What is fair wear and tear ?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 5 Aug 2010 12:13
What is fair wear and tear ? - Kancho

Does anyone know what the definition of fair wear and tear is ?

I've looked on AA & RAC websites and didn't see anything useful.

There's a BVRLA guide which they want 10 quid for.

I'm just wondering if at the end of a 4 year business lease arrangement and about 100,000 motorway miles, it's normal for the lease company to demand over a thousand pounds to repair stone chips on bonnets and supermarket car park door chinks.

Thanks.

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Thu 5 Aug 2010 12:42
What is fair wear and tear ? - LucyBC

According to latest research for FN50, 37% of returned cars incur a fair wear and tear recharge averaging £231.

However figures vary significantly between car leasing companies, ranging from 8% to 78% of cars and from £51 to £600 in charges.

They all use the BVRLA guide as the basis of their claim so one wonders why there is so much diversity. (I have a copy but I cannot post much of it online as it would be a breach of copyright).

Generally speaking its cheaper to pay one of the paint chip firms to clean the car up if it is bad rather than return it and incur the bill you seem to be getting.

The other thing to do is to think about taking out SMART insurance when you get a new car. It covers minor dings and damage which any car with high mileage often has and a claim for minor bodywork doesn't affect your normal insurance no claims bonus.

We plan to offer it at http://www.autosure.eushortly to cover just the scenario you outline.

If you buy it elsewhere check the price - particularly if offered by a dealer's F&I man or a lease company. Prices vary widely -- and the harder the sell, usually means the bigger the commission for selling it and hence the price they are charging you.

Edited by LucyBC on 05/08/2010 at 12:43

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Thu 5 Aug 2010 23:48
What is fair wear and tear ? - mrnikko

I used to collect these type of cars in the past and at 100,000 miles you expect stone chips and supermarket dents. Your car must be pretty badly damaged for the lease company to demand this sort of money, ask for estimates from them and use a local company to you to see what they would charge. If you have already handed the car back you are in a very difficult position. All you can do is haggle and be stubborn with the leasing company

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Sat 7 Aug 2010 11:19
What is fair wear and tear ? - Kancho

It's not my car.

My company changed from a big name leasing company to a much smaller one a few years ago.

There was never any problem with the big leasing company, they picked the cars up at the end of lease and that was that, heard no more from them.

Now these cars are starting to be returned to the new provider, they are finding fault with the cars and the drivers are being quoted big sums for repair. They seem to expect 100,000 mile cars to be in pristine condition.

This never happened with the old leasing company. So I was just trying to work out was the old company really good, or the new one really bad.

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Sat 7 Aug 2010 12:21
What is fair wear and tear ? - Avant

The new company is one of all too many short-term thinkers who can't see that if they take that attitude your employer will go elsewhere as soon as the contract expires. There are lots of leasing companies out there who I'm sure will take a reasonable, balanced view of what fair wear and tear is.

I'd imagine that the sensible view is based on average condition of cars after a given mileage - i.e. not necessarily polished every week-end but equally not neglected. It's reasonablt to expect a full service history and having dings and bad scratches taken out before handing the car back surely makes sense.

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Sat 7 Aug 2010 13:54
What is fair wear and tear ? - bintang

What an insurer or manufacturer says it is.

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Sat 7 Aug 2010 14:11
What is fair wear and tear ? - Kancho

The new company is one of all too many short-term thinkers who can't see that if they take that attitude your employer will go elsewhere as soon as the contract expires.

Unfortunately I can't see that happening, because this new company offers these "tax efficient" car leases whereby through financial smoke and mirrors the company is able to claim the AMAP tax relief due to employees when less than 40/25ppm is claimed by the driver (company pays nowhere near either of those figures - the less they pay the driver, the more tax relief they can claim).

To me it's not far removed from tax fraud, how they can force an employee to sign over their personal tax relief is beyond me, but they can and do. If you decide that scheme is not for you, and to take the monthly payment instead and run your own car - you still have to sign over your AMAP tax relief before they will pay the monthly sum, which is enough to buy a 1 year old Vectra, pay for it over 4 years and hope to hell nothing goes wrong with it, all the while trying to get 50mpg from your car of you're going to be out of pocket on every trip.

Why the Government don't close that loop hole, I have no idea. I saw on some fleet websites there were murmurings of the Govt either decreasing the ppm allowances or dropping the 40ppm/10,000 mile limit to maybe even half that, so valid, individual users (claimers) of AMAP relief are going to get hammered financially because of abuse by big companies.

Kancho for PM - I know what I'd do about it.

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