A golf cart rental agreement has five jobs: name every person allowed to drive, confirm each one holds a valid driver's license and meets your age rule, say where the cart may and may not go, set out what happens when it comes back damaged, late, uncharged or towed, and tie all of that to one specific cart by unit number. A golf cart rental contract that skips any of these leaves you arguing about a cart you cannot identify, driven by someone you never met.
This post walks through the clauses operators usually include, then shows how to get the contract signed and stored so the record stands up later. The worked example is Island Carts on Isle of Palms, which rents six street-legal cart types by the day and week, delivers most of them to vacation homes, and hands the keys to renters who have never driven a cart.
Row of street-legal golf carts parked outside a beach town rental office at morning
Keep the wording short enough that a family waiting to get to the beach will read it. This is operator guidance, not legal advice. Rules on low-speed vehicles differ by state, county and island, so have your attorney review the finished document before the first renter signs it.
Named drivers. Every person who will drive is listed by name with a license number. Nobody else drives.
License and age. Each driver holds a valid driver's license and meets your minimum age, say 21 or 25 as an example.
Where the cart may go. Which streets and paths are allowed, which are not (highways, the beach, dunes), and whether the cart may leave the island or resort.
Passengers. No more riders than seats, children in a booster where your local rule requires one, everyone seated while moving.
Damage and the deposit. The amount, that it is held on a card, and what it can be applied to (body damage, lost keys, a missing cover, cleaning).
Return condition, charging and late return. Electric carts come back plugged in or at an agreed charge level, gas carts with the fuel they left with; your extra day charge, and when a late cart is treated as not returned.
Fines, parking and towing. Tickets, parking charges and tow fees during the rental belong to the renter.
Prohibited use. No towing, racing, driving under the influence, modifications, or lending the cart to another household.
Local street-legal rules. Headlights after dark, the posted speed limit, the roads where LSVs are permitted.
The cart itself. Make, model and unit number, the add-ons on the order (a Child Booster Seat or Rolling Cooler, for example) and the delivery address.
Accidents. Who to call, and that any incident is reported the same day.
A contract is only as good as the record behind it. Five habits matter when a dispute lands a month later: capture the license, name every driver, store the signature with a time stamp and the exact text signed, hold the deposit on a card before the cart leaves, and put the unit number on the agreement. Here is how Island Carts does that in Ribbe, the golf cart rental software behind its register and website.
The Waiver Library includes a ready-made golf cart waiver among its 31 activity waivers. Import it into the Template Designer and edit it like any other template, replacing the generic wording with your clauses from the checklist above. The library carries a not-legal-advice notice, so have your attorney review the result before you use it.
Ribbe Waiver Library showing the list of activity waivers with the Golf cart waiver preview open
The Waiver Library with the golf cart waiver preview open.
A rental agreement built in the Template Designer uses text blocks plus order and customer fields that fill in at signing: renter name, address, license number, rental dates, cart make and model, unit number and the deposit. Initials boxes sit beside the clauses you want acknowledged one by one, with a signature block at the end. Nobody types the unit number by hand.
The golf cart rental agreement open in the Template Designer with order and customer fill-in fields
The agreement template with renter, license, cart and deposit fields that fill in at signing.
Each cart type is then linked to the agreement. Island Carts links all six, from the Club Car Onward 4-Passenger (Electric) to the Icon i60L Lifted 6-Passenger LSV, so the register requires a signed agreement before any cart checks out. The signature can be made on the register's pad, on the customer's phone from a QR code or link, on a Topaz pad, or on paper scanned back. The signed copy is stored on the order and the customer record with the signing time, signer name and a document hash, and emailed to the customer. The digital waivers and contracts overview covers the signing options.
The clause that says only licensed drivers may operate the cart is worth little if nobody looks at the license. At the counter, staff scan the driver's license and the system fills in name, address, date of birth and license number, and attaches the license photo to the rental (US and Canadian licenses). The customer record keeps the license on its License tab for the next rental.
Most golf cart bookings have more than one driver. A booking can carry additional contacts, which is where the other named drivers go. Each one signs their own waiver from the same order link, so a spouse arriving on a later flight signs on their own phone.
With age verification switched on in the POS settings, the signer's date of birth is required and a minor's waiver routes to a parent or guardian whose name is recorded. Ribbe records the age and routes the guardian signature; it does not refuse the rental, so your minimum driver age is still a clause staff enforce at hand-over.
