Two years into a three year car lease I had trouble making the payments. Now the lease company is trying to say if I turn the car in... no matter what. I will owe the residual minus what they sell it for. Meaning I can catch up the payments and finish the lease but in the end they will charge me for the car or I can buy it... Also if I turn it in now, they will charge me the past due payments plus the residual minus what the sell the car for.. I don't see how they can charge me for the car once the payments are caught up and the lease is over. Help with any info

A lease is a contract. What does the lease say? I've never heard of anything like this but perhaps you have some sort of default clause or something similar -

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Originally Posted by kieffer32

Two years into a three year car lease i had trouble making the payments. now the lease company is trying to say if i turn the car in.... no matter what. i will owe the residual minus what they sell it for. Meaning i can catch up the payments and finish the lease but in the end they will charge me for the car or i can buy it... Also if i turn it in now, they will charge me the past due payments plus the residual minus what the sell the car for....? i dont see how they can charge me for the car once the payments are caught up and the lease is over. help with any info

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How far behind are you? Have you made any payments at all? Some places will have the car re-po'ed if you fall even 2 months behind. Have you tried making arrangements to get the balance caught up without surrendering the car?

I'm not 100% sure on how leases work because I've never done one because it costs you more in the long run; however, I don't think what they're proposing is so out of line. You agreed to pay X amount of dollars for X amount of months. At the end of the lease, you have the option of either buying the vehicle(usually at an overpriced amount) or turning it back in(which usually costs more because you're over on the mileage). If they sell the car and deduct the sale price from the remainder of your lease amount, that works in your favor because you don't have to pay everything that you agreed to pay in the lease. I would, however, get this in writing before giving the vehicle back.