Looking to help a friend out of a car lease

pb4uski

pb4uski

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
36,430
Location
Sarasota, FL & Vermont
A friend of mine died unexpectedly a week ago. A week or so prior to that, he and his wife leased a new SUV... very nice... but with a $583/month lease payment for 36 months.

His widow has no need for such a high end vehicle and her income will be 1/3 less and the $583 monthly lease payment it is putting pressure on her budget so she is looking to get out of the lease. Unfortunately, she was a co-lessor... if she had not been then she could just return it to the leasing company.

Any ideas on how she might get out of the lease? She might even be agreeable to leasing a smaller SUV for a lower cost. The subject vehicle only has 500 miles on it.

I'm aware that there are third-party companies that broker someone else assuming the lease so that is the prime possibility at this time.
 
Condolences on the loss of your friend.

I've never leased a vehicle. Considering that his death occurred so soon after signing the lease, would the dealership let her off the hook out of compassion? She could explain the circumstances much as you have here, emphasizing the sudden loss of 1/3 of income. If I were in that situation, I'd try that angle first.
 
The 3rd party option should be considered after looking into the possibility of getting it cancelled outright...


One of my DWs friends was looking into it and I helped her look at some.. it is a true find the going rate option as some leases were not that great and the 'seller' had to put up money for someone else to take it... some were really good as they had not used that many miles and the new person was able to drive many more miles per month than if they had a full lease..
 
I'm not clear if the wife has her own vehicle, perhaps she could that and use the money to pay for the SUV..if that's leased too it won't work.

I'm sorry you lost your friend.
 
Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.


ETA: With only 500 miles on the vehicle, she might be able to get the dealership to take it back with a payment of a couple thousand dollars. This option could also be combined/or not with the lease on a smaller SUV. Might be worth a try.
 
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When my friend was dying he wrote a letter to the dealer explaining that he was dying and couldn’t drive and his wife no longer drove. We dropped off the car with the note and keys. They accepted it and told us to call the main company that would make the decision. I did and explained the situation. Also they had no assets to put a lean on. They accepted it.
 
ivinsfan said:
I'm not clear if the wife has her own vehicle, perhaps she could that and use the money to pay for the SUV..if that's leased too it won't work.

I'm sorry you lost your friend.
Click to expand...

They do have a pickup truck that she will sell... its a little older. She can probably afford this car for the lease term but it is much more car and cost that what she needs so she's just trying to figure out the least expensive way out of the lease.
 
flintnational said:
Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.


ETA: With only 500 miles on the vehicle, she might be able to get the dealership to take it back with a payment of a couple thousand dollars. This option could also be combined/or not with the lease on a smaller SUV. Might be worth a try.
Click to expand...

Teacher Terry said:
When my friend was dying he wrote a letter to the dealer explaining that he was dying and couldn’t drive and his wife no longer drove. We dropped off the car with the note and keys. They accepted it and told us to call the main company that would make the decision. I did and explained the situation. Also they had no assets to put a lean on. They accepted it.
Click to expand...

Thanks... the suddeness was a shocker.

We're hoping that since there are so few miles on it that she can swap it out for a smaller SUV with a lower monthly lease cost with minimal economic penalty. Hopefully the dealership has enough pull with the lease company to help her out.
 
pb4uski said:
Thanks... the suddeness was a shocker.

We're hoping that since there are so few miles on it that she can swap it out for a smaller SUV with a lower monthly lease cost with minimal economic penalty. Hopefully the dealership has enough pull with the lease company to help her out.
Click to expand...

That might work but at the end of the lease she won't have anything to drive. I might try and get them to cancel the entire lease if all possible. Then a trusted friend could her find a good used vehicle. In fact if the dealership thought they would get a sale out of transaction that might sweeten the pot. Used car payments plus pickup sale proceeds should be better then another lease.
 
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The dealership has sold the lease to the manufacturer's financing company. If they are a quality dealership, they can payoff the lease and do another lease on a lesser vehicle for the wife.

These are extenuating circumstances. Any dealership should be willing to have two "sales" so quickly.
 
Hopefully, the dealer has some compassion to arrange for the purchase of something more affordable. She should have a friend go with her to help negotiate this and remove the emotional aspect. If all else fails contact a local TV station's consumer watchdog about the heartless car dealer.
 
Also, is this friend in Sarasota or Vermont area? Asking cause if in FL might be able to hook up someone with ya (private party). If in FL area drop me a PM with make, model, terms. If in Vermont, sorry got no connection there.
 
Bamaman said:
The dealership has sold the lease to the manufacturer's financing company. If they are a quality dealership, they can payoff the lease and do another lease on a lesser vehicle for the wife.

These are extenuating circumstances. Any dealership should be willing to have two "sales" so quickly.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "payoff the lease"... like they take the car back and cancel the future lease payments? That would be ideal... along with a deal for a smaller SUV.
 
