the original contract. If the new start date falls within them, we ask again whether to start within them.

5. Delivery and handover

We deliver in a morning or afternoon slot agreed in your booking confirmation, not at a fixed time. Same-day delivery is sometimes possible and applies only where your booking confirmation says so. An attachment hired on its own is picked up from our yard.

Give our driver a safe place to unload and load. Get any permission needed for our vehicle to stop there, or for the machine to stand on a road.

Your quote sets out any minimum age for you and whoever receives the machine. It also sets out the identification we need and any insurance you must hold, with proof. Keep that insurance in force for the whole hire, and show proof when we ask.

Our driver unloads at the kerb or nearest point they reasonably judge safe. Waiting for a reason on your side is charged at the rate set out on your quote, after any free time it allows. Waiting counts from the later of the driver's arrival and the start of the slot.

Someone must be there to receive the machine and sign the hire note, unless you ask in writing for an unattended delivery and we agree. The driver shows them the controls and daily checks, and fits any attachment hired with the machine. The manufacturer's instructions stay with the machine.

The hire note records the machine's condition, fuel, any hour meter reading and the items handed over. It adds no terms. We photograph the machine too and send you both. Have any damage noted before you sign, or sign with your disagreement noted. You may challenge our record with your own evidence. If you report damage the same day, we charge for it only if our photographs show that part undamaged.

For an unattended delivery, we check your identification first and agree in writing where the key is left. The driver completes the hire note and photographs alone. The three security rules apply once you or your operator reach the machine.

6. Failed deliveries

A delivery fails if our driver arrives in the slot and cannot unload and hand over the machine. The hire then starts when we do deliver and runs for the days you booked. We confirm the new last day and collection day in writing.

You pay nothing if the site was as you described and unloading was still unsafe. Nor do you pay if you turn the machine away because it is faulty, damaged, or not as booked or described. We then rebook free, or you cancel for a full refund.

If a delivery fails for a reason on your side, you pay the failed delivery charge set out on your quote. If you are a consumer within your 14 days, it costs you no more than the delivery charge. You then choose to rebook or cancel. If you rebook, any second delivery attempt charge set out on your quote applies. If you cancel, we refund everything except the failed delivery charge. If we cannot reach you within the working days set out on your quote, the hire ends with the same refund.

A delivery fails for a reason on your side if:

• Nobody is there to receive the machine, unless we agreed an unattended delivery.
• The person there is under age or cannot show the identification or insurance proof required.
• The person there will not sign the hire note, or appears affected by drink or drugs.
• The site is locked, or the access or ground is not as you described.
• You turn the machine away for any other reason.

7. Yard pick-up

You may pick a machine up from our yard in Christchurch by arrangement, in opening hours. Hand it back at the yard by the time on your booking confirmation. The hire note and photograph rules in Delivery and handover apply there too.

Bring a legal and suitable vehicle, with a trailer where the machine needs one, and a driver licensed and insured to tow it. We help you load, but securing the load is your responsibility.

We may refuse to release a machine onto a vehicle or trailer we reasonably think unsafe or unsuitable. We may also refuse if you do not show what your quote asks for. The hire then does not start, and we deliver at the delivery charge for your site or you cancel for a full refund.

If you leave a machine at the yard outside opening hours without our agreement, it stays in your care until we check it in.

8. Hire period and extensions

Your booking confirmation shows the first and last day of the hire and the days you pay for. You pay for that period whether or not you use the machine. The hire charge is refunded where these conditions say so.

To extend, ask the hire desk before the cut-off time set out on your quote, on the last day. If the machine is free, we re-price the whole period from the rate card as if booked at the start. We confirm the extension and its end date by email, and invoice the difference. The extension is agreed when we send that email. You pay the difference by bank transfer by the date on the invoice.

If you are a consumer, the extra days have their own 14 days to cancel. Those 14 days start the day after we send the extension email. If that email reaches you on a later day, they start the day after it reaches you. We start the extra days at once only if you ask and accept that you cannot cancel once they are over. Otherwise we collect as booked. If you cancel, you pay that difference in proportion to the extra days you had.

9. Site and ground

Take reasonable steps to make sure the ground the machine travels and works on will take its weight when loaded. Before anyone digs, take reasonable steps to locate and mark the underground services. Keep well clear of overhead power lines.

