A practical guide to copier leasing in 2026
How copier leasing works, what should be included, and how to avoid the common contract traps that cost UK businesses thousands.
Copier leasing is the most common way UK businesses fund their office print — but not all leases are created equal. The right agreement bundles the device, installation, toner, parts, labour and maintenance into a single predictable monthly payment. The wrong one hides consumables, capped page volumes and steep end-of-term fees in the small print.
What a good copier lease includes
At a minimum, look for: the device itself, delivery and installation, network integration, all toner and wastebox consumables, all parts and labour, and a defined maintenance SLA — ideally with a 4-hour engineer response guarantee. Anything less and you'll end up paying twice.
Terms and volumes
Most leases run over three or five years. Match your committed page volumes to your actual usage — over-committing means paying for pages you don't print, under-committing means punitive per-page overage. Ask for the last twelve months of your current usage data before signing.
Questions to ask any supplier
What's the guaranteed response time? Are toner and wastebox included? What happens at end of term — can I upgrade, extend or hand back? Is PaperCut or another print management platform bundled? Who owns the device at the end?
At DBL Systems we've been putting UK businesses onto sensible, fully-inclusive Kyocera and Olivetti leases since 2006. If you'd like an honest second opinion on a quote you've received, get in touch.
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