Car lease return

Kerry_o

Hi can anybody advise me, my brother separated from his wife in January , prior to this he took a car lease out For her in his name and the car is due to be returned in Friday or he will be charged 5k and thereafter £200 a year. His ex is playing dirty and is refusing to return the car saying she needs it. She is likely to continue with this as she has left a serious amount of debt behind her and hasn’t looked back, she’s even taken cards out in his name without him knowing . Where does my brother stand when he tells the car company that she’s refusing to return the car? Will they have a spare key for the car? What should he do, report the car as stolen? Any factual advice is much appreciated, thank you

foxy-stoat

Who is the legal owner ? If its your brother, does he have a spare key?

The financial company will eventually repossess the car but in the mean time it will end up costing your Brother a lot more money. He is better off taking it back himself, if he is the owner and has the paperwork then he could ask the police to attend when he does take his car back...while he is at it he can start proceedings of fraud for the cards she took out in his name as well.

Good lucks, he will need all of it.

Willing2Learn

I would definitely report the car as stolen to the police. Get a crime reference number and you can pass that on to the leasing company

As far as the card fraud goes, I would report that to ActionFraud (another part of the police) and get crime reference numbers for the offences. I would also submit a protective marker with CIFAS, so that potential creditors have to run extra checks on future credit applications.

Finally, I would check the data in my credit files, to get the fraudulent activity corrected. The data would need to be checked against all three CRAs.

Herzlos

If he can't get the car back (hopefully he has the other key), then it may be a lot cheaper to buy the car outright from the lease company whilst things get sorted out. Then report it stolen and attempt to get it legally recovered. Then he can keep or sell the car and hopefully clear what he had to borrow to buy the car.


It should be easy to prove that it's his, if it's registered in his name with the finance in his name.

PRAISETHESUN

It sounds like the ex might just be pushing him around to see what she can get away with. I wouldn't recommend him bailing his ex out by purchasing the car from the finance company, as this will likely encourage her.

Report the car stolen, and provide the finance company with the police reference. As the car was leased in his name he is the responsible person for the vehicle and has the legal responsibility to return it. If he knows where it is, I'm sure he could ask for assistance from the police in reclaiming it, as it is legally his property.

As for the card fraud, he also needs to report this to the police - through Action Fraud. I'd recommend getting protective registration for his credit files (CIFAS) to make sure credit cannot be taken out in his name without him knowing. It might take some time, but eventually all the fraudulent accounts will be closed, and he will not be liable for any debt. Make sure to close any joint accounts that are in his and her names - all the debt she is carrying around will start to drag him through the mud as they are financially linked while any joint accounts are open.