Guide

What paperwork does a prestige lease need?

Updated September 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

Five documents, in a fixed order: a written quote naming the car, the term and the full cost stack; the lease agreement itself; a driver declaration with a DVLA check code for every named driver; a photographed condition record taken at handover; and an invoice. Nothing is signed at the kerbside that you have not already read.

One: the written quote

The first document, and the one that sets everything else. It names the exact vehicle rather than the model, the start date, the term, the monthly figure and what it includes.

It also carries the rest of the stack: the refundable deposit, the insurance excess, the mileage allowance, the excess mileage rate, and delivery and collection priced against your address.

If a figure is not on the quote, it should not appear later. That is the test to apply to this document, and to anybody else's in this sector.

It should also name a start date rather than a month, and a term rather than a minimum. A quote that says "from" without saying from what — which term, which allowance, which vehicle — is not yet a quote, and asking for the missing half of it is a reasonable thing to do before you give anybody your documents.

Two: the lease agreement

The document that governs. It is sent to you in advance to read, not produced at the kerbside with a pen — and if anybody in this sector does hand you an agreement on the doorstep, that is the moment to slow down rather than sign.

It states the parties, the vehicle, the term, the payment structure, the mileage allowance, the named drivers, the condition obligations and what happens at the end of the term.

Where the agreement and a website page disagree, the agreement is what binds. Read it against the quote before you sign, and tell us about any difference rather than assuming the page was right. The lease terms are published.

Three: the driver declaration and DVLA check code

One per named driver, completed before the car is booked out rather than at handover.

It carries the licence number, how long the full licence has been held, any endorsements with their conviction codes, and a DVLA check code so the record is read rather than taken on trust. A check code is free, takes about a minute to generate, lasts twenty-one days and can be used once.

Generate it close to the start date. A code created when you first enquired will have expired by the time the car arrives, which turns a paperwork detail into a doorstep problem.

Four: identity and address documents

Photo identity and proof of address for the named hirer and for every additional driver. They are seen in advance, and the physical driving licence is checked again at the car.

Checking in that order is deliberate: a mismatch surfaces while there is still time to fix it or to change the vehicle, rather than in front of a transporter on the morning.

An address that does not match the licence record has to be reconciled before the car goes out, because the insurer reads the licence record rather than the form. Tell us before the day rather than on it.

A recent move is the usual cause, and it is worth flagging even when you think the licence was updated. So is a paper licence, a name changed on marriage, and a licence issued in one part of the United Kingdom and an address now in another. None of them is a problem in advance. All of them are a cancelled delivery on the morning.

Five: the condition record

Made at handover and matched at collection, and it is the document that protects both sides if anything is disputed months later.

Every panel, every wheel, the glass and the interior, photographed by us and by you, with fuel or state of charge and the mileage written down. It takes a few minutes of a fifteen-minute handover, and it is the few minutes worth not rushing.

Take your own photographs as well as ours. We would rather you did, and a record you hold yourself is worth more to you than one you have to ask for.

And the invoice

The monthly figure is invoiced, with VAT shown separately and a purchase order number on it where a business needs one. Payment terms are agreed in writing before the agreement starts rather than assumed.

The refundable deposit is not on the invoice. It is a hold against a card in the named hirer's own name, arranged with a person before delivery, and it is released at the end of the term.

Keeping those two separate in your own records makes the end of the term much simpler than it otherwise is.

What order does it all happen in?

Enquiry, with the car, the dates, the term, the mileage and the driver.
Written quote naming the exact vehicle and the whole cost stack.
Driver declarations and DVLA check codes, and the identity and address documents.
The agreement, sent to read in advance.
The deposit arranged with a person — never online.
A delivery date and time confirmed in writing.
Handover: licence checked at the car, condition record photographed, agreement signed, a run through the car.

Every step before handover exists so that handover is fifteen minutes rather than an argument.

What should you keep?

The quote, the signed agreement, both condition records and the invoices. Keep the photographs you took at handover with them, because they are only useful if you can find them at collection.

Your documents are held under the terms set out in our privacy policy, which is where retention is described rather than on this page.

If anything in the set is missing or looks wrong, ask for it before the agreement starts. A document chased at the beginning arrives; one chased at the end is a conversation nobody enjoys.

Keep them somewhere the person who will actually need them can find them, which on a business agreement is rarely the person who signed. A director who holds the whole file personally is one resignation away from a finance team with an invoice it cannot match to an agreement it has never seen.

Common questions

What if the agreement says something different from the website?

The agreement governs. Tell us about the difference before you sign rather than after — if a page is wrong we want to fix the page, and if the agreement is wrong it needs correcting before anybody signs it. Either way it is a five-minute conversation in advance.

Who signs when a company is leasing?

Somebody authorised to bind the company, usually a director. The signatory and the named driver are often the same person and do not have to be. Tell us who is doing which at the enquiry stage so the agreement is drawn correctly the first time.

Can somebody else sign on my behalf?

Raise it at the enquiry stage rather than arranging it at handover. The named driver still has to be present in person with their physical licence when the car arrives, because the identity check and the walk round cannot be delegated to anybody else.

What happens to my documents afterwards?

They are held under the terms of our privacy policy, which is the page that describes retention rather than this one. The legal pages each carry their own current status line, so you can see what is in force rather than having to assume.

Is the quote binding?

The quote sets out the figures we are offering on the vehicle, the term and the dates named on it, and the agreement is the document that binds once signed. If anything in your circumstances changes between the two — the date, the driver, the mileage — tell us, because it changes the quote.