Hire terms

All our prices include GST. The figure you see is the figure you pay. Nothing gets added on top at handover and nothing gets added at the bottom of your invoice.

Delivery is free within 10km of Mallala. From 10km out to 35km it is a flat $100, which covers both the drop off and the pickup. Those are road distances, the same ones Google Maps gives you, not straight lines on a map. Past 35km we cannot help at the moment.

If you collect the machine yourself there is no delivery charge. See section 14 for what you need to tow it.

Your invoice is a tax invoice. It shows our ABN and states that the total price includes GST.

Your booking is confirmed once we have accepted it and taken payment for the hire. Until then the dates are not held for you. There are only two machines, so the earlier you ask, the better the chance we can fit you in.

The bond is handled separately from the hire fee, before the machine leaves us. See section 3.

We hold a refundable security bond for the length of your hire. amount to be confirmed We tell you the amount before you book, never at handover, and it is the same whichever machine you take.

We take it as a hold on your card or by bank transfer, in the name of the person who made the booking. Not cash.

We return the full bond once the machine is back and we have checked it over. timeframe to be confirmed

We can only take money out of the bond for:

• hire fees or late fees you have not paid
• refuelling, if the machine comes back with less fuel than it went out with
• cleaning, if it comes back needing more than a hose off
• repairing damage you are responsible for under section 11

If we take anything out, we send you an itemised list of what and why, with photos or the repairer's invoice. If you do not agree with it, tell us and we will work it out. We do not keep a bond because we feel like it, and we do not keep it as a penalty.

If what you owe comes to more than the bond, the bond comes off first and we invoice you for the difference. If it comes to less, the balance goes straight back to you.

Before a machine goes out we need:

• your current Australian driver licence, so we can check it against the booking
• a card or an account in your name for the bond
• you, the person who made the booking, to be the one taking the handover. Not a housemate, not a neighbour.

We write your licence number and its expiry date on the hire docket and tick that we sighted the original. We do not photograph your licence and we do not keep a copy of it.

Your hire starts the moment we hand the machine over or drop it at your address, and it runs for the period you booked. The start time and the time it is due back are both written on your hire docket. Check them before you sign.

A 24 hour hire is a genuine 24 hours from that start time. Not a business day, not until close of business. A 5 day hire is 120 hours from that start time.

That is deliberate. You get the morning and the evening as well as the middle of the day, which is when most people actually get their mowing done.

We have two machines. When one comes back late we usually have to let the next person down, so this one matters to us.

There is a short grace period after your due back time. length to be confirmedAfter that, each extra day or part of a day is charged at that machine's normal 24 hour rate. A John Deere Z225 back a day late is another $190. A Sabre 38 inch is another $150.

That charge is the hire we have actually lost, not a penalty on top of it. We will not roll your hire over into another paid period without speaking to you first.

If you are running behind, ring us. If we can move things around we will, and more often than not we will wear it. What we cannot do is fix a problem we do not know about.

You are responsible for everyone who operates the machine while it is with you, and for what they do with it.

Anyone who operates it must:

• be 18 or over
• have been shown how the controls work, either by us at handover or by you
• not be affected by alcohol, drugs or medication that affects their ability to operate machinery
• have read the safety information that goes out with the machine

These are mowers. Use them to mow grass, at the address on your hire docket, in daylight.

Please do not:

• use the machine on a slope steeper than the limit in its operator manual. We will point that limit out at handover and the manual goes out with the machine. A zero-turn steers and brakes through the same two wheels, so it slides on inclines and on wet grass.
• use it to clear rocks, sticks, rubbish, building debris, thistle, blackberry or scrub. A domestic deck throws whatever it hits.
• tow anything, unless we have told you the machine is rated to tow, and then only within that rating.
• use it in the rain, in a thunderstorm, or after dark.
• take it to a different address without telling us first.
• modify it, remove a guard, or bypass a safety switch.
• use it on land you do not have permission to be on.
• use it in a way that breaks any law, or any council rule that applies where you are.

Damage caused by using a machine in one of those ways is damage you are responsible for. See section 11.

You cannot hire the machine out to anyone else, lend it out for money, or use it to mow for paying customers.

Mowing your own block is what it is for. Giving a neighbour a hand for nothing is fine. Being paid to mow with it is not.

Two reasons. We need to know who has the machine and where it is. And a hire for re-supply changes the rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law, which is not something either of us wants to discover after something has gone wrong.

The machine goes out with a full tank of unleaded petrol. Bring it back full.

If it comes back short, we fill it and take the cost of the fuel out of the bond. We charge what the fuel cost us. We do not mark it up.

Putting the wrong fuel in a mower is an expensive mistake and it is not fair wear and tear. If you are not certain what it takes, ring us before you fill it.

