Car leasing payments can become a real burden when life changes or something unexpected happens. But getting rid of them is not easy and, above all, can be relatively expensive. The monthly premiums can be renegotiated in proportion to the rental period already completed, not to mention the withdrawal taxes. Unless you find a buyer for the contract.
It was when he heard about a friend’s situation that Grégory Perales decided to create Leasetransfer.ch, a platform that brings together leaseholders and potential buyers. “This friend, whose father had just died, had inherited her lease and didn’t know how to get rid of it. It was a delicate situation, especially as the finance company was asking her for 2,500 francs to terminate the contract, which she did not have”. Sometimes, he noted, “the premiums can be tripled, and you have to pay them all at once”. Valérie Muster, a lawyer at the Fédération romande des consommateurs (FRC), agrees: “You can find yourself obliged to pay up to 90% of what you would have paid if you had gone through with it”.
Taking the example of Canadian sites, he studies the Swiss market and notes the extent of the demand. “Nearly one in two leases is terminated before the end of the term”. This is a significant proposition, given that, according to figures from the Swiss Association of Leasing Companies (ASSL), 47% of vehicles in Switzerland are financed in this way. Valérie Muster is not surprised: “The phenomenon exists, and we very often receive calls from members who do not know how to get out of this contract, she confirms. This happens in particular to young people who have embarked on a fairly expensive leasing contract, for which they had the financial capacity at the beginning, but no longer after one or two years. In this sense, this platform is right on target, because I have the feeling that this is on the increase”.
There are many reasons to break a lease. You can inherit it from your parents or your spouse, but the most common reason is a change in living conditions. “There may be family reasons, such as a divorce or the birth of a child, which forces a change of car, or professional reasons, such as the provision of a company car or, more seriously, a drop in income or even redundancy”. Not to mention departures abroad, which are quite common, especially in Geneva, where LeaseTransfer is based. What happens, says Grégory Perales, “is that people most often take out 48 or 60 month leases in order to pay lower premiums, but these days it is risky to claim to have visibility over such a long period. Everything can change very quickly”…
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