If the machine sinks, gets stuck or tips, stop and ring us. Do not pull it out with another vehicle. You pay the reasonable cost of recovery, which we tell you first where we can. You do not pay if the machine had a fault or we caused the problem. Nor do you pay if it was unsuitable for the ground and job you described, unless you chose it as a business customer. If you are a consumer, you pay only where you, your operator or your breach of these conditions caused it.

10. Operators and safe use

We supply the machine without an operator or training.

Your operator must be trained or experienced enough to use that type of machine safely. Any minimum age, training or qualification we require is set out on your quote.

Use the machine only for its intended work and within its rated load, as the manufacturer's instructions describe. Keep to any site rules and any limits on working hours or noise. Tell us the same day about any accident or injury involving the machine.

If you are a business customer, comply with health and safety law at the site and give our driver any site induction needed. Your operators must have the training that law requires, and we may ask for evidence. Keep any record and make any report the law requires.

These rules always apply:

• Nobody may operate the machine affected by drink or drugs, or too tired or unwell to work safely.
• Wear suitable protective clothing and any seat belt fitted, and keep children and others well clear.
• Never carry a passenger or lift a person. Lift loads only with a digger approved for lifting and a trained operator.
• Do not drive on or cross a public road without our written agreement.
• Do not travel with the arm or a loaded skip raised, or cross a slope with a loaded skip.
• Do not use the bucket or blade to move a vehicle or drag the machine onto a trailer.
• Do not run tracks over sharp rubble, kerbs or steel, or turn the body while a track is jammed.
• Do not fire the breaker with nothing under it, lever with the breaker or auger, or run the flail without its guard.
• Do not enter an unsupported trench. Do not work in high wind or lightning, in water deeper than the manufacturer allows, or on ground too flooded or frozen to grip.
• Do not remove or disable any guard or safety device, alter the machine or fit anything we have not supplied or agreed.

11. Care of the machine

Do the daily checks in the manufacturer's instructions before each day's use. Grease every grease point each day of use, and keep the radiator clear.

Use only the fuel named in your booking confirmation. Return the machine at the fuel level on the hire note. A shortfall is charged at the rate per litre set out on your quote, plus any handling charge set out there. If you or your operator put in wrong or contaminated fuel, you pay the reasonable cost of draining, cleaning and repair. Use red diesel only with our written agreement that your use qualifies. Otherwise you pay the reasonable cost of draining it and any penalty we are charged. Lock the fuel cap where possible. Store spare fuel safely.

Fit an attachment only to the machine named on your quote. If you cannot remove an attachment safely, leave it fitted and tell us before the collection day.

Return the machine reasonably clean, apart from normal mud. Wash concrete and mortar out of skips and buckets before they set. The cleaning charge set out on your quote applies if the machine is too caked to inspect. It also applies if concrete, mortar, tar, paint or similar has set on it.

12. Security

The machine remains our property. Do not move it from the site in your booking confirmation without telling us first. Do not sell, lend or sub-hire it, use it as security for a loan, or take it outside England and Wales. Tell us at once if anyone claims a right over it. Let us inspect it at any reasonable time.

Lock away loose attachments and tools. Report any theft, loss or vandalism to the police at once, and give us the crime reference number the same day.

Whenever the machine is left, and always overnight, keep these three security rules:

• Remove the key and keep it with you.
• Lower the arm and bucket, or the dumper's skip, to the ground.
• Lock the cab or covers where locks are fitted, and use any immobiliser or isolator.

13. Breakdowns and faults

If the machine stops, shows a warning or behaves wrongly, stop using it and ring the hire desk. Outside opening hours, make it safe and secure and leave a message, which we act on when we open. Do not repair the machine, fit parts or let anyone else do so without our agreement.

We come out as soon as we can to repair the machine or swap it for a similar one. If you or your operator did not cause the fault, you pay no hire charge from your report until it works again. In that case, if we cannot repair or replace it within a reasonable time, you may end the hire of that machine. We then refund the collection charge and the hire charge for days without a working machine.

If you or your operator caused the fault, the hire charge continues while the machine is down. You pay the reasonable cost of the call-out and repair.

If you are a consumer and a fault was present on arrival, you may reject the machine for a full refund, including delivery and collection.

14. Damage, loss and theft

This section applies while the machine is in your care. That is from unloading at your site, or loading at our yard, until our driver loads it or you hand it back at the yard. If we miss a confirmed collection day for a reason not on your side, loss or damage from the next day is not your responsibility. That does not apply to damage you or your operator cause, or where a breach of the security rules caused or contributed to the loss.

You are not responsible for fair wear and tear or damage recorded at handover. Nor are you responsible for damage our negligence or breach caused, or a fault you or your operator did not cause. Misuse, overloading, neglect, missed checks or greasing, wrong fuel and use by someone not competent are never fair wear and tear.

If you are a consumer, you are responsible only for loss or damage caused by you, your operator or your breach of these conditions. A breach, including of the security rules, counts only if it caused or contributed to the loss.

If you are a business customer, you are responsible for all loss of or damage to the machine that this section does not exclude. You also pay a hire charge at the rate set out on your quote while a damaged machine is repaired.

Where you are responsible, you pay the reasonable cost of repair. If the machine or a whole attachment is lost, stolen or beyond economic repair, you pay its replacement value set out on your quote. If you are a consumer, the replacement value never exceeds our actual loss. We deduct anything recovered. For a key, bucket, hose, tool or other part lost, stolen or beyond economic repair, you pay the reasonable cost of replacing it. The hire charge stops on the day you report a loss or theft.

If we offer a damage waiver for your hire, your quote says what it costs, what it covers and the excess. If it is optional, we add it only at your request. If you hold one, its terms on your quote apply. A breach affects it only if the breach caused or contributed to the damage.

15. End of the hire

The last day of your hire is your notice that the machine is off hire from the end of that day. We collect in a morning or afternoon slot on that day or the next working day, as we confirm in writing. You pay no hire charge while waiting for us to collect, if the machine is ready and reachable.

To finish early, tell us the day the machine will be off hire and ready. Notice before the cut-off time set out on your quote means collection the next working day. If you are a consumer within your 14 days, this notice counts as cancelling.

Otherwise, if you finish early, you still pay the booked hire charge. If we re-hire the machine for your unused days, we refund the difference. That is the booked hire charge less the rate-card price for the days you had.

A collection fails if our driver arrives in the collection slot and cannot load the machine. If it fails for a reason on your side, you pay the failed collection charge set out on your quote. The hire charge also runs again from that day. You pay nothing if it fails for a reason on our side, or at a site as you described where loading was still unsafe.

Late return applies if a machine you picked up is not handed back on time, or you refuse or prevent a collection. Any late return charge set out on your quote applies only if a collection slot was wasted or the next hire was affected. It never applies with a failed collection charge for the same visit. After a failed collection or a late return, the hire charge is priced as an extension. It stops at the end of the day you return the machine or tell us it is ready.

If the machine is not returned and we cannot reach you within the working days set out on your quote, we treat it as lost. The hire charge then stops. The section headed Damage, loss and theft applies. So far as you can, you let us onto the site at a reasonable time, after we tell you, to collect it. Where you cannot, you help us get the owner's permission.

We photograph the machine before loading at collection, or at yard return. We record its condition, fuel and any hour meter reading on the hire note. We send you both. You may challenge them with your own evidence.

At collection, have the machine:

• Where we left it or agreed, on firm ground with a clear route to our vehicle.
• With its keys, attachments and tools, and nothing of yours on it.
• With someone present or access arranged for the driver.

16. Consumer cancellation

If you are a consumer, you may cancel for any reason within 14 days under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, however you booked. The 14 days start the day after we send your first booking confirmation, which states the last day counted from that date. If your first booking confirmation reaches you on a later day, your 14 days start the day after it reaches you.

Tell the hire desk clearly, or write to our registered office. You may use the form at the end of these conditions. Your cancellation counts from when you send it. We confirm it by email. We refund what is due without delay, and within 14 days of the day you tell us. That includes a payment that reaches us after you cancel, which we refund within 14 days of it arriving.

If you cancel within the 14 days and before our driver arrives at your site, or before you pick the machine up, you pay nothing.

We start the hire, delivery and collection within the 14 days only if you ask. Use the words below or your own. If you do not ask, we do not deliver or release the machine until the 14 days have ended.

If the hire has started at your request and you cancel within the 14 days, you pay part of the hire charge. It is in proportion to the days from delivery or pick-up to the day you tell us, counting both, against the days booked. You also pay the delivery charge and any fuel, cleaning or damage charge due, but not the collection charge. We collect by the next working day, or you hand the machine back at the yard if you picked it up.

