I’m in a tricky situation and need some help. I leased a 2017 Infiniti QX50 back in Jan 2017. I transferred the lease over to another person in October 2017 because of a financial situation. Infiniti approved the transfer, the new leaseholder took over the payments. Everything worked out fine till I got an email today informing me that unfortunately the person who I transferred the lease over to passed away last week.
In this situation the person who passed away is no longer liable according to Infiniti. Infiniti says that now I’m again obligated for the lease because I was the first account holder.
I obviously didn’t anticipate this situation and wasn’t prepared for it. Can someone please advise if there’s anyway I can request Infiniti to terminate the account without making me liable. I’m going to call them tomorrow, but wanted to be prepared for it.
Infiniti says that you’re held liable for it if transferred. They died and thus you’re now liable for the remainder of the payments. You can make the remaining payments and the disposition fee and be done with it
I am giving this a like because this is the first time we see a real life situation of how you are still liable for Infiniti lease after transfer. Sad circumstance (and highly unusual) but good luck. It also seems you may need to take possession of the car somehow and can you enquire what condition it is in?
Yep - agree with @vhooloo, you are back on the hook. This is a very sad occurrence and I’m sorry for everyone involved. Typically when we think of remaining liable, we think of a scenario when the person taking over the lease chooses to stop making payments, trashes the car, etc.
I would also add in addition to payments and taking possession, you need to get the vehicle insured again ASAP to protect against anything that may happen while you’re figure out what is going on.
Sorry to hear it. As others have said, you’re on the hook sadly. You could probably just transfer the car again, hopefully lightning only strikes once as they say.
Update:- As expected Infiniti says I’m liable and I have no choice but to takeover the payments. The call was more like dealing with Collection vultures rather than a ‘luxury’ car company. They literally told me that it doesn’t matter if someone is deceased, they’ll treat it as a case of missed payments.
Rotten luck but it is what it is, since it’s a pretty low monthly payment with plenty of miles left I’ll attempt to do a transfer again.
But a fair warning to everyone, Infiniti Financial Services is not Mercedes Benz Financial Services. You’re basically going to be dealing with Nissan. You cannot ever do a ‘clean’ transfer.
Wow, this is a very sad situation. Not sure why car manufactures do this? Seems like a pretty shitty thing to hold the original owner hostage? They should just not allow transfers and save everyone the heartache.
I have been researching the potential risks of Infiniti lease-transfer-but-owner-still-accountable issue. Never thought of a situation like this at all. Sad, but best of luck to you. Are other Infiniti lease owners getting stuck in other crazy situations too? I have a 2016 Infiniti Q50 with 16 more months to go that I want to transfer over, and I have super clean credit history that I can’t bear the thought of relying on someone else to be diligent with the car for 16 months. Am I being paranoid?
Don’t lease cars work the intention of transferring, I feel like allot of people get more car than they need or get caught up in the great deal. All the cars have grown in size too, when the cars got bigger I went down a class and kept the same size.
I am also very puzzled at why people will lease a car, then within one year, transfer it and get another lease. After all, lease term is only 3 years, before you know it, it is over. Can’t wait a bit for another car?
People lease cars for different reasons. For me, I am leasing a car to wait for the Tesla Model 3. Given Tesla’s history, it’s hard to say when a car will REALLY be available. I admit I was being naive (not reading the contract through) in thinking that I could just transfer the lease once I get the Model 3. But I did get a good deal no the Q50, I may end up keeping it instead of the Model 3 if not for the $10k tax credit.
Why? You voluntarily gave them possession and signed a contract transferring certain rights. If that person later defaults it’s not a criminal offense.
maybe check what the buy out is and what kind of offers you can get from vroom, carvana and carmax. if its pretty close in price, might be worth it to sell the car to them.