What you are responsible for. Damage caused by you, or by anyone who used the machine while it was with you. Hitting rocks, stumps or hidden metal. Running it out of oil. The wrong fuel. Tipping it over. Ground it was never meant to be on. Anything on the list in section 8.

What you are not responsible for. Fair wear and tear. Blades going blunt from ordinary mowing. Mechanical failure that was not caused by the way the machine was used. Anything that was already wrong with it when you got it.

That is why we photograph the machine before it leaves and again when it comes back, and why we walk around it with you at handover. If you spot something before you start, point it out and we will note it on the docket. Take your own photos as well if you want to.

If you are responsible for damage, you pay what it costs to put right, up to a maximum of what the machine was worth immediately before it was damaged. You will not be charged more than that. You will not be charged for the hire income we lose while it is off the road, or for any other flow-on cost.

Stop the machine and ring us straight away on 0467 837 928. Do not try to fix it yourself and do not keep using it. Pushing on with a machine that is playing up turns a small repair into a big one, and it can be dangerous.

If the machine fails through no fault of yours, you have not lost your money. Whichever suits you best, we will swap it for the other machine if that one is free, extend your hire by the time you lost, or refund you for that time. If it is a major failure you can end the hire and get a full refund.

Those are your rights under the Australian Consumer Law and nothing in these terms takes them away. See section 17.

Ring the police first, then ring us. Report the theft to police within 24 hours and give us the report number.

While the machine is with you, keep it secure:

• locked in a shed or a garage overnight wherever you can
• otherwise out of sight from the street and away from the front boundary
• never left on a verge or a nature strip
• never left with the key in it

If the machine is stolen because it was not secured the way we have asked, you are responsible for what it was worth. If you secured it as agreed and it was stolen anyway, you are not.

The one that matters most is the key. Take it out and take it inside. That single habit prevents most of these.

We agree a delivery window with you and ring when we are on the way.

For us to deliver we need:

• you, or the person who made the booking, at the address to take the handover, sign the docket and show ID
• clear access for a ute and a trailer
• gates unlocked and dogs secured
• somewhere flat and firm to unload

If we get there and cannot deliver because nobody is home or we cannot get access, that trip is wasted and we have to charge for it. fee to be confirmed The same applies if we come to collect and cannot get to the machine.

If you are collecting the machine yourself from Mallala, you need a trailer rated for its weight and your own tie down straps. Ring us before you come and we will tell you exactly what it weighs and how it loads.

If we need to recover a machine, for example because a hire has ended and it has not come back, we will give you reasonable notice first and we will only come on to your property where we have a lawful right to.

Plans change and so does the weather. Tell us as early as you can and we will do what we can.

• Cancel or move your booking with enough notice window to be confirmed and we refund the hire fee in full.
• Cancel inside that window and we keep part of the hire fee, because at short notice we usually cannot fill the slot. amount to be confirmed
• Once the machine has been delivered or collected, your hire has started. On a 5 day hire we will refund the days you have not used.

What we keep on a late cancellation is limited to what we actually lose. It is not a penalty.

If we have to cancel on you, for example because a machine is out of action, you get a full refund and we will help you find another option.

Any insurance we hold is for our own business. It does not cover you, it does not cover the way you use the machine, and it does not cover a claim someone else makes against you. Please do not assume the machine is insured for whatever you are about to do with it.

While the machine is with you, you are responsible for looking after it, and for loss or damage caused by how it is used, stored or secured. That does not extend to fair wear and tear, to a mechanical failure that is not your doing, or to anything that is our fault.

Your home and contents policy or your farm policy may or may not cover equipment you have hired in. It is worth a two minute phone call to your insurer before you book.

Our machines and our hire service come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. You are entitled to a replacement or a refund for a major failure, and to compensation for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. You are also entitled to have the machine repaired or replaced if it is not of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure.

When you enquire we collect your name, phone number, email, suburb, and whatever you type into the message box. When you hire, we also write your licence number and its expiry on the docket.

We use all of that to answer you and to run your hire. We do not sell it and we do not pass it to anyone else, unless the law requires it, for example a police report after a theft.

We sight your licence and write the number down. We do not photograph it and we do not store a copy of it.

We keep enquiries for 12 months and hire records for 5 years, which is how long the ATO requires business records to be kept. If you want your details removed, ring or email us and we will do it.

We will not send you marketing unless you have asked us to. If you have, every message will carry an easy way to stop it.

The terms that apply to your hire are the ones on this page on the day you book. If we change them later, the change applies to bookings made after that, not to yours.

The version number and date sit at the top of this page so you can tell which set you agreed to.

Ring Brad on 0467 837 928. Most things get sorted in one conversation, and we would much rather hear about a problem than find out about it later.

If we cannot sort it out between us, you can take it to Consumer and Business Services SA at cbs.sa.gov.au.

These terms are governed by the law of South Australia.