If we start within the 14 days without your request, or without giving you this information, you may still cancel. You then pay nothing for the hire, delivery or collection.

You lose the right to cancel once the machine is back with us. That applies only if you asked us to start within the 14 days and accepted that loss.

To ask us to start early, say or write:

• I ask you to start the hire, delivery and collection before my 14 days to cancel have ended.
• I understand that if I cancel once the hire has started, I pay the delivery charge and for the days I have had.
• I understand that once the hire is complete I can no longer cancel.

17. Other cancellations

If you are a business customer, or a consumer whose 14 days have ended, you may cancel before the hire starts. The notice period, and the cancellation charge for shorter notice, are set out on your quote. With that notice you pay nothing. With less, you pay only the charge, or nothing if we re-hire the machine for your dates. If you have paid the charge and we re-hire, we refund it. We refund anything else you have paid.

If you are a business customer and cancel after the delivery slot has started, we treat it as a failed delivery.

18. Supply problems and delays

If we cannot supply a machine as booked, we tell you as soon as we know. You choose a similar or better machine at the same price, a new date, or to cancel. If you cancel, you pay nothing and we refund anything you have paid without undue delay.

If weather or the roads make delivery unsafe, we agree a new slot. Your hire days move as for a failed delivery. We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control. You may then cancel and pay nothing, and we refund anything you have paid without undue delay.

19. Our right to end the hire

We may end the hire and collect the machine for a reason listed below. We tell you why in writing.

If you are a consumer and the problem can be put right, we first give you a reasonable chance to do so. We need not do this if people or the machine are at risk.

If you are a consumer, you pay the hire charge up to the day we end it, the collection charge and any other sum due. We refund the hire charge in proportion to the remaining days against the days booked.

If you are a business customer, you still owe the hire charge for the booked period and any other charge due.

The reasons are:

• The machine is used unsafely or against the section headed Operators and safe use.
• It has been moved without telling us, or we cannot find it.
• Wrong fuel has been used, or it is at serious risk of theft or damage.
• A sum due is still unpaid after a reminder.
• You told us something untrue that matters to the hire.
• You are a business customer and stop trading, or become insolvent where the law lets us end the hire for that reason.

20. Our liability to you

We are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage caused by our negligence or our breach of these conditions.

Nothing in these conditions excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud.

If you are a consumer, there is no cap on our liability, but we are not responsible for business losses.

If you are a business customer, our total liability to you is limited to the total price of the hire. This limit does not apply where the law does not allow it.

21. Your liability to others

You are responsible for injury or damage caused by the use of the machine during the hire, including to your own property and ground. That does not apply where it is caused by our negligence or by a fault in the machine that we are responsible for.

If you are a consumer, this applies only so far as negligence or a breach of these conditions by you or your operator caused it.

If someone claims against us for something you are responsible for, you repay what we reasonably pay, including reasonable legal costs. If you are a consumer, we tell you of the claim promptly, keep you informed and do not settle without consulting you.

22. Complaints

To complain, contact the hire desk. We acknowledge your complaint promptly and tell you when to expect a full answer. Our final answer is in writing.

If you are a consumer, our final answer names an approved alternative dispute resolution body, with its website, and says whether we will use it.

23. Other legal terms

Our privacy notice explains how we, as controller, use your personal information, and your rights.

If you are a business customer, the quote, the booking confirmation and these conditions are the whole agreement. Your own terms do not apply, and a promise made by phone or at the yard binds us only if we confirm it in writing.

We may transfer the contract to someone who takes over our business, and will tell you. Your rights are not affected. You may not transfer it without our written agreement. No one else has rights under it. If a court finds part of these conditions unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we delay enforcing a right, we may still enforce it later.

We may change these conditions for future hires. The version sent with your quote applies, and your booking confirmation names it.

The law of England and Wales governs these conditions. If you are a consumer in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also claim in your local courts and keep your local law's protections. If you are a business customer, only the courts of England and Wales can hear a dispute.

24. Model cancellation form

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract)

• To Squires Group Limited, trading as Squires Plant Hire, Bramblewood, Hurn, Christchurch BH23 6AT, hire@squiresplant.co.uk:
• I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*]/for the supply of the following service [*],
• Ordered on [*]/received on [*],
• Name of consumer(s),
• Address of consumer(s),
• Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
• Date
• [*] Delete as appropriate.