Posted on 06/16/2021 6:16:22 PM PDT by know.your.why
Where do you get the idea that you have even one cent of “equity” in the car? If it’s a straightforward lease, you own nothing. You haven’t been buying a percentage of the car. You’ve just been paying for the privilege of driving it.
To use an imperfect analogy, if you go “halves” with someone on a five-dollar lottery ticket that hits for a million bucks, you own half a million of it. If you lend your friend $2.50 so he can buy the lottery ticket (to make it simple let’s say he just asks you for the money and doesn’t even say what he’s going to use if for) and he wins a million, you get the $2.50 back.
I’m no expert but its seems still we’d need more information, mainly the wording of the lease.
The amount you owe on the lease is what you owe on the “diminished value”. When you lease, you are taking an amortized loan on the amount that the car is depreciating over the term of the lease. The owner (the company) is entitled to the car back after the lease ends, and still has equity in the car. They are looking for that equity.
Just to be clear, I am not a lawyer. Just my opinion.
You own the liability, not the insurance company. Try to cut a deal with the leasing company that you will pay the next two month’s lease, then buy out the lease. Then use the payment from the insurance company to cover the buyout.
If you don’t own the car, isn’t this between the owner and the insurance company?
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