What is the Evergreen Clause?

This is an excerpt from our ebook. Download the full ebook below.

Scenario 1:

Your office manager was assigned to handled the leasing for a new copier and sign off on the paperwork after approval.  The average term of a copier lease is 5 years and in today’s economy, most employees don’t stay in their job for a 5 year period.  Three and a half years into the lease, the office manager is moving on to greener pastures and quits their job.

What is the Evergreen Clause?

The Evergreen Clause states that you are required to write a Letter of Intent (LOI) and send to the leasing company between 90-120 days before your lease expires, which leaves you with a 30 day window to notify them you want out of your contract.  Unfortunately, when your office manager quit, they were the only employee in the company aware of the leasing agreement expiration date.

RESULT:

The LOI is never sent in.  Now you’re locked in for another year because the contract states that it will renew for up to a full 12 months if they never received your letter of intent.

The copier sales representative didn’t alert you before your lease expires.  They also didn’t tell you that your LOI should be printed on your letterhead, signed, and faxed or emailed back to the leasing company before the deadline.  In fact, they had no plans to. It is in their best interest to make sure that you don’t even know what LOI stands for and that it never gets sent in. The sales rep has increased their odds on renewing you as a customer because they locked you into your contract.

SOLUTION:

Option 1: You can try to find a new copier provider that is willing to pay the remaining payments of your current copier lease and sign a new lease with them.

Option 2: There’s no way out of it.  You will be forced through contractual obligation to pay for a copier that you may not want or need for the next twelve months.  Your current provider CAN let you out of it, but they won’t.

Option 3: If you think you missed the date, call Office Space Copier (619)-333-0265. They will walk you through the process prior to reaching out to the leasing company.

Watch our video on the Letter of Intent here

EXPERT TIP:

If you are considering signing a new lease, make sure you suggest or demand changing the terms to 30 day renewals.