Finance or flexible lease FAQs

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:

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.

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.

At the end of your contract, our system will automatically generate and send you an invoice for the total amount due.

Please ignore this invoice as there’s no action for you to take.

If you’re aware of any delays with the third-party payment, please give us a call as soon as you can on 0344 879 6633. We’re here 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

With Finance Lease, you’re not charged for any damage at the end of your contract as the vehicle’s condition will be reflected in the sale price. If your vehicle is sold for more than the Estimated Sales Value, we’ll send you the difference, minus any charges. If it’s sold for less, we’ll send you an invoice for the shortfall, plus 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.

If the vehicle is being sold, either by you or us – we charge a sales administration fee, which is 2.5% of the sale price of the vehicle (inc. VAT). We send a separate invoice for this amount, which will need to be paid within 60 days.

​​​​​​​If you've chosen to include a fixed cost maintenance package within your agreement and your actual mileage is higher than what's in your agreement, then we’ll also charge for excess mileage.

If you’re selling the vehicle, you’ll be responsible for agreeing a price with the buyer. There are lots of calculators online to help you understand how much you can sell your vehicle for, and your dealer may also be able to offer some advice. Once you’ve agreed a price the buyer will then pay us directly, and we’ll either:

• ​​Send you any excess funds, minus our charges, if you sell the vehicle for more than the original Estimated Sales Value. You can find this figure in (MMV/Driver Portal) and within your original agreement paperwork.
• Send you an invoice for the shortfall, plus any excess mileage charges, if applicable, if you sell it for less than the Estimated Sales Value.

We’ll charge for excess mileage if you have a fixed cost maintenance package included with your agreement and your actual mileage is higher than what’s in your agreement.

We also charge a sales administration fee (2.5% of the sale price, inc. VAT), and we will send you a separate invoice for this, which needs to be paid within 60 days.

This happens once we’ve sent the V5 to the third-party buyer and we do this once we’ve received and processed their payment. You are liable for the vehicle until the V5 is transferred.

This process usually takes around two weeks and we’ll let you know when we’ve transferred the V5. Until then, it’s important you keep making any agreement payments due and keep up your insurance policy - in case there are any delays.

If you’re selling the vehicle and the sale fall through, or you have any problems with the third-party buyer – please give us a call as soon as you can on 0344 879 6633. We’re here 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

If you have any questions about your Finance Lease agreement, please give us a call on 0344 879 6633. We’re here 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

If you’d like to end your contract early and you have more than a month left on it, we class this as an early settlement. Whether you’re selling the vehicle or we are, we’ll add an additional charge to your outstanding balance. We work out the charge by multiplying the number of months you have left on your contract by your vehicle’s Factor Value. This is a figure we use to calculate how your vehicle’s value depreciates over time. You can find information about your vehicle’s Factor Value in the factor tables included in your original agreement. 

To speak to us about ending your contract early please give us a call on 0344 879 6633. We’re here 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

If you’d like to end your contract in its final month, you won’t need to pay an early settlement charge, but you will still need to pay your final month’s rental in full.

If you need more support

If you’re thinking of ending your contract early because you’re finding it hard to keep up with the payments, we may have other options for you.  Please call us on 0800 302 9160 to speak to one of our advisers. We’re here 8am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday.