Can I hand a lease car back?

mettlemickey

Hi,

If i lease a car (privately) and my circumstances change, can i hand the car back before the end of the lease without having to pay the remaining lease period?

I guess not, but if someone could confirm that would be great.

Or even greater if can confirm that i could!

Thanks

motorguy

mettlemickey wrote: »

Hi,

If i lease a car (privately) and my circumstances change, can i hand the car back before the end of the lease without having to pay the remaining lease period?

I guess not, but if someone could confirm that would be great.

Or even greater if can confirm that i could!

Thanks

No. There will be charges to pay - most likely roughly equal to the remaining payments

InsideInsurance

mettlemickey wrote: »

If i lease a car (privately) and my circumstances change

What do you mean privately? Do you mean its a personal lease rather than a business one? Do you mean you are leasing it off a friend rather than a leasing company?

The terms of the lease are governed by the contract you sign. Typically an early surrender will result in significant additional charges being applied.

A lease is typically based on a combination of the anticipated depreciation over the length of the lease, the interest on the capital invested in the vehicle and a profit margin. Depreciation however isnt a straight line but a curve as a new car depreciates quicker than an old car and so if you stop the contract at the half way point more than half the anticipated depreciation will have occurred and so an adjustment has to be made

macman

If you could, do you not think that everyone who wants to break their contract would plead 'change of circumstances'?
Your leasing contract will tell you exactly what the terms are for early surrender.

mettlemickey

Thanks for the feedback everyone, as i suspected.

totallyrandom

Check out section 101 of the Consumer Credit Act.


http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/101


Paragraph 3 may apply. Means you can return the goods with no further liability after 18 months on to the hire. But I think it relates to HP only but does apply to rentals also (the firm I work for rents things for 18 month contracts to avoid returns at this point without paying extra.