Guide
What to check before you sign a prestige lease
Updated 7 min read Performance & Prestige
Check nine things on the document in front of you: the exact vehicle, the term, the monthly figure and what it includes, the mileage allowance and its excess rate, the refundable deposit, the insurance excess, who is named to drive, the delivery and collection arrangement, and what happens at the end of the term.
Is the vehicle on the agreement the one you chose?
Check the exact specification rather than the model name. A Bentayga V8 S and a Bentayga EWB are different cars commercially; so are a Urus S and a Urus Performante, and a Range Rover Sport SV and a Range Rover Sport Autobiography.
The agreement should name the vehicle specifically enough that there is no ambiguity about which one turns up.
If the agreement is vaguer than the quote was, that is the discrepancy to raise before signing rather than the one to hope about.
Is the term written down, with what happens at the end of it?
The start date, the length and what occurs when it finishes. On any agreement here the minimum is three months, on a 1+2 structure — one month up front, then one a month.
The end of the term should be unambiguous: the car is collected from an address you choose, the condition record is matched against the one taken at handover, and the deposit is released.
There is no balloon payment here and no option to purchase, because this is a lease rather than a finance agreement. If a document you are reading does have one of those, you are reading a different product and it deserves different scrutiny.
Does the monthly figure say what it includes?
A figure with nothing attached to it is half a statement. What should be attached: the term it applies to, the mileage allowance it assumes, and whether it is a from figure or the figure for your specific agreement.
A monthly price published without its minimum term beside it is the half-truth this sector is criticised for, and it is worth checking on anybody's paperwork including ours.
No vehicle figure is published here at all: it is quoted against the exact car, the term, the mileage and the dates, and the document should say which of those it assumes. On a car we hold that figure comes from us; on a partner-arranged vehicle it comes back once the partner has confirmed the car, which the document should also make clear.
Are the mileage allowance and the excess rate both there?
Two numbers, not one. The allowance is 1,000 miles a month on every car here. The excess rate is what each additional mile costs beyond it, and across the catalogue that runs 95p to £10 a mile depending on the vehicle.
The second number is the one that gets left off documents, and it is the one that costs money. A rate at the top of that range turns a modest overage into a serious figure.
If you already know the allowance is wrong for you, fix it before signing. A higher allowance priced into the agreement at the start is always cheaper than the same distance settled at collection.
Are the deposit and the excess stated separately?
They are two different things and on many cars they carry the same number, which is exactly how they end up conflated.
The refundable security deposit is a hold against a payment card in the named hirer's own name, released at the end of the term. Across the catalogue that runs £1,500 to £50,000.
The insurance excess is your maximum contribution towards a repair on a covered claim, and across the catalogue it runs £1,500 to £35,000. Both should be on the document as separate line items with separate figures. Insurance and excess explains what the second one actually does.
Is every driver named?
Every person who will drive the car should appear on the agreement, and each should have been checked against that specific vehicle's minimum age, licence history and points tolerance.
This is the check with the largest consequence attached. An unnamed driver is not insured, which means the excess stops being the ceiling on your exposure and the liability becomes the value of the car.
If somebody is missing from the list, add them before the car moves rather than afterwards. Nobody can be added at the roadside. Driver requirements sets out the three tests.
Are delivery and collection on the document?
Priced, against your actual address, before you agree to anything. Not "quoted separately", not "to be confirmed", and certainly not added at handover.
Collection should be there too, including whether it can be from a different address than the delivery — here it can, and it is an ordinary request rather than an exception.
While you are looking: check who has to be present. The named driver has to be there in person with their physical licence at both ends, because the identity check and the joint walk round cannot be delegated.
What should you ask any prestige supplier before signing?
Five questions, and they are worth asking us as readily as anybody else.
- Who owns the car? And if it is not them, who does, and what are that party's terms?
- Who insures it, and what is the excess? A number, on the document.
- What is the damage standard at collection? And is there a photographed condition record at both ends?
- What happens if the vehicle is not available on the start date?
- Is anything paid online? Nothing is here, and a card form on a website is worth a second thought anywhere in this sector.
A supplier who answers all five without hesitation is telling you something useful about the rest of the arrangement.
What if the document and the website disagree?
The agreement governs. That is true here and it is true of every supplier you will deal with, which is why reading it against the quote before signing is worth the twenty minutes.
Tell us about any difference rather than assuming the page was right. If a page on this site is wrong we want to fix the page; if the agreement is wrong it needs correcting before anybody signs it.
The lease terms and the site terms are both published. Our legal pages each carry their own current status line, so you can see what is in force rather than having to assume.Common questions
Should I have the agreement reviewed before signing?
If a company is signing, or if the figures are significant to you, then yes — and any supplier who discourages it has told you something. The agreement is sent to read in advance precisely so that there is time for it, rather than being produced at the kerbside.
Can the terms change after I have signed?
The agreement is the agreement. What changes things is a change in your circumstances — a different start date, a different driver, a different mileage need — and each of those is a conversation before it happens rather than an adjustment applied afterwards.
What if I spot a mistake at handover?
Raise it at the walk round, which is what the joint photographed inspection is for. Do not sign and sort it out later: the condition record made at handover is the document both sides rely on at collection, so a correction belongs in it rather than in an email afterwards.
Is anything paid at the door?
Nothing beyond what was agreed in writing. The refundable deposit is arranged with a person before delivery rather than taken online or collected at handover, and no payment is taken through this website at any point.
What if I want to end the agreement early?
It is a conversation about your specific agreement rather than something a page can promise either way, so ask before you sign what the position is. Three months is the shortest term we write, and it is a genuine commitment rather than a rolling arrangement.
Related guides
- What paperwork a prestige lease needs The documents a prestige lease actually generates, the order they arrive in, which one governs if two disagree, and what you should keep afterwards.
- What a prestige lease costs, and what moves the figure The anatomy of a prestige lease figure: the five levers that genuinely move it, the two that people expect to and do not, and how a quote is actually assembled.
- Do you need a big deposit to lease a prestige car? There are two up-front payments and they are constantly mistaken for each other. What each is for, what each costs, and whether paying more changes anything.
- Can you lease a car you have never driven? We hold no demonstrators and offer no test drives. So here is the homework worth doing before three months with a car you have never sat in, and the questions worth asking us.
What to check before you sign a prestige lease
Every figure in this guide is published per car, before there is any form to fill in.
A person confirms every booking · No payment taken online · Delivery or collection, your choice
Written by Performance & Prestige against the rates, driver criteria and delivery areas published on this site. Rates are “from” prices inclusive of VAT and are confirmed with you before anything is agreed — see driver requirements, insurance and excess and delivery.