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New service aims to tackle end-of-lease charges

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23 October 2012

Story: COLIN DAWSON

New service aims to tackle end-of-lease charges
Pristine and pretty now, but wear and tear on company cars is inevitable. Concept’s new service could help your business reduce end-of-lease costs

THERE are many advantages to contract hire for SMEs, not the least of which is that there’s no vehicle to be sold at the end of the term.

You hand back the vehicle to the leasing company at the end of the agreement, which is usually for a pre-agreed term  – most often three years – and for a pre-agreed mileage. For most small businesses, this is 30,000 miles.

It’s fairly straightforward: you pay for the use, not the ownership. But that’s as long as the car meets the correct wear-and-tear conditions – you can’t return a car with dents, scratches and wrecked interiors.

If that’s the case, you’ll be stung for end-of-lease charges. The BVRLA publishes guides to what’s regarded as fair wear and tear for cars that are used by many leasing companies.

But it seems that some companies are ramping up the bill disproportionately. Paul Bulloch, managing director of Surrey-based Concept Vehicle Leasing, told Business Car Manager: “During recent times, we’ve experienced an increase in the number of clients reporting excessive end-of-lease dilapidation charges from leasing companies.”

To combat this, Concept Vehicle Leasing has introduced a new service that aims to reduce charges levied by leasing companies at the end of the term.

The new optional service, named ‘Inspect and Repair’, provides Concept Vehicle Leasing clients with the ability to manage proactively repairs to a vehicle for a fixed cost, prior to its de-fleet and return to a leasing company or sale to a third party.

Clients using the new service can book an initial inspection for a small one-off fee, which will enable a client vehicle to be inspected to BVRLA fair wear-and-tear guidelines. Then, if required, the vehicle can be uplifted, repaired and delivered back to the client, or the leasing company with all repairs pre-agreed through fixed matrix pricing.

“We’ll always step in and provide an honest and impartial view on damage recharges for our business car leasing customers, advising them on whether we think any charges are unfair and, where necessary, assist with dispute resolution,” Paul Bulloch said. “However, as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure, and our new Inspect and Repair service aims to do just that.”

The new service will be provided in partnership with Colchester-based IT Fleet Automotive on a UK nationwide basis.

Keep up to date with developments in our Company Car News section.

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