Ribbe POS settings page, Checkout Rules section, with Waiver Age Verification switched on
Checkout Rules in the POS settings, with the Verify Age Before Signing option that routes a minor's waiver to a parent or guardian.
The deposit clause and the payment setup should match. Island Carts pre-authorizes the deposit on the renter's card at pickup or delivery, say $500 as an example, and staff capture or release it at return once the cart has been looked over. A pre-authorization holds the money without taking it, which is easier to explain than a refund.
A damage waiver product can be sold alongside: a fixed amount per rental, an amount per day with a cap on the days charged, or a percent of the rental price. Which cart types it applies to is ticked on the waiver product's Applies To tab, so it appears on the lifted LSVs and the six-seaters but not on a Golf Cart Cover or a Beach Chair & Umbrella Set.
The damage waiver product's Applies To tab in Ribbe with the six golf cart types ticked
The damage waiver's Applies To tab, with the cart types ticked and the add-ons unticked.
The rate plan carries daily and weekly tiers, with an Extra Day overtime tier that applies on its own when a cart is kept past the return date. As example prices only, the Club Car Onward 4-Passenger (Electric) might list at $95 a day and $450 a week, and the Evolution D5 Maverick 4 Lifted LSV at $140 a day. Business Rules add the policy layer without a developer: a higher deposit on weekend rentals, minimum days over a holiday weekend, or a surcharge for a different end location, applied online and at the register alike.
Island Carts booking page for the Club Car Onward 4-Passenger with dates and daily and weekly rate tiers
The booking page for the Club Car Onward 4-Passenger (Electric) with dates and the daily and weekly tiers.
Delivery driver unloading a golf cart from a trailer in front of a beach vacation home
The third risk, a cart that is not where it should be, starts with identification. Every cart at Island Carts is a serial-numbered asset with custom fields; the shop tracks mileage and fuel type on the asset record. Check-out and check-in happen by scanning the cart's tag, and a phone camera can act as the scanner on the truck. The rental book shows what is out, what is due back today and what is already late, so a cart due at 10 a.m. is a line on a screen rather than a surprise at 4 p.m.
One golf cart's asset record in Ribbe with serial number, make and model, mileage and fuel fields and status
One cart's asset record: SKU, class, location and status on the General tab, with specifications, rental history and maintenance on the other tabs.
Maintenance plans run on the same asset record, by miles (the odometer typed in at service), days or rentals, with a pass/fail checklist covering tires, brakes, lights and the charger. Island Carts started from the Cars, RVs & vehicles set in the plan library. A cart that fails an inspection can be parked out of service.
Ribbe maintenance plan library filtered to the Cars, RVs and vehicles set of inspection plans
The maintenance plan library filtered to Cars, RVs & vehicles.
Most of Island Carts' rentals are delivered. A Delivery to Rental Home product, say $40 each way as an example, covers the simple case; the delivery module adds runs with a truck, driver and time window, and a driver app. At the door the driver takes a signed Delivery Note, and the agreement itself can be signed on the driver's phone at hand-over. A payment link sent ahead by email or SMS lets the renter pay the balance and sign before the truck leaves. The post on rental delivery software for vacation rentals covers the delivery setup end to end.
If you are comparing systems before the season, best golf cart rental software lists the features that matter for carts, and the golf cart rentals page shows how other operators run Ribbe. There is no upfront software cost and online booking fees are paid by your customers; for anything specific to your fleet, talk to us.
Yes. When the cart type is linked to the agreement, the register requires the signed agreement before check-out, whether it was signed at the counter, on the renter's phone or at the door.
Yes. Add the second driver as an additional contact on the booking and they sign their own waiver from the same order link, on their own phone if they like. Each signature is stored with its own time, signer name and hash.
Your agreement can require a valid license for every named driver, and the counter scan fills in the details and keeps the photo on the License tab. Ribbe does not check a license against a DMV or any other registry, so a visual check by staff is still part of the hand-over.
Three ways, which can be combined: staff capture some or all of the pre-authorized deposit, a damage waiver the renter bought covers the loss, or the renter pays the difference on a payment link. Damage is not billed automatically from photos; a person decides the amount.
The Waiver Library includes a golf cart waiver you can import into the Template Designer and build into a full rental agreement with fill-in fields and initials boxes. It carries a not-legal-advice notice; have your attorney review the finished document for your state and town.
Put your golf cart rental agreement on the register Start a free trial, import the golf cart waiver, build your agreement in the Template Designer and link it to your cart types before the season opens. No upfront software cost; online booking fees are paid by your customers. Start a free trial