This is for anyone who experiences the opposite of what GAP insurance covers: a total loss where the car was actually worth more than what was left to pay.
You can see what my situation was here: Service center burned down...with my lease in it - #65 by max_g
Tl;dr = My car had 23500 miles 1 month before it was due back, at a 36/36k term. The car had 14k as payoff, 300 for the last month, and turns out was valued at around 22k. The car was destroyed inside of a service center which burned down, and now I couldn’t get the at least 5k profit for flipping the car I planned on.
Lot of going back and forth with no one having answers, here it is: call your lease company and request a payoff amount and buy the car IMMEDIATELY.
After finally getting someone prudent on the other line at my leasing company, I found out this happens all the time. I requested the paperwork, but unfortunately was too late and my insurance had already sent the check and my lease company cashed it (I tried to get it cancelled, too late).
Once you do what your lease company requires, you’ll get a packet with the title how to go pay the DMV at your state the taxes with said packet. You don’t need the car. Apparently, this happens all the time and this is what people do. Once you have the title, your insurance has to send you the check and you have to send back the title which they then destroy.
Hopefully this helps someone thru this confusing and very particular situation I experienced. I know the most common situation is people are actually in negative equity so finding information was tough for me.
Also quick note: find out how much the taxes are. For me, VW Credit charged them (900 something) I believe due to state law, and even with my current 1k deductible I would’ve netted almost 6k.