NHS Fleet Solutions ending lease early.

Steve1011

Hi, I need to know where I stand on ending our 3 year lease early with NHS Fleet Solutions.

The situation is as follows, my partner works for the NHS and a University (0.5 FTE for each). This is fairly normal in her field.

She has accepted a job offer at a different university which will be a considerably longer commute. This would mean massively exceeding the agreed mileage on the lease. The lease no longer makes sense for us and we'd like to exit and buy a car outright that we can put the miles on without worrying.

We will enter the third and final year of the lease just before she starts this new job.

I am aware from the contract that exiting the lease early (and after 2 years) means a £650 early termination fee. 

However my question is, do they have to allow us out of the lease? NHS Fleet Solutions suggested it's at the NHS Employers discretion and they may not consider this "a major lifestyle change in your personal circumstances" which is given as a valid reason to exit the lease in the contract.

Additionally I should mention that due to this new position the NHS have agreed to move my partners working days around to accommodate.

Does anyone have any advice please?

silvercar

I’d ask to increase the mileage allowed on the lease as the first and easy step.

retiredbanker1

How many extra miles will she be putting on the clock - how many of these at x pence per mile will be the lesser - this or £650 early termination fee?

Steve1011

retiredbanker1 said:

How many extra miles will she be putting on the clock - how many of these at x pence per mile will be the lesser - this or £650 early termination fee?

The £650 is contracted as an early termination fee during the final year of the lease.

We are currently just shy of 30,000 miles and the lease was for 36,000 over 3 years. We are likely to be 6000 miles over the agreed amount when we hand the car back in May (if we can). That's at 12p per miles so £720 in addition.

When she starts her new job she is likely to be doing an additional 5000-7000 miles a year compared to the 15000 we have been doing.

The cost benefit of keeping this car with increased mileage Vs buying a used car with a similar amount of miles on seems to firmly favour buying a used one, especially as we have the majority of the cash saved for a car around £25k.

Steve1011

silvercar said:

I’d ask to increase the mileage allowed on the lease as the first and easy step.

Even at the current lease price without enough miles, buying a good used car seems to make more sense when we run the sums. If we increase the mileage it won't even be close.