With a lease-purchase Agreement, a non-appropriation clause enables the lessee to account for the lease obligation as a current expense instead of debt and to terminate the lease agreement at the end of the current appropriation period without further obligation or penalty. This may be done only in cases where the lessee was unable to obtain funding for future payment obligations on the lease. Typically, the clause will contain a ‘best efforts’ requirement whereby the lessee must use its best efforts to obtain the necessary appropriation for the lease payments.
