Car Lease Agreement in Kyiv: Notarization, Term and Documents

What this contract is and how it differs from a free loan

Under a car lease agreement (vehicle hire in Ukrainian law) one party hands over a car, motorcycle, trailer, vessel or another self-propelled land vehicle for temporary paid use, and the other pays rent and returns the property in the agreed condition. Article 798 of the Civil Code describes the subject broadly: aircraft, sea and river vessels and self-propelled land vehicles. The law also allows hire with a crew that operates the vehicle, and the lessor may provide a package of services needed to use it properly.

The decisive feature is payment. If the car is handed over free of charge, this is no longer lease but a loan for use (Art. 827), and a different form rule applies. This is where people most often go wrong: they draft a "free loan" to avoid the notary, and later it turns out that they actually agreed on a lease with monthly rent. The general conditions of such deals are covered in lease agreement: what the notary checks.

"A vehicle hire contract is concluded in writing. A vehicle hire contract involving an individual is subject to notarial certification" — Civil Code of Ukraine, Article 799.

When a notary is mandatory and when written form is enough

Article 799 makes no exception for the term, the value of the car or the person who drives it. It is enough that one party is an individual, and notarial certification becomes mandatory. This is exactly the provision people fail to read to the end: the first paragraph deals with written form, the second with notarial certification, and the second one gets skipped.

The most common mistake is to assume that a sole trader and a company may agree "between their own" without a notary. A sole trader does not become a legal entity: registration only grants the right to carry on business (Art. 50 CC), while in a contract the person remains a private individual. A car leased from a sole trader, or by a sole trader from a company, therefore needs the same notarial certification as a lease from an ordinary citizen.

Where both parties are companies, the law does not require a notary: a written contract signed by authorised persons is sufficient. Certification still makes sense for a large deal or where the signatory's authority is in doubt, because the notary checks identity, capacity and the scope of authority, and the contract gains evidential weight. At the request of either party the notary will certify such a transaction as well (Art. 54 of the Law on Notaries).

What happens if the contract is signed without a notary

The consequence is stated directly: if the parties fail to comply with the statutory requirement of notarial certification, the contract is void (Art. 220(1) CC). Void is not "weak" or "disputed": it does not create the rights it was signed for. The lessee obtains no protectable right to use the car, and the lessor cannot recover rent by referring to the contract. The parties end up in a situation where the car has already been handed over and money has already been paid, but there is no legal basis for either.

A second route exists, but it is narrow. If the parties agreed on all essential terms, confirmed by written evidence, the contract was performed in full or in part, and one party evaded notarial certification, a court may declare the contract valid (Art. 220(2) CC). Subsequent certification is then not required. But this is a separate claim, the burden of proof lies with the claimant, and "the court may" does not mean "the court must".

In practice the worst scenario looks like this: the car went to "our people", payments were made in cash for several months without receipts, then the lessee stopped paying or damaged the vehicle. Without a notarized contract there is neither an agreed rent that is easy to prove nor clear rules on repairs and return. What remains is a claim for unjustified enrichment — a different and much weaker instrument. That is why notarial form is not bureaucracy: it fixes the terms in advance in exactly the place where a dispute will later arise.

Lease term and rent: what the contract should say

The term of a lease is set by agreement of the parties (Art. 763 CC). If no term is stated, the contract is deemed concluded for an indefinite period, and either party may withdraw at any time by giving the other one month's written notice (three months for immovable property). That is inconvenient for business: the lessee invests in the car, while the owner may exit within a month. The contract should therefore state a fixed term, a renewal procedure and the grounds for early termination.

The amount of rent is set by the contract (Art. 762 CC). If the amount is not determined, it is assessed with regard to the consumer qualities of the property and other materially relevant circumstances — which almost guarantees a dispute. Rent may be paid in money or in kind, may provide for periodic review and indexation, and is payable monthly by default unless the contract says otherwise.

