Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia
Transferring Liability of a Lease
I am currently in the process of transsferring an automobile lease to another person. My credit institution (Audi Financial) will transfer the lease and payment liability but will still ultimately hold me liable in the event of total loss and or various other extreme situations. My concern is if the person were to mistakenly or purposely lapse on insurance and were to total out the vehicle, how can I hold them accountable. I basically need a document that will allow me to stake claim against any assets of his in this event or anything that will ease a little of my risk. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Transferring Liability of a Lease
Dear Sir:
You should review your lease agreement and try to have audi accept full responsibility from the new leassee. In the event that fails, you will need what is called an indemnification agreement from the new leassee.
Best Regards,
Tonia Troutwine, Esquire
CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS, LLC
(A Private Law Firm)
Two Datran Center, Suite 1600
9130 Dadeland Boulevard
Miami, Florida 33156
Tel:305-670-0373
Re: Transferring Liability of a Lease
This is an extremely bad idea. The fact that the lease company won't release you means they think the new lessee is a bad risk. That means you should assume the same. You are setting yourself up for a situation where you may owe a huge amount of money to the lender, and all you'd have is a piece of paper that you could sue the other person, who presumably has lousy credit (and might bankrupt on you or disappear or simply be a deadbeat).
While a document can be drawn, let me stress that this is a horrible idea, and the document really doesn't help if you get in the worst case scenario, and that is a likely scenario.
Re: Transferring Liability of a Lease
I agree this lease transfer seems to have the makings of a bad idea, while it may be seductive in the short term. You want to dump the Audi and he wants your car. But everybody�s cool when the deal is struck, right? The risks of this transaction are stacked against you. You could wind up paying for a car that you neither own or could enjoy. Your options as I see them: 1. Keep the car, Audis are nice; 2. Find a more credit-worthy person to make the transfer with; 3. Do the deal and hope for the best. The only other suggestion I could make is purchasing some type of insurance against the risk of your loss. But I wouldn�t know if such coverage would even be available. It certainly doesn�t sound very practical. Best of luck. PAS