Lease car charges on return

KendalBoardGamer · 9 January at 6:24PM

Hi all,

I recently left my job where I had a lease car through my employer.

I am having to paying an early termination fee for exiting the lease 18 months into a 3 year contract, the fee is just over £3000 (frustrating but expected).

I also have to pay the lease charges from my last payment through to the date the car was returned (also as expected).

However, I've also been told that I need to pay ~£700 lease charges for the first month's rental 18 months ago, which I can now see from looking at my payslips was never charged to my salary. The car was provided on the 6th of the month and my salary is paid on the last day of the month, so there was more than enough time to charge the rental for that month to my salary.

It seems unreasonable to me for the lease company to present a bill 18 months after the fact, without any warning or notification that they would do this. I suspect I'm just going to have to pay this on top of all the other charges and fees, but I thought I'd sound out you lovely folks first.

Do the legal principles of laches and/or estoppel apply here, as I was not aware of or expecting these charges?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew.

Car_54 · 9 January at 6:30PM

This isn't really a motoring issue. Probably better on the employment section.

Hoenir · 9 January at 6:34PM

Your employer would have paid the bill on your behalf. You'll be reimbursing them not the leasing company.

KendalBoardGamer · 9 January at 6:42PM

@Car_54 - you could be right, I hadn't considered that. I assumed it was a lease vehicle contract issue rather than an employment issue, but you might be right!

@Hoenir - the HR person I have been discussing this with said that the payment would go to <employer> so that they could pay <the lease car company>. But perhaps that is incorrect information from them?

It does seem to be heading into an employment issue rather than a motoring issue, apologies for wasting everybody's time, I'll repost there.

Many thanks for your responses,
Andrew.

Hoenir · 9 January at 6:53PM

KendalBoardGamer said:

@Hoenir - the HR person I have been discussing this with said that the payment would go to <employer> so that they could pay <the lease car company>. But perhaps that is incorrect information from them?

HR are rarely finance experts

KendalBoardGamer · 9 January at 6:54PM

Hoenir said:

KendalBoardGamer said:

@Hoenir - the HR person I have been discussing this with said that the payment would go to <employer> so that they could pay <the lease car company>. But perhaps that is incorrect information from them?

HR are rarely finance experts

I know how they feel :-)