Car Lease

mandyminx

Hi,
My brother in law recently passed away unexpectedly, he had a car on lease they are now telling us we will have to pay £6000 to return the car, or get someone take it over or pay £16,000 to keep it. I find this unbelievable and disgusting. Anybody have any advice please. :mad:

SeniorSam

Your BIL should have appointed an executor, who's job it is to check this out as well as any other debts in dealing with the estate.

Sam

Yorkshireman99

mandyminx wrote: »

Hi,
My brother in law recently passed away unexpectedly, he had a car on lease they are now telling us we will have to pay £6000 to return the car, or get someone take it over or pay £16,000 to keep it. I find this unbelievable and disgusting. Anybody have any advice please. :mad:

They are trying it on. The debt is owed by the estate and nobody else is liable. Did he leave a will?

Keep_pedalling

The car will certainly have to be returned, but the only way they will get the £6000 back is if his estate has that amount in it after funeral costs and any secured debts have been paid. Debts are not passed on to the family.

mandyminx

Thank you for your replies I just wanted to know if the rest of lease has to be paid as will be paying it out of the estate however I think it is wrong to charge the rest of the lease as it is getting paid and you are returning the car.

Blackpool_Saver

Get a solicitor

Keep_pedalling

mandyminx wrote: »

Thank you for your replies I just wanted to know if the rest of lease has to be paid as will be paying it out of the estate however I think it is wrong to charge the rest of the lease as it is getting paid and you are returning the car.

Car leasing is not like car hire, in reality it is a fianance package. The finance company pay the dealer, you drive the car away and at the end of the lease you either pay the finance company a lump sum and the car is yours or you just hand it back.

In this case the lease has some way to run, and the car has depreciated in value so in effect it is in negative equity. From the numbers quoted they are saying the car is worth £10k but there is still £16k of outstanding finance on it.

Providing the estate has sufficient assets then you have to go with one of the 2 choices you are given, but if the estate is insolvent then they are going to have to whistle for their losses.

Assuming the estate is solvent then buying the car may be the better option if you can sell it for more than £10k on the open market.

Keep_pedalling

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Get a solicitor

Not really nessasary and it will just add more expense.

Yorkshireman99

mandyminx wrote: »

Thank you for your replies I just wanted to know if the rest of lease has to be paid as will be paying it out of the estate however I think it is wrong to charge the rest of the lease as it is getting paid and you are returning the car.

I think you misunderstand how leases work. The financial obligation extends over the whole period of the lease and your BIL will have agreed to the terms. There is nothing underhand, or unreasonable about what the leasing company have said. The £6000 to terminate the lease is a normal way to deal with the circumstances. That represents a debt owed by the estate and if there is enough money in the estate to pay it then that will have to be done. If there is not enough money after paying the funeral costs then the estate is insolvent. If so then you should not do anything with the estate and let any creditors sort it out themselves. In no case is anybody else liable to pay anything so do not let them bully you.

w211

If you have to pay £6,000 to terminate the lease, and that's near enough the rest of the payments added up for the remainder of the lease, may as well get someone else to take over the lease, and use the car?