It is also worth remembering Article 762(6): the lessee is released from rent for the whole time during which the property could not be used for reasons not attributable to the lessee. If the car stood in a workshop for a month after an accident that was not the lessee's fault, the lessee does not have to pay for that month. The contract should spell this out: who records such a period, whether rent is partly retained, how days are counted.

What the payment section should fix: amount and currency, payment date, method, indexation, liability for delay, the amount and share of the deposit (security payment), and the conditions for returning it after inspecting the car. These terms are not mandatory rules of law — they have to be written, otherwise the general default applies, and it will not fit your situation.

Who pays for repairs, insurance and fuel

The law allocates costs fairly clearly. The lessee must keep the vehicle in proper technical condition, and the lessee bears the costs connected with using the car, including taxes and other payments (Art. 801 CC). This refers to operating costs — fuel, washing, parking, routine repairs — not to tax on the lessor's income: those are different things, and they should not be mixed in the contract.

Insurance of the vehicle is arranged by the lessor (Art. 802 CC), while the procedure for insuring the lessee's liability for harm to third parties is set by law. In practice this means checking, before signing, that the compulsory motor third-party liability policy is valid and that the lessee is permitted to drive. If the policy names only the owner while someone else drives every day, the first serious incident becomes a dispute over who compensates the harm.

The lessee is liable for loss or damage to the car unless it proves the damage was not its fault (Art. 803 CC). Harm caused to a third party while the vehicle is in use is compensated by the lessee under Chapter 82 of the Civil Code (Art. 804). A handover act with photographs, odometer readings and a list of scratches is therefore not a formality: without it, proving that damage predated the handover is practically impossible.

Lease with a crew and without: what the difference is

Hire with a crew means that driving and technical operation are performed by the lessor's crew. The crew does not terminate its employment relationship with the lessor, and the lessor bears the cost of maintaining it (Art. 805 CC). The crew must refuse to carry out the lessee's instructions if they contradict the contract or may endanger people, the vehicle or the rights of others.

For business the difference is fundamental. Without a crew the lessee operates the car independently and may, without the lessor's consent, conclude carriage contracts and other contracts in its own name according to the vehicle's purpose (Art. 800 CC) — but it also bears the consequences. With a crew, the owner's employee stays behind the wheel: this is closer to a driving service than to a classic lease, and the tax, employment and insurance sides look different. The notarial form is the same in both cases where a party is an individual.

Sublease and handing the car to a third party

Transferring a leased car into the possession and use of another person (sublease) is possible only with the lessor's consent, unless the contract or the law provides otherwise (Art. 774 CC). The sublease term may not exceed the term of the main lease, and the rules on hire apply to the sublease itself.

The Procedure for Notarial Acts adds a procedural detail: a sublease contract is certified by a notary only where the lessor's consent to sublease exists (clause 3.8, chapter 5, section II). So if you, as the owner, do not want the car to travel to a third party, prohibit it expressly in the contract: there will then be no consent "by default", and a breach becomes grounds for termination.

Documents to bring to the notary

The notary establishes the identity of each participant from a passport or another document provided by law (Art. 43 of the Law on Notaries), determines the scope of civil capacity and checks that the content of the transaction matches the parties' actual intentions (Arts. 44 and 54 of the Law). All participants must therefore appear in person or act through a representative with properly documented authority.

• passport or ID card and tax number certificate — for individuals;
• for a company — documents confirming the signatory's authority and company details;
• vehicle registration document: registration certificate or technical passport;
• a document confirming acquisition of ownership where the registration certificate is not proof of ownership (clause 3.7, chapter 5, section II of the Procedure);
• the draft contract in three copies — or agreement that the notary will draft it;
• a vehicle handover act describing condition, mileage and equipment.

A separate word on ownership. The registration certificate confirms that the car is registered to a particular person, but does not always prove ownership itself — for example where the car has just been imported or is held by a company under a contract. In that case the notary requires a document of acquisition: a sale and purchase agreement, customs documents and so on. If you are buying a car that you later plan to lease out, read vehicle sale and purchase agreement in advance.

