As in 2022, in early 2025, leasing companies will increase payments due to the rise in the key interest rate. In order to maintain the economic balance, the lessee may prematurely buy out the leased asset or proportionally increase the prices for the goods and services to their contractors. If these options are not suitable, then a court procedure will be in prospect, in which it is important to choose the subject and grounds of the dispute correctly. The court proceedings are complicated financially by the fact that lease payments are payable in the increased amount until it is established otherwise by the court.

In practice, there is such a category of claims as contesting the very fact of a unilateral increase of lease payments. The risk of judicial rejection in this case is high, as the lessor's right to increase payments is often stipulated, if not in the lease agreement itself, then in the so-called General Terms and Conditions. At the same time, the lessee is entitled to request a calculation of the claimed increase and to verify it economically and legally. If an error in calculations based on the adopted formula is unlikely from an economic point of view, then a competent legal analysis may reveal the lessor's bad faith. A causal relationship between the increase of the key rate and the possibility of execution of a specific lease agreement must be clearly traceable, otherwise the lessor may be recognized to have acted in bad faith.

It is the lessor who is obliged to prove that it acted in good faith when increasing payments, within the framework granted to it by the law, and otherwise, all increased lease payments made may be set off by the court against future payment periods.

On average, payments will increase by 7-9% from 2025, which will significantly affect the company's economy. Taking into account other financial risks, a reasonable course of action for a manager would be to request a calculation and conduct an analysis of the lessor's good faith in order to further defend the agreed lease rate.