I have a Toyota Camry that I leased through Toyota Financial arm, thinking of finding someone to takeover my lease and get a taller vehicle due to back problems.
Other than finding someone to takeover the lease, how does the paperwork works?
How long does it take?
When exactly do you hand the other party the car?
Am I liable for anything? Like missed payments, extra wear and tear at the end of the lease etc.
Tried to search these forums and Google but couldn’t find any answer to those questions.
I know someone who did a TFS transfer. It is a little slow but (unlike VW/Audi for instance) they ultimately release you of all obligations so you’ll get out free & clear. The account has to be in good standing, so there can be no transfer if you are behind on payments. Any lease-end charges become the responsibility of the new lessee.
It’s similar to but a little slower than BMWFS. I believe once you call them, they will send you the transfer app and new lessee’s credit app. I think it’s up to you to mail or hand it over to the new lessee. Once their credit is approved, there is one more round of paperwork where you agree to give up the lease and the new lessee agrees to take it.
It could take a couple months. I would budget perhaps even three, unless you and the new lessee both turn around all paperwork very quickly. Once you receive a letter saying you are released of all obligations, hand over both keys to the the new lessee and watch him/her take it away.
Thanks!
How hard is it to find someone to takeover my lease without using swaplease etc?
I got a 2016 Camry LE that I hardly drive, so the 18 months left are 24k miles/year. Paying $240 after CA taxes.
Put it on craigslist, the Marketplace here and any Toyota forums…someone looking for an Uber vehicle or a long-distance commuter will probably bite. You should probably post the pre-tax number as well in your ad.
Are you sure there’s 30k/year left? So the new leasee can drive 45k in the remaining 18 months? If so, that’d work great for some folks on here looking for high mileage allowance.
@toyo Toyota lease transfer is painfully slow, everything is done through mail, bad communications (you won’t get status updates) etc. Ive heard it will def take minimum 1 month but can take up to 2 months to do. That’s a long time to sit there and wait without getting updates.
By the way, you can call either swapalease or lease trader’s customer service and ask their opinion on toyota’s process, they will tell you it takes time.
Speaking from experiences, craigslist and forums won’t get you out of your car quickly. I tried for 3 weeks and no interest, then put it on SAL and had someone take my car in days. So it’s up to you, SAL cost me $100 but i was out of a car quickly, but it doesn’t hurt to try the free places, i just didn’t have any luck with them. I chose to do it based on a suggestion on this forum, i was told “you have to go to a marketplace where people are looking to do what you’re trying to do”. He was 100% right, either swapalease or lease trader. I chose swapalease because it was cheaper.
Your payment is a little high compared to other listings on the site. If you wanted to move the car “quickly” you’d have to be closer to $200/mo in my opinion. Which means you’d have to give an incentive of about $700 and prob have to pay the transfer fee (i think it’s $200-$250 with Toyota). Unless of course you really have 30k mi/yr left, in that case you might find someone who really needs ALOT of miles which he won’t get on any other lease and for that type of person the $240/mo would be a bargain. I have a feeling it was a typo though. You can also just list it at your payment but given that there many cars on there that are cheaper or better equipped at your price it would not be a quick transfer.
Good advice from @305Hackr. I guess it comes down how much time you have, whether you want to try the free venues first or just go straight to swapalease.
@toyo got $4320 (18 mo x $240) + dispo fee (i believe $350) + potentially new tires etc. That’s $5k+. Realistically he will have to make 1-2 more payments before he can get out on SAL or LT, even if he prices it aggressively due to length of transfer with Toyota.
If he has to spend $700-$1000 on getting out now, it’s not the end of the world. Time wasting on CL or forums is going to cost more in the long run. That’s just my opinion.
It was late and my math was off, you are correct - it’s more like 25k/year (Edited that post).
Thank you all for the useful comments, the more I think about it the more difficult it seems.
I’m fine with the Camry, just wanted a small quality of life improvement.
Definitely not worth spending $1000 and then having to find a lease in a hurry once the paperwork goes through.
With that many miles, an Uber/commuter friendly car will go quickly on swapalease IMO, without any incentives. Try listing it, $99 isn’t much compared to the benefits of getting out.
@toyo I agree with @max_g , because you have that many miles per year left, you might be able to find someone to just take it off your hands without having to offer additional incentives because leased cars with that many miles are very rare so you have something unique. Transfer fee is in the $250 range if I’m not mistaken + $100 to list it on SAL, to me it’s worth a try. Your disposition fee for the car will be $350 anyway, might as well do it now.
Just look at Swapalease to see your competition. Camry is pretty popular car so it should be fairly easy to a search there and sort it by monthly payment (I am assuming that is how normal people do it). Then decide if you want to be in 1st position, 2nd position, in the middle or on page 2. Assuming you can make the numbers (incentives, etc.) so your listing will go on page 1, you should be able to transfer it pretty quickly.
“Pull ahead” programs work when you have more than a year left?
Would dealers bother with taking the car as trade in? (Buy it from Toyota Fiance)
How do folks manage the timing on scenarios like that?
If I start a transfer process and wait until it goes through I’d be under pressure to get another car quickly and won’t be able to get a good deal. If I start looking for another lease now I might end up paying for two cars for a few months.
Does anyone know if the seller / original holder of the lease can pay for the transfer fee (typically in the form of a cashiers check)? Or does it always have to be the person assuming the lease? This is specific to Toyota Financial. Thank you.
Folks, I’m taking over someone’s lease and he offered to pay cash incentive. I have been approved by the financial services regarding my credit check and received the lease transfer docs notarized from him and need to sign and send it to financial institution and should be all done. My question is when should I get the cash incentive? before going to notary and sending the docs to financial institution or after the financial institution has finalized everything? What if I sign and dont get the cash incentives? Please advise.
There isn’t really a right answer to that question. The last transfer I did, we addressed that issue by having the incentive paid to the bank. Basically the lease was prepaid for a few months. That way, if something happened and someone backed out, the money wasn’t lost, but it also made it easy to confirm the incentive had been applied.
