Och,

yes you are on the hook for any payments your friend does not make, but you may be able to partially mitigate your losses if you can find someone to take over the remaining lease term via leasetrader/swapalease etc. That requires BMWFS approval, but if you can find a transferee you remove yourself from the liability chain. Usually these lease transfers require some incentive, but maybe someone may need a car for a few months and maybe this car fits the bill and qualifies for a transfer. It may well reduce your exposure to be on the hook for a sweetener to incentivize a takeover than to be on the hook for all remaining lease payments.

Good luck with this. Tough situation, and proof indeed that "no good deed goes unpunished".

Edited to add that time is of the essence. BMWFS usually does not allow transfers in the last six months of a lease, but may allow an exception.

https://www.swapalease.com/help/leas...ncial-services

 

You're a good friend. I hope your friend pays you back when his situation changes.

 

This is a tough call. You never said anything about the family member being able to absorb the costs, even though they now have a disability. So no longer driving or no longer able to pay the lease? Leasing is dangerous as when disaster happens, you're in a lot of hurt if someone never had the money, to begin with. In this type of situation, the right thing to do is to help, provided they can longer driver and pay for their lease.

Broke why? I am pretty much against leasing as buying and paying the thing off protects one from job loss and/or most drastic situations.

 

Hire someone to steal the car and drive it into the ocean.

 

So I will certainly have to make the remainder of the payment, but it gets even more interesting. In NY I have to get a lease return inspection for this vehicle, which takes several days to schedule, then several days for the inspector to come in and review, and then some time for BMW to review it and approve early termination.

At that point his insurance will have expired, and I'll have an uninsured vehicle in my possession. Not really sure how to deal with that.

 

Did they tell you what the payoff is? I wonder if you could trade it in and get out of it.

I would add it to your insurance policy, shouldnt cost much for just a short time

 

If he had bad or no credit, he shouldn't have been buying a BMW, period. Needing help and buying luxury items are incompatible.

 

Can you get the car to the inspection place before the insurance expires? And leave it there?

 

Lots of people have no credit and plenty of financial resources. I see it all the time.

A car lease pretty much requires that you have prior auto financing in your financial profile or a mortgage. If you have neither, even if you have a good score you may need a cosigner for an auto lease.

 

Very common for people from other countries as well. I met quite a few people when I was in college who were international students that were in this boat. Wealthy families with no ties to the US. We had two international students who drove the Rolls-Royce Drophead. Not sure if they were leased or not, but still impressive.

This "friend" needs to be cut out of your life. I wouldn't even cosign for a relative, let alone a friend!

 

In that case- simple solution is a 1 pay lease or do Multiple Security Deposit which BMW offers.
Many ppl go this route.

Obviously in this situation- the guy didn’t have vast financial resources if any.

 

You need a credit history to do a one pay lease also, and I don’t think MSD make a difference.

Clearly he didn’t have a bunch of cash lying around, I’m just saying that just because somebody needs a co-signer doesn’t mean they don’t have money.

 

Since BMW generally subsidizes the leases, I highly doubt there’s any equity in the car. Unfortunately the cheapest option will be either early termination or just paying the remainder of the lease.

 

However, it's OK to NOT have a BMW as your first car. If someone came to me and said, "I'm financially secure, but I have no credit history. Will you co-sign my BMW lease?" I'd have to decline.

 

Not really sure what that proves. Someone who requires a co-signer is more likely to default on their loans etc.