Schools are becoming victims to Rogue Equipment Leasing Companies

Schools are becoming victims to Rogue Equipment Leasing Companies

A recent report has been under taken and it has shown that schools are an easy target in being badly charged for their office equipment such as computers and photocopiers through the mis-selling of both their new and old equipment leasing agreements.

Schools have been known to pay up to 10 times more than they really should be for their leasing agreements on their photocopiers.

The chief executive of the National Association of Schools Business Management William Simmonds said that he knows of one school whereby the leasing agreement is showing the school as owing £80,000 on a photocopier which should have been £14,000.

Primary Schools throughout the United Kingdom are being targeted by commission hungry sales equipment companies whose sales representatives convince them into signing equipment agreements, which at times are often confusing and miss leading – the end result ending up with them paying an unreasonably high rate of interest on computers and other school equipment.

In some cases School Head Teachers are being chased by finance companies for payment when they thought that the items that they were purchasing were free.

A school in Suffolk received a call saying that a company has sourced “FREE” laptops of which they took advantage and had 100, they then signed a disclaimer but did not realise that they were not free at all but ended up with a bill into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The total monetary value of badly or misinformed leasing agreements being sold to local authorities and schools is believed to run into millions of pounds.  Unfortunately there are those less unscrupulous equipment leasing companies shall we say who will look to be quite aggressive and take advantage if they get the chance and charge extortionate fees and costs for leasing equipment.

A new service industry will grow in helping those businesses and organisations who think they may have been mis-sold an equipment lease agreement. The service  offering a chance to evaluate FREE of charge via a Forensic Lease Check to see if any overcharges within equipment lease agreements has taken place also looking at assessing who’s at fault either the supplier and the finance company or even both.

With schools the problem maybe that Head Teachers although having great experience in the running of a school as well teaching, the maybe be leaving too much to the equipment supply companies and therefore in some instances not receiving the right advice in relation to their Equipment Leasing Agreements.

The Industry body aptly named ‘The Finance and Leasing Association’ said that they have a conciliation procedure for customer complaints and are encouraging companies to be proactive and get advice on whether their existing leasing agreements are lawful and integral.

Do you wish us to instigate a Forensic Lease Check on your equipment? If so let us know by filling out this form.