Lease car - HUGE bill for very minor wear and tear

[fishfingersandchipsagain]

I’ve leased my last 3 cars without any problems. Small middle of the range SUV family car type things.

Both times previously there have been a couple of hundred in charges to pay at the end of the lease. A small dent that I hadn’t noticed, services done locally but not at a main dealer. No problem.

My last car has just been picked up at the end of a 4 year lease, and I’ve been given a bill for nearly £2k 😱. For comparison, the lease was less than £300 per month!

They have picked up every tiny thing and allocated a huge cost to it. For example, there is a small scratch on the sill panel - ie the inside of the door - you have to get down on hands and knees to see it and rub your finger over it to be sure it’s not just a reflection. £100.

I’ve checked the lease and there are definitions for what will be charged and what won’t, and fortunately some of them seem to fall into the category of not charged, so I presume I can argue against them. But there is also reference to “fair wear and tear” which I would have hoped would cover the others.

Honestly this car was pretty much immaculate. Really, really good condition, particularly for its age. I can’t believe this bill!!!!

Does anyone have experience of similar? What can I do?

I sent a lease car back a couple months ago and was charged £450 for some minor scratches , scuffs on alloys, that kind of thing. The chap doing the inspection advised me to negotiate with them, especially as the mileage on the car was quite a bit lower than the allowed mileage. Got it down to £300 which I didn't think was too bad. I believe they have to go by the BVRLA fair wear and tear guidelines so unless you had some fairly bad damage I can't see how it could be £2k! I would contact the company and talk to them.

Thanks @TwistedSisters that’s helpful to know. I’ll try negotiating with them. I’m not sure what bargaining chips I have though. I mean, I guess technically I have to pay them, so why would they agree to reduce?

I don’t have a spare £2k though!

I’ve also had a similar situation, you only have bargaining chips in certain circumstances really. So this poster had some bargaining power as the mileage was lower than what was allowed, your other bargaining power comes from checking if what they are saying actually comes under the guidelines of what is allowed- if not they can’t charge. Check your contract carefully, they can be very sneaky with these things and deliberately make it very easy to charge you.

You can contest it if you disagree but you have to follow a specific process for that, and you can also arrange your own inspection with an independent engineer that is neutral however you have to pay for that x

I sent back a lease car that was, by my own admission, quite scruffy. Several scratches on the panels, couple of door dings, scrapes along both corners of the back bumper, grubby inside.

The man who inspected it said just about everything was covered by fair wear and tear and the one dent that wasn't led to a charge of about £60. A lot of minor scuffs can be polished out these days, it's not a big job.

Appeal, refer to the BVLRA fair wear and tear guide and don't pay them a penny. Whether or not you have £2k sitting around is irrelevant, if they've been too strict with the assessment of the condition. I don't suppose they took a video or photos you can refer to or send on with your appeal.

I wonder if the car has sold for less than they'd hoped and they're trying to recover the money from you this way?

Thanks. Yes, I’m looking through the contract and fair wear and tear guidelines now and I think pretty much all of it should be discounted. I took photos and video myself yesterday so have evidence.

It was under mileage, but only by about 10% (36k miles rather than the 40k on the contract), but there is nothing in the contract that says they will reduce anything for being under the mileage.

I don’t think there is any way for me to arrange an independent inspection, as they have the car now. And actually I don’t disagree with the inspection, just with the price they have attached to it. With hand on heart almost everything I am being charged for, if the car had arrived new in that condition I wouldn’t even have queried it (eg the minute scratch on the door sill).

Is there any sort of ombudsman I can get involved? I think BVLRA just issue guidance don’t they? I don’t think they can actually I force anything. Although IIRC the actual lease contract is with one of the major banks, so perhaps there might be some protection there.

When our ;ease cars have been collected, weve been with the assessor who collected the car and made them inspect every part. M we’ve photographed any issues hes / shes pointed out.
who knows if those issues youve had noted didnt occur after they collected the car? My last car was left sitting on the collectors drive for 4 weeks!!

I was with the assessor and agree that e.g. there are scratches, but I disagree that they should be charged given they were not visible to the naked eye unless you got within 30cm of them, and were only on the very surface of the paint. To my mind that’s fair wear and tear on a 4 year old family car.

Defintely tell the lease company if they don't resolve the complaint to your satisfaction, you will be complaining to the Financial Ombudsman.

Car finance (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

Excessive charges is specifically covered as a complaint that they can help you resolve by having the charges reduced/waived.

I think they try their luck sometimes tbh, I’ve had charges like this which they dropped when I challenged them, hopefully they’ll do the same for you.

Some of these lease companies are absolute sharks!

You need to be careful with this logic, although I don’t necessarily disagree with it myself, it doesn’t matter whether the damage would be obvious to your naked eye it’s whether the damage exists at all, and if it is a certain size (I believe the guidance a lot of it states things like a mark at or over 25mm, which is tiny really, not obvious to naked eye but they can charge for it). If you agree with the assessment in terms of what they say is wrong with the car, then your only argument potentially is to look at the actual guidance/contract and challenge specific things. E.G. if the guidance does say a scuff/mark over 25mm, and you look and the mark os 10mm, you could challenge that. But you can’t challenge just based off of “not with the naked eye”, if you agree with the inspection that the damage is there, you can only argue specifically that it falls within wear and tear x

I assume you were not leasing another car from them. Usually, if you lease another car, then there will be no charges on the previous car.

I always get a good clean and polish and interior valet - seems to get rid of the minutae they focus on. Then its only bigger issues.

Sounds like someone was a bit over zealous with inspection so argue the toss with them esp if they fall within allowable.

I doubt they ever do the work but just send straight to auction, its just another way to squeeze money out of you so don't feel bad about challenging them especially if otherwise good clean condition and low miles

I always get bumps and scratches sorted myself at the end of the lease before handing it back. They charge over the average, I thought that was well-known.