Before the end of your Finance Lease agreement, you need to decide if you are going to sell the vehicle or keep it a bit longer. You can’t buy the vehicle yourself, so it’s a good idea to plan what you’d like to do next. We’ll send you a Purchase Declaration form 90 days before the end of your contract for you to fill out and email back to us at Customer.services@lexautolease.co.uk.
If we don’t get your completed form before the end of your contract, we’ll automatically put your agreement into an informal extension.
1. Selling the vehicle:
o You sell the vehicle
If you’re selling the vehicle, you’ll need to arrange for the vehicle to be sold to a third party who’ll pay us for the vehicle directly. In some cases, your vehicle broker may buy it back from you. To find out if they can do this, please speak to them directly.
Your agreement terms mean you can't sell the vehicle to a relative, spouse, civil partner or to anyone that's financially linked to your business. You also can't sell to a business linked to yours through Companies House.
Once we’ve received payment directly from the third party, we’ll manage the transfer of ownership and will confirm when this has been completed. It usually takes around two weeks from when you let us know about the sale for us to send the third party the vehicle’s V5.
o You ask us to collect and sell the vehicle
We’ll arrange a suitable time and place to collect the vehicle and will take it to auction to be sold.
We’ll collect the money from the buyer directly and manage the transfer of ownership. We’ll let you know when this has been completed.
If the vehicle is sold for more than the original Estimated Sales Value, which is sometimes called the ‘balloon amount’, we’ll send you the difference, minus any charges. If it sells for less, we’ll invoice you for the shortfall, including any charges. We’ll send this within 5 working days of the vehicle being sold, and any outstanding balance should be paid to us within 60 days. You can find details of your vehicle’s Estimated Sales Value online at (MMV/Dealer portal) and within your original agreement.
2. You keep the vehicle for longer
We don’t offer formal extensions on Finance Lease agreements. But, if you get to the end of your agreement and don’t want to return the vehicle straightaway, you can keep using it and continue making payments as part of an informal extension.
Your monthly payments may be higher than your current payments if you have a maintenance package. You can find what these would be in your original agreement. Payments you make during an informal extension will reduce the vehicle’s Estimated Sales Value, or ‘Written Down Value’ as it’s sometimes called.
If you’re not sure which option is right for you, please give us a call on 0344 879 6633. We’re here 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
If we don’t hear from you before your contract ends, your contract will automatically roll into an informal extension, which will continue until you decide to sell the vehicle, or you’ve paid off its Estimated Sales Value.