Van Finance for Landscapers

Van finance for landscapers is commercial vehicle funding arranged for landscaping, gardening and grounds maintenance businesses. What sets it apart from most trades is that the vehicle is rarely the whole purchase. Trailers, ride-on mowers, mini diggers and chippers can be funded alongside the vehicle on a single agreement, which usually costs less than arranging each one separately.

Landscaping is one of the few trades where the van is only part of what you need to buy. A tipper on its own does not cut grass, lift turf or dig foundations. It tows the trailer that carries the machine that does the work.

That changes how the finance is best arranged, and it is where most landscaping businesses are paying more than they need to.

Looking for a different trade? See our van finance by trade guides.

Put the machinery on the same agreement

Most landscapers arrange the van through one provider and then sort out the mower, the digger or the trailer separately, often months apart and often on whatever finance the equipment dealer offers on the day.

There is a better way to do it. We can fund the vehicle and the equipment together on a single agreement.

The advantages are practical rather than theoretical. Documentation and admin fees are charged per agreement, so putting everything on one document means paying them once instead of three or four times. A larger single facility will often attract a better rate than several small ones, because the lender is writing one worthwhile piece of business rather than a handful of minor ones. And you end up with one monthly payment and one agreement to keep track of, rather than a diary full of different direct debits on different dates.

It also means everything can arrive together. If the plan is a tipper, a trailer and a ride-on before the season starts, arranging it as one piece of business is considerably simpler than three applications at three different points in the year.

Tell us the whole list when you enquire, including anything you are thinking about rather than only what you have decided on. It is much easier to structure it properly at the outset than to add to it later.

Towing, tippers and what the vehicle has to do

Towing capacity matters more in this trade than in almost any other. If the vehicle has to pull a plant trailer with a machine on it, the towing limit is a harder constraint than load volume or even payload.

Worth checking before you commit to a vehicle: the towing capacity of the exact specification you are buying rather than the model in general, because it varies by engine, gearbox and drivetrain within the same range. A pickup will usually pull more than a comparable van, which is one reason they are common in landscaping.

On licences, the rules changed in December 2021, and drivers with a standard car licence can now tow trailers up to 3,500kg without taking the additional test that used to be required. It has no bearing on the finance, but it is worth knowing when you are working out what the business can legally run.

The tipper is the standard landscaping vehicle, and we have a dedicated tipper van finance page covering the vehicles themselves in more detail.

The winter months

Landscaping has a genuine off season in a way that most trades do not. The work thins out from November, picks up again in spring, and the bank statements show it plainly.

Lenders who work with seasonal businesses read that correctly. Lenders who do not can look at the same statements and see a business going quiet for a quarter of the year. It is the same business either way, so mention the seasonality when you enquire and we will approach the right lenders first rather than have it queried mid-application.

The timing question is worth thinking about too. Equipment bought in late winter is ready for the spring, which is when it starts earning. Arranging the finance in January or February for a March delivery is a far more comfortable position than trying to sort it out in April with the diary already full.

What landscaping businesses finance with us

New or used, individually or all on one agreement.

What we can arrange that a dealer cannot

Dealer finance is convenient and sometimes the rate is genuinely competitive. What it rarely includes is any of the following.

Vehicle and equipment on one agreement

A van dealer finances vans. A machinery dealer finances machinery. Neither will put the tipper, the trailer and the mower on one document, which is usually the cheaper way to do it.

VAT deferral

On qualifying agreements the lender pays the supplier the full price including the VAT, then collects the VAT element from your business as a single payment after an agreed period, usually around three months. That gives you time to reclaim it from HMRC first, and there is no charge for the facility.

Little or no deposit

Dealers commonly ask for 10 to 20 per cent down. For a VAT-registered limited company with a reasonable credit profile buying at sensible prices, no deposit at all is a normal outcome with us.

A credit facility for the rest of the season

A dealer can sell you finance on the machine in front of you. They cannot agree a limit now for the equipment you will want when the spring work lands. Alongside what you are buying today we can often put a limit in place, sometimes £50,000 or £100,000 depending on the business.

Specialist business finance advice

A dealer's finance desk sells a finance product. Buying through the business changes the position considerably: a VAT-registered business reclaims the VAT, and under hire purchase the assets are treated as plant and machinery, so the cost can be written off against taxable profits through capital allowances with the interest element deductible separately. We are a broker rather than accountants, so your accountant has the final word, but we will structure the agreement to suit how the business is set up.

Newly set up businesses

New limited companies and businesses under two years old can apply. Landscaping is a common trade to start out in, often by someone who has worked for another firm for years before going out on their own.

Without a trading record, lenders lean on the director's personal credit history, and a deposit is usually required. Where you have sole trader history behind the company, bring those accounts and your background in the trade to the conversation, because it changes how the application reads.

For more on what lenders look for, see our new business van finance page.

Van finance with a difficult credit history

A poor credit history does not prevent a landscaping business from financing a vehicle or equipment. We work with specialist lenders who assess the whole picture rather than an automated score, and strong recent trading often counts for more than something that happened three years ago.

A deposit and well chosen assets both widen the options. See our bad credit van finance page for more detail.

Who can apply

Limited companies can borrow from £10,000. Sole traders can borrow from £25,000, on unregulated credit agreements, because the lenders we work with offer commercial finance only. Where the vehicle and the machinery go on one agreement, the combined total is what counts, which can bring a sole trader above that threshold when the van alone would not.

Established firms, newly formed companies and gardeners setting up on their own are all welcome to apply.