How certification works in Kyiv: step by step

The main convenience for Kyiv business: vehicle lease or loan contracts are certified by notaries regardless of the place of registration of the vehicle (clause 3.2, chapter 5, section II of the Procedure). A company in Pechersk can therefore lease a car registered in Lviv or Dnipro and have the contract certified in Kyiv without travelling to the place where the car is registered.

• The parties agree the subject, term, rent, allocation of costs and the return procedure.
• They prepare the draft contract and the handover act, and check the vehicle documents.
• They attend the notary in person (or through a representative) with passports and vehicle documents.
• The notary establishes identities, checks capacity and authority, explains the consequences and certifies the contract.
• The parties receive copies bearing the certification inscription; one copy stays in the notary's files.

A technical detail many people do not know: a written transaction that is certified notarially is produced in at least two copies, one of which remains in the notarial file. All copies are signed by the participants, have the force of an original and bear the certification inscription (clauses 2.1–2.3, chapter 1, section II of the Procedure). If there are three parties or an extra copy is needed for a bank or accounting department, say so in advance.

Certifying a car lease is a standard notarial act; in Kyiv you can book it through the service page vehicle lease agreement. If you need a lease of other property — from an apartment to equipment — see lease agreement.

How much notarial certification costs

There is no single tariff. Private notaries charge a fee for notarial acts, the amount of which is determined by agreement between the notary and the person applying for the act (Art. 31(1) of the Law on Notaries). Payment for additional legal services that are not part of the notarial act itself is also made by agreement of the parties.

That is why no official source contains a rate "for certifying a car lease". The amount depends on the number of parties and copies, whether the notary has to draft the contract, the volume of advice and the complexity of the terms. The notary must issue the parties a written statement of the fee for the notarial act, signed and sealed (clause 1.17, chapter 2, section II of the Procedure). Asking for that statement is normal practice rather than distrust: a company also needs it for its accounting records.

Taxes on the rent: who pays what

Rent that an individual receives for property let out is included in the person's general taxable income (Art. 164.2.5 of the Tax Code). The personal income tax rate is 18 per cent of the tax base (Art. 167.1), and the military levy has been 5 per cent since 1 December 2024 (Art. 16-1.1.3, subparagraph 10 of section XX of the Tax Code as amended by Law No. 4015-IX).

Who withholds these amounts depends on the lessee. If the car is leased by a company or a sole trader, that party is responsible for calculating, withholding and paying the tax on the income it pays out (Art. 171 of the Tax Code), so it withholds personal income tax and the military levy from each rent payment. If the lessee is an individual without business status, the lessor reports the income in the annual property and income declaration and pays the taxes personally.

Do not confuse this with the vehicle tax. Its payers are persons who own registered passenger cars that are the object of taxation (Art. 267.1.1 of the Tax Code), so the owner pays it, not the lessee. A company also needs a notarized contract for its accounting records: without one, the expenses easily become a matter of dispute.

Eight mistakes made in car lease contracts

• Not certifying the contract because "it is family" or "the lease is only for two months". The law makes no exception for term.
• Treating a sole trader as a legal entity and signing without a notary.
• Writing "car lease" without identification: no VIN, plate number, year, colour or value — the subject becomes uncertain.
• Leaving out the term and termination procedure — and ending up with an indefinite contract that can be exited in a month.
• Skipping the handover act — after which the condition of the car at handover cannot be proved.
• Not checking whether the car is pledged or financed.
• Forgetting about taxes and income declaration.
• Confusing lease with a free loan: for a car a loan needs no mandatory notary, while a lease does.

Two mistakes on this list deserve separate attention: buying a car without checking its history, and a contract signed "by eye". On the first, read safe car purchase: what to check; on the second, car sale and purchase agreement in Kyiv.

Need to certify a car lease in Kyiv? Describe your situation and we will tell you which documents to prepare and how to word the terms so that the contract protects both sides.