Band 2 of 6
Your rights when you hire a bin
When you hire a skip, the consumer guarantees of the Australian Consumer Law come with it automatically, and nothing the hire business says or does can take them away. They cover the work of bringing and collecting the bin as a service, and most of them cover the bin itself as a product you hire.
General information, not legal advice. For your own situation, check with the ACCC or your state’s consumer protection office, linked at the foot of this page.
Two things in one hire
A skip hire joins two things together: a bin you have for a set time, and the work of delivering it, taking it away and dealing with what is in it. The guarantees reach both. Products and services normally bought for personal or household use are covered. Most of the guarantees also apply when you hire or lease a product instead of buying it, such as the guarantees that it matches its description and is of acceptable quality.
Who answers for them is clear too. Consumer Protection WA describes the seller as the person or business that sold, leased or hired out the product, and says the seller must provide a remedy when a guarantee is not met. The ACCC puts it simply: businesses are responsible for sorting out problems with the products they sell to consumers.
One guarantee falls away for a hire. The guarantee about ownership, called clear title, does not apply to hired or leased products. The guarantee of undisturbed possession does, but only for as long as the hire agreement runs.
The guarantees for the work
| Guarantee | What it asks of the business |
|---|---|
| Due care and skill | An acceptable level of care and skill in all the work, at least as good as a competent provider of average skill and experience would give. |
| Fit for a stated purpose | The service, and anything it produces, is fit for any purpose you state. This one does not protect you if you did not rely on the provider’s skill or judgement, or it was unreasonable for you to rely on it. |
| A reasonable time | Where no time frame was agreed, the service is supplied within a reasonable time. |
| Avoiding loss and damage | In delivering the service, the business takes every necessary step to avoid loss and damage. |
These guarantees describe the standard the work is held to. Whether a particular delay or a mark left behind falls short of one of them depends on the facts. The ACCC’s first step, below, is to raise it with the business.
The guarantees for the bin
- Acceptable quality. In the ACCC’s words: “A product sold to a consumer must be of acceptable quality.” NSW Fair Trading explains that this means what would normally be expected for that type of product and its cost.
- Matches its description. Whatever the business says about a product, in writing or out loud, has to be accurate.
- Extra promises kept. If a business makes further promises about a product’s quality, condition or performance, spoken or written, it must keep them.
What a business cannot do
“The basic rights covered by consumer guarantees can’t be taken away by anything a business says or does.”
ACCC, Consumer rights and guarantees
The terms and conditions of a contract cannot take these rights away either. The ACCC says it is illegal for a business to rely on store policies or terms that deny them, giving signs such as ‘no refunds’ as the example. It is also unlawful for a business to mislead consumers about these rights.
A warranty is something different. The guarantees are automatic; a warranty is an extra promise a business can choose to make on top of them.
When something goes wrong
- Go to the business first. The ACCC’s first step is to contact the business that sold you the service and explain the problem.
- Work out whether it is minor or major. The remedy you are entitled to depends on the nature of the problem and whether it is a major or a minor one. A business is entitled to assess the product or service before it gives a remedy.
- A minor problem. The business must fix a minor problem with a product or service, at the least by repairing it without charge. It does not have to offer a refund or replacement for a minor problem, though it may choose to.
- A major problem. When a service has a major problem, you have a right to change your agreement with the provider. Depending on the problem, NSW Fair Trading lists the possible remedies as a repair, a replacement or a refund, cancelling a service, or being reimbursed for damage and loss.
- If it is not resolved. The ACCC takes reports from people who think a business is doing something it shouldn’t. Each state’s consumer protection office explains the same guarantees on its own page; three of them are listed at the foot of this one.
The price is part of it
The guarantees measure the work and the bin against what you were told and what you paid. Band 3 covers how the price must be shown, and the terms in a hire agreement that the law treats as possibly unfair. Band 1 has the questions to ask before you book.
A skip hire business can explain what its service includes, when the bin will come and go, and what its price covers: the things these guarantees are measured against.