Chair Rental Agreement – Independent (Company) Hairdresser (Own Clients)

What is a chair rental agreement – independent (company) hairdresser (own-clients) and when should you use it?

In many businesses, particularly those associated with hair and beauty, chair rental agreements are popular.

Under such arrangements, the hairdresser or therapist is independent (i.e. not an employee of the salon) and pays a fee to a salon in order to use their premises and equipment.

This Independent Company Hairdresser’s Contract (Own Clients) is designed for use where an independent hairdresser operates through a company structure and the company enters into an agreement with the salon to use the equipment and premises of a salon.

Under the terms of this agreement, the company makes fee payments to the salon in return for being permitted to use a salon chair and other equipment.

This template provides alternative means of charging these fees: payment can be in the form of a standard fee or a percentage of the company’s takings or a combination of both of these elements.

This template contract only allows the company to provide services to their own clients.

The client pays money directly to the company for their services.

If you wish to provide, in addition to the independent company hairdresser serving their own clients, that the hairdresser can additionally serve salon clients where the salon refers them to the hairdresser and pays the hairdresser a percentage of the amount received by the salon from its client please see the Independent(Company) Hairdresser’s Contract (Own and Salon’s Clients) template

This Agreement is written in such a way that there is a clear distinction between the independent company hairdresser’s clients and the salon’s clients.

In addition, the company is prevented from soliciting the salon’s clients.

The template favours the salon in that it does not also include any prohibition on the salon from soliciting the company’s hairdresser clients.

This template aims to minimise any risk that the hairdresser carrying ouwork through their own company might be deemed to be a de-facto employee of the salon rather than a self-employed contractor.

However, whether they are treated as self-employed by Revenue, the WRC,  or any other body, will depend not only on what is contained in this contract but also on all other circumstances.

Those circumstances will include the way in which the contract is implemented and all arrangements between the company, the salon and the hairdresser.

Nevertheless, a carefully worded agreement ensuring the independence of the hairdresser is a key starting point.

Unlike an employee, the company hairdresser is an independent contractor (rather than as an employee of the salon), has their own clients, is free to engage a suitably qualified person to do some or all of the work, and is free to determine when and how that work is carried out and completed.

This agreement is suitable to use only where the hairdresser operates through a company.

Where the hairdresser instead operates as a sole trader you should use our self-employed hairdresser’s contract (own clients) template