Copier lease end of term: the notice window

Most copier leases do not simply end. They renew — often for another twelve months — unless written notice arrives inside a window that closes months before the term does. This is how to find your date, and what to do if it has already passed.

What is an evergreen clause?

An evergreen clause automatically renews your lease unless you give written notice within a specified window before the term ends.The window typically opens 120–180 days before expiry and closes 60–90 days before it. Notice sent outside that window — too early or too late — usually does not count, and neither does a phone call if the contract requires writing.

It is not a trap in the sense of being hidden; it is in the contract. It catches people because the deadline falls up to six months before the date they have in their head, and nobody diaries it on the day they sign.

How to find your date

1. Find the commencement date on the lease schedule. It is usually the acceptance or install date, not the date you signed.
2. Add the term in months. That gives the expiry date.
3. Read the notice clause for the two numbers — “not less than X nor more than Y days prior to expiration”. Subtract Y days from expiry for the day the window opens, andX days for the last day notice is valid.
4. Put that last date in your calendar with a month of warning.

A worked example

A 60-month lease commencingMarch 15, 2023, with a clause requiring notice “not less than 90 nor more than150 days prior to expiration”:

The window is only 60 days wide, and it shuts 90 days before the lease actually ends. Someone who waits until the equipment is due back is roughly three months too late and has already renewed.

Check your own dates

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What if the window has already closed?

It is usually less final than it sounds, but you have lost your leverage rather than all of your options. In rough order of how well they tend to go:

• Send written notice anyway, immediately. Renewals are often for a rolling twelve months; notice now can cap the extension rather than restart it. Send it in the manner the contract specifies — certified mail to the named address if that is what it says.
• Ask for the buyout figure in writing. Get the number before you negotiate anything else, andcheck what it actually contains — it is three or four separate things, not one.
• Treat it as a negotiation, not an appeal. A vendor who wants your next order has commercial reasons to be reasonable about the last one. That leverage disappears the moment you have signed the next agreement.
• Do not let a rollover be quietly folded into a new lease.The common outcome is the remaining balance buried in the payments on replacement equipment, where it stops looking like a penalty and starts looking like a monthly figure.

Questions people ask at this point

Can I just return the equipment when the term ends?

Only if valid notice was given. Without it the agreement has usually already renewed, and returning the machine does not end the obligation to pay. Check the notice clause before arranging collection.

Does a phone call count as notice?

Generally no. Most agreements require written notice, and some specify the method and address. If you have only called, follow it up in writing today and keep proof of sending.

Who do I send notice to — the dealer or the leasing company?

Usually the leasing company, because they hold the paper — the dealer sold you the equipment but assigned the lease to a funder. The contract names the right party. Sending it to the dealer alone is a common and expensive mistake, so when in doubt send it to both.

What is the difference between a fair-market-value and a $1 buyout lease?

At the end of a $1 buyout you own the equipment for a nominal sum. At the end of a fair-market-value lease you do not — you return it, renew, or buy it at a price set then. FMV payments are lower, which is why they quote well, and the difference shows up years later at exactly the moment covered by this page.