Some people asked me about lay-by and what charges do most of our clients do. Firstly you do need to set out by law your terms and conditions for doing a layby, and it is best to get an industry or group contract setting up the requirements as layby are notorious for generating arguments and disputes in retail much more in my experience than any other payment type.
However, most of my clients would have something similar to this as their terms for doing a layby.
A setup fee for setting up the lay-by ranging from $0 to $25
A layby deposit of between 10% to 20% of the total purchase including setup costs, administration, shipping and handling charges, generally, they are looking at about $40 to $50
The projected contract period is between 3 to 12 weeks.
The frequency of payments is generally every week or fortnight
The minimum payment is at least $10
For a missed payment by the client, a charge of $5 for administration.
A cancellation fee the higher of $25 and 20% of the total amount due. This, however, may be higher if the goods kept in storage are unsellable, e.g. a special order that no-one would want but the prospective buyer.
If the goods need to be personalised so making them unsellable to the general public, then the layby has to be paid off first before the personalisation is done.
Some people do give a cooling off period of 7 days, it may be required in some states if the layby is done outside the shop say at a school fair.
