Terms of hire

Last updated 17 September 2026

These are the terms on which we hire vehicles. Please read them before you book — by confirming a booking you agree to them.

1. Who you are hiring from

Vehicles are hired by Emiton Investments (Private) Limited, a company registered in Zimbabwe (registration number 16829/2022), trading as MasterClass Car Rental, of 1451 Silcox Avenue, Houghton Park, Harare. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean that company, and "you" means the person named on the booking.

2. Who may hire and drive

To collect a vehicle you must produce, in person:

• A valid driver's licence that has not expired on the day of collection. We cannot release a vehicle on an expired licence, without exception.
• Your national ID or passport, in the same name as the booking.

Only the person named on the booking may drive the vehicle. Anyone else must be nominated by you in writing and then approved by us — both, not either. We must see their licence before you collect. Our approval is not automatic, and a driver we have not approved is not insured to be behind the wheel.

You must have held your licence for at least two years. This is a condition of the insurance on the vehicle, not a preference of ours — we cannot waive it, and a driver who does not meet it is not covered at all.

Additional drivers are permitted at no extra charge, on the same terms: two years' licence held, we must see the licence, and they must be recorded on the agreement before you collect. A driver we have not recorded is not covered, and anything that happens while they are driving falls to you.

3. Booking and payment

• A booking made online is held for 30 minutes while you pay. If payment is not completed in that time the booking expires and the vehicle is released to other customers.
• A booking is only confirmed once payment has been received. Until then the vehicle is not reserved for you.
• The hire must be paid in full before the keys are handed over. We do not release a vehicle against a promise to pay later.
• Prices shown when you book are the prices we honour, provided the dates and vehicle do not change.

4. The security deposit

The deposit is held, not earned. It is not part of the hire charge and we do not treat it as income. It is there to cover damage, fines, missing fuel, late return or a vehicle that comes back in a condition it did not leave in.

When you return the vehicle we check it, settle any amounts owing against the deposit, and return the remainder to you. If nothing is owing, the whole deposit is returned.

If the vehicle comes back scratched or damaged, we hold the deposit while we obtain a repair quotation. We are not keeping it — we are waiting to find out what the repair costs, and we cannot tell you the figure before a panel beater gives us one. Once we have the quotation:

• If the repair costs less than the deposit, we deduct it and return the balance.
• If the repair costs more than the deposit, the difference is yours to pay.

The exception is damage another road user is responsible for — most commonly being hit from behind. Where fault clearly lies with another driver and there is a police report or an accident report naming them, we pursue them or their insurer, not you. Report any incident to the police and to us on the day it happens: without a report there is nothing to pursue, and the damage comes back to your deposit by default.

5. How the hire charge is worked out

Charging is based on the odometer and the calendar, not on estimates. We record the odometer reading when the vehicle leaves and again when it returns.

• Days are counted from collection to return and rounded up. A hire is always at least one day. Four days and two hours is billed as five days.
• Rates may be daily, weekly or monthly. Where a longer rate is cheaper for the period you have booked, that is the rate you get.
• Tax is shown separately on your invoice where it applies.

6. Mileage

Some vehicles include a set number of kilometres per day. Where they do, the allowance and the charge per extra kilometre are shown on your booking and on your invoice. Distance is measured from the odometer readings taken at collection and return.

Where a vehicle has no mileage limit, none is applied and no per-kilometre charge arises.

7. Fuel

Return the vehicle with the same amount of fuel it had when you collected it. We record the fuel level at both ends of the hire. If it comes back short, we charge the cost of the missing fuel.

8. Returning late

Return the vehicle at the time agreed. We allow a grace period of 2 hours past the agreed return time.

Past those two hours, you are charged for another whole day — not for the hours you are late. Three hours late and a full day late cost the same, because the vehicle is off the road for the rest of that day either way and the person booked after you has already lost it.

If you know you will be late, telephone us before the return time. We would far rather move the booking than charge you for it.

9. Extending your hire

An extension must be agreed with us at least 24 hours before your current return time, and it is not an extension until we have approved it. Telling us on the day, or simply keeping the vehicle, is a late return and is charged as one.

The reason is not bureaucracy. Vehicles are frequently booked back to back, and with a day's notice we can usually move the next customer or offer them another car. With two hours' notice we cannot, and somebody who has already paid loses their hire.

The quickest way to ask is on the find my booking page: enter your reference, choose a new return date, and you will see both whether the vehicle is free and what the longer hire costs before anything changes. If it is within 24 hours of your return, telephone us on 0774 361 810 — we may still be able to help, but it is a favour rather than a right.

10. How the vehicle may be used

The vehicle is hired to you for your own private use. It may not be used:

• To carry paying passengers of any kind — no taxi work, no ride-hailing, no kushika-shika. This is the most common cause of a hire being ended on the spot.
• To carry goods for reward, or any load the vehicle is not built for.
• To carry anything unlawful, or any passenger or cargo we have not agreed to.
• For driving instruction, motor sport, towing, or off-road use.
• To be sub-let or lent to anybody, for money or otherwise.

These are insurance conditions as much as ours. A vehicle used for reward is not covered, which means that in an accident there is no insurer — only you and us. If we find the vehicle being used this way we will recover it immediately, the hire ends, no refund is due, and the deposit is applied to whatever is owing.

11. Damage, fines and traffic offences

• You are responsible for the vehicle while it is in your possession, including damage, loss and theft.
• Traffic fines and spot fines incurred during your hire are yours, including any that reach us after you have returned the vehicle, and including those recorded by speed cameras and other automated equipment that arrive weeks later.
• If the police require the driver to attend, that is you, and you must go. The vehicle is registered to us, so every notice comes to us first and we are obliged to say who was driving. We will give them your name, and we will tell you the same day. A fine we are forced to settle because you did not attend is recovered from you, along with anything it costs us.
• Damage is assessed on return against the photographs and condition record taken at collection. We take these at both ends of every hire, and they protect you as much as us.
• If the vehicle is not driveable, telephone us before arranging any repair or recovery yourself.

12. Cancellations and refunds

If you cancel, the deposit is not refunded. This applies however much notice you give, and whether you cancel in advance or simply do not arrive. The deposit is what takes the vehicle off the market for your dates, and we cannot re-let those days once they have passed.

The balance of the hire is never charged on a cancelled booking. The deposit is the whole of what you lose.

If we cancel, you are refunded in full. If we cannot supply the vehicle you booked and cannot agree a replacement with you, we return everything you have paid, including the deposit, within three working days.

We also retain the deposit where a booking cannot proceed because the documents we ask for were not provided by the deadline, or because the licence or identity document produced does not meet the requirements in section 2. Those outcomes are within your control, so they are treated as a cancellation by you.

13. When we may refuse or end a hire

We may decline to release a vehicle, or recover one already out, if:

• The licence or identity document produced is expired, missing, or not in the name on the booking.
• The documents supplied are not genuine.
• Payment has not been received in full.
• There is an unpaid balance from an earlier hire.
• The vehicle is being used in a way these terms do not permit.

Where a hire is refused because documents were falsified, no refund is due.

14. Your information

We collect your name, contact details, identity and licence documents, and your hire history, in order to hire you a vehicle and to meet our legal obligations. Documents you upload are stored privately and are visible only to our staff. See our privacy notice for detail.

We message you on WhatsApp about your hire, on the mobile number you give us: to confirm a booking, to remind you shortly before the vehicle is due back, and to tell you if it is late. A few days after a hire we also send one thank-you message saying you are welcome to book with us again — at most once every two months, and never if you ask us not to. If you would rather we telephoned instead, tell us and we will stop.

Adverts and cookies. We advertise on Facebook and Instagram. If you arrive from one of our adverts, the link tells us which one, and we note it against your booking so we know which adverts work. If you accept the cookie notice, a Facebook cookie lets Facebook count that a visit from its advert led to a booking; we also tell Facebook when that booking is paid, with your phone number scrambled (hashed) so it cannot be read. If you choose "No thanks", none of this is shared with Facebook.

15. Contact

MasterClass Car Rental
Room 5, Second Floor, The Law Society House
Cnr Kwame Nkrumah & Julius Nyerere, Harare
0774 361 810
[email protected]