If they had bought the car rather than leased it, what do you expect would happen? Would you expect the dealership to take it back for $586, if that first payment has even been made? I don't know the answer, but a lease is just another form of purchase, is it not? I wouldn't expect a better outcome just because it is a lease. Best you can hope for is that they would take the trade for a smaller SUV, but I wouldn't expect any kind of deal on that. She can certainly ask.

I would start with the dealer. The third party broker isn't likely to have any soft spot for this, as they wouldn't be painted as being unsympathetic as a dealer might. The car has depreciated a lot more than that first payment as soon as it was driven off the lot. But maybe they did a down payment as well? That would change things, as long as they don't expect that back.
 
Sorry for your loss. Investigate Swapalease. I used them to take over someone's lease and it was a good experience. Hope it works out.
 
Almost all threads contain something useful. If you are a couple it looks it's best to do any leases in one name only. Is there any reason both names need to be on the lease?
 
ivinsfan said:
Almost all threads contain something useful. If you are a couple it looks it's best to do any leases in one name only. Is there any reason both names need to be on the lease?
Click to expand...
Great question. I did a few minutes on google with this. Liability reasons are another reason to just have one name on the lease. If there is a bad accident, no need to drag the other spouse into a suit, though if all other assets are joint I don't know if it matters.

If you go through a divorce, it's easier to split assets and you don't have to re-title.

People think it's easier to transfer an owned car if they are title jointly, but only if it's properly titled with rights of survivorship. Otherwise, the survivor owns half, and the estate owns half, until the estate is settled.

Perhaps it's easier for two to get credit, and a better rate?
 
RunningBum said:
Great question. I did a few minutes on google with this. Liability reasons are another reason to just have one name on the lease. If there is a bad accident, no need to drag the other spouse into a suit, though if all other assets are joint I don't know if it matters.

If you go through a divorce, it's easier to split assets and you don't have to re-title.

People think it's easier to transfer an owned car if they are title jointly, but only if it's properly titled with rights of survivorship. Otherwise, the survivor owns half, and the estate owns half, until the estate is settled.

Perhaps it's easier for two to get credit, and a better rate?
Click to expand...

As with most things, state law varies on these matters. In Ohio, it's actually better to have a car jointly titled because of owner liability laws, which I talked about at length in a different topic. Basically, things do occasionally come up which may require one spouse to have to temporarily drive the other spouse's car. If the non-owner spouse causes an accident, they can be sued as the driver of the car, and the owner spouse can be sued for having given permission for the non-owner spouse to drive the car.

In Ohio, they are both 50% owners of jointly owned assets. In the above scenario, 100% of those non-exempt assets are at risk in a lawsuit (both driver and car owner being sued). One way to avoid this is to jointly title the cars. This removes owner liability, since both people have the right to drive the car without seeking permission from the other. Only the driver's 50% of their jointly-owned non-exempt assets would be at risk, plus any non-exempt assets solely in their name.

In Ohio, a surviving spouse can transfer ownership of a vehicle (titled only in their late spouse's name) to themselves by presenting the appropriate documents at the BMV. Jointly titling a car isn't necessary for this purpose.

We financed our last car purchase (jointly titled) because of favorable interest rates, so both our names had to be on the loan. However, in our case, the loss of an income wouldn't affect my ability to pay for the car, which is the real issue for the OP's friend's wife.

However, all of the above wasn't the initial reason we titled (and therefore had to finance as such) our last car purchase jointly. It was a supplier discount that only my husband could get. The car we were trading in was titled in my name. We'd planned to title the new car the same way, since our other car is titled in my husband's name. We'd been doing it that way for over 20 years. But unless the title had his name on it, no discount. The car salesman told us we could jointly title the car. That's the way we're doing it from now on, mainly to eliminate the Ohio owner liability issue.
 
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ivinsfan said:
Almost all threads contain something useful. If you are a couple it looks it's best to do any leases in one name only. Is there any reason both names need to be on the lease?
Click to expand...

Yes, I was thinking that... and in the name of the person most likely to pass first. Then you have options.
 
RunningBum said:
If they had bought the car rather than leased it, what do you expect would happen? Would you expect the dealership to take it back for $586, if that first payment has even been made? I don't know the answer, but a lease is just another form of purchase, is it not? I wouldn't expect a better outcome just because it is a lease. Best you can hope for is that they would take the trade for a smaller SUV, but I wouldn't expect any kind of deal on that. She can certainly ask.

I would start with the dealer. The third party broker isn't likely to have any soft spot for this, as they wouldn't be painted as being unsympathetic as a dealer might. The car has depreciated a lot more than that first payment as soon as it was driven off the lot. But maybe they did a down payment as well? That would change things, as long as they don't expect that back.
Click to expand...

If it had been just in his name then that is what would have happened... she would turn in the car and they would lose any money down and that first lease payment.

I think you are right that the dealer is more likely to be willing to deal.... we'll see.
 
There are a couple of car sites that supposedly give you a week to try vehicle and if you don't like it you can turn it in.

Check those sites and see what they "charge" for the return. Surely they don't do it for free, although in this world who knows.

Carvana is one such sight-- I think.
 
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