No, it has all been written - everything has been done via email

Thanks. I will get a letter drafted over the next day or two and post it here. They have asked yesterday - as we said we couldn’t afford to pay this all up front - what we could afford to pay on 16th January. I have not answered yet. To be honest until Christmas is out of the way I genuinely can’t answer how much. Would you recommend I just don’t reply to it at the moment and get the letter, once I have wrote it sent off to them? Thanks

Yeah, definitely not going to drive it after the leaving date, they have been specific on that; Further to below, I understand from George that you are leaving on 26/1/24. If this date changes at all then you must let me know as you, or any named drivers, will not be insured to drive the vehicle after your leave date. So, as I said I am assuming that it will still be insured - by knowles, just not for us to drive.

This is part of the last email they sent regarding payment: you must call me to pay your termination fee of £1805.83 no later than 4pm on 16/1/24. Once the payment has cleared I will then pass you through to our Collections Team so that the necessary arrangements can be made. I have now asked them directly in writing if they will collect the vehicles without payment of this termination fee. They have only previously stated this verbally, so am going to try to get it in writing from them. As for the vehicles being uninsured, I assume and it is only me assuming it, that the insurance will then transfer from us to Knowles on the 26th January? They have only stated we can’t drive the cars as we will not be insured from 26th January. My concern with this is if they leave the cars here for a month or so, who is responsible if they are damaged? We are no longer insured so how could we be held responsible? It makes me think this is all a bluff by Knowles to force us to pay upfront. As i have said why would they leave cars here, knowing the wife has left the NHS so they have no further way of deducting money from her wages. Their assets if left standing here are deprecating by the day and then the risk of damage.

Looking on Autotrader I would say one car is about £18k and the other is about £19k. What they would get at auction I don’t know though

No. To be fair the police just sent through the NIP and I did a speed awareness course

Yes, your first two paragraphs are exactly correct. We have an option at the end of the scheme to purchase the vehicles if we had wished - but no fixed price it would be, from my understanding, market value at the end of the scheme. Failing that they would sell them at auction. We are not even down as registered keepers. The lease company holds both the ownership and the keeper details. We know this because I, unfortunately, got a speeding ticket in one of the cars that took 3 months to get to me because Knowles were written to - being the registered keeper - and didn’t pass our details on. Total per month for both vehicles is £539.84

Okay. So they ARE saying they won’t book the vehicles in for collection until we pay the early termination fee. However, come 26th January my wife leaves the NHS. As these lease money for these cars comes directly out of her wages when she leaves they will receive no more money. Knowles have also said to us that we can not drive them after 26th January as we are not insured due to leaving the scheme. We have told them we can’t afford to pay this all up front but they are refusing to negotiate. 1 car has 16 months lease left and the other has 23 months. Both were on a 36 month lease agreement. The car with 16 months left they want £1805.23 to terminate. We would pay £4151.84 if we’re to keep the car under the current payments. The car with 23 months left they want £1794.99 to terminate. We would pay ££6218.05 if we were to keep the car under the current payments. As previously said though we have no options to keep the car. The wife is going into private health care and they do not allow for lease cars under a salary sacrifice scheme.

Thanks for the reply. In terms of the insurance it is all provided by the lease company. The payment that comes out of the wife’s wages includes insurance, servicing for the vehicles, repairs etc. It is an all in one payment - literally the only thing we have to do is charge the cars at our expense. We do not have off road storage to keep both cars. Could keep one car on the driveway but wouldn’t get two on there. i think they will come and remove both cars once my wife leaves her position. I see no benefit to them leaving us with the cars. They have already stated that once they take the cars back from us they go straight to auction, so I really can’t see them wanting to leave us with the cars - getting no lease money out of them and no sale value either. What we are concerned or worried about is whether they would take us to court or something for the outstanding balance. As I said in the opening post they just don’t or won’t discuss payment at all. Thanks.

Estimated Early Termination Costs: Year 1: £2218.74 | Year 2: £1479.16 | Year 3: £739.58 (+ VAT in each case)

Knowles 1 car has 16 months and the other has 23 months - both were on a 36 month lease. communication has been done in writing. We are being told they can't take it all of the last months salary as it would put my wife technically below minimum wage so they are not allowed to.

Hi all, I'm new here and not sure if this is the correct place or not. We are after some advice on 2 lease cars on a salary sacrifice scheme. My wife currently works for NHS. She is changing jobs on 26.01.2023 and moving out of the NHS. We currently have 2 lease cars that are on a salary sacrifice scheme. Unfortunately the company she is moving to does not have access to this scheme so the cars need to go back. We are still within the contract period for the vehicles we need to pay a termination fee for both cars. The total termination fee for both vehicles is £3600.82. Obviously wife's decision to leave her job - although there are extenuating circumstances surrounding this. We fully understand we are contracted to the vehicles - however we have no way to pay this amount all in one go and upfront. Going to be completely honest as there is no point in not being, we have both had poor credit history in the past - I was declared bankrupt about 3 years ago no hope of me getting a loan or credit card to cover this. Wife not as bad, but still various defaults etc. We now live to our means and have zero debt but we can not afford to pay this upfront and all in one go. The lease company are not being helpful. Just stated that we need to pay this before they will take the vehicles back, although they acknowledge that the wife can not keep them after 26.01.2023 as we will not be insured on them. We have tried to enter a discussion about how we can pay this termination fee back and have offered £200 a month until it is paid off, but they just go back to it must be paid before we collect. I/we are not sure what to do. Any advice would be helpful. We even stated they could take all of my wife's last months wages which would clear about £3000 off the debt but they just won't discuss it. Thanks.