We rented a popcorn maker, a cotton candy machine and a snow cone maker for my daughter’s birthday. The contract I signed upon delivery included a provision that if the brand-new machines were not returned, I would be liable for the cost of purchasing new ones. After the party, I put the machines in my van overnight and forgot to lock the doors.  When I came outside in the morning, all three machines were gone.

I immediately contacted the rental store. They told me that I am responsible to pay for the machines - which I expected, since they were stolen due to my negligence - but then they told me that I also have to pay the rental fee. This surprised me, because I’m paying to replace the stolen machines anyway.

Q: Am I obligated to pay the rental fee in addition to the cost of replacing the machines?

A: It is important to note that one pays a rental fee only for objects that he does not own. One does not rent an object that he owns. In other words, ownership and being a socher (renter) are mutually exclusive relationships. Accordingly, Nesivos HaMishpat (309:1) writes that the question of whether a socher must pay the rental fee in addition to paying for the object relates to the grade of liability to which he agreed.

If the agreement stipulates that the socher accepts liability to repay the value of the object from the time of rental on, it emerges that the object was retroactively sold to the socher. The amount payable might be the appraised value of the object at the time of the rental or an agreed set amount. In this case, if the object is not returned, it is considered retroactively sold to the socher; he does not have to pay the rental fee for an object that he owns. In fact, depending on the responsibilities agreed upon, any payment of rent may be considered interest – ribbis (see Y.D. 176:4).

However, if the rental agreement does not state how much the socher will be liable to pay if the object breaks or is stolen, he must only pay its value of that moment. In such a case, it is clear that the sale of the object occurs only at that time that it cannot be returned. Before that, the object is not owned by the renter, and he must pay the rental fee for the time that the object was intact.

According to these guidelines, since you already agreed at the time of rental to pay the full value of new machines if they could not be returned, you retroactively purchased those machines from the time you rented them. Since it turns out that they were your machines, you are not obligated to pay the rental cost as well (see also Nachlas Zvi C.M. 309).