# Not allowed to hand back company car. The law?



## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

Hi all,

Main details;
Been with current company 4 years this October and always been on a car allowance. After years of being pushed to get a company car due to 'savings' I gave in in April this year. Being a petrol head, I wanted something decent so have a £200 per month salary sacrifice for a (hand me down) BMW 1 series.

4 months later, £800 later, I decide I want my own car again as I regret the change.

I email the woman in charge of company cars Tuesday to let her know and she forwards my email to my Director who replies with 'no, he can not change back on to car allowance as he now needs to keep the car for the length of the lease' (another 2 years).

Since then I have escalated this further to get an answer as the car was not ordered for me, I took a spare car (and damaged one at that) from head office and have paid them £800 in total now. I checked the papers I signed and NO mention of keeping for the lease and no release back to allowance.

Since then I have paid a refundable deposit on another car but they wont hold it any longer than today for me, which is fair enough. All the relevant people have gone on leave for the BH weekend so no answers until Tuesday.

Anyone here have experience in HR/ business management etc?

Can they legally deny me handing back a company car and force me to keep it if there is nothing in my employment contract (or anywhere for that matter) that says I need to.

I obviously don't want to make enemies along the way but will be very angry if I lose this car I'm after because of them - admittedly probably my fault for not checking sooner.

Thanks in advance


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## cossiecol (Jun 29, 2014)

All depends what's on the lease agreement mate, companies usually take very little to do with it.

I had the chance for a company car in my last job but found out that if I handed it back in the 2nd year if I left the company I would still need to pay it for the remaining term.


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## m4rkymark (Aug 17, 2014)

If I took a company car I need to keep it for 4yrs or 80000 miles - if we take a 2nd hand company car so to speak i need to keep it until the end of its 4yr life whatever that may be - we can't hand it back early. The only way it can go back early is if you leave the company.


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## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

Interesting, thank you for the input, looks like I need to do more research into this then and have a proper conversation on Tuesday


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## turbosnoop (Apr 14, 2015)

As well as gather info on here, maybe have a chat with citizens advice? Has proved v useful for me in the past, then you can say, dear employer I've had a chat with citizens advice and they say..........

Cue panic from employer


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## MPS101 (May 6, 2011)

The car is almost a side issue you agreed to a change in your employment contract by varying your conditions to end the car allowance and accept the car for which you will pay benefit in kind tax to HMRC. If that is the scenario going back would require another contract change and the employer may not wish to offer that now.


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## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

thanks for all the advice, guess I will have to see what they say on Tuesday


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## Gaz| (Jul 18, 2014)

From my experience with Company cars, and Salary sacrifice, depending on the company your company uses for their fleet cars (Tusker being the biggest in UK), there is always a option to give the car back,however you do have to pay an "early termination fee", which by the sounds of it, your company doesn't want to fork out for.

However at the beginning of our contract with our cars, we are told the agreed term time, and told we can give them back after 6 months, and pay the fee, and we must pay the fee. However with the car being pushed on your by the sounds of it, I wouldn't want to be paying a termination fee if it wasn't made clear to me at the start of the policy.


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## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

Thank you for the above. It wouldn't be going back to the lease company but to head office for someone else to take it on for the remaining 2 years. Their argument is they 'can't afford' to have cars sat at head office not in use. I picked this up less than 1 week after someone dropped it off with their keys when they left one pay day so I don't imagine it would take long to rehome it. I think the issue is, it could end up going to someone who is entitled to a 'higher grade' car and as such the company won't be £200 a month better off..


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## WO-WO (Jun 29, 2015)

I'd say the details of the lease are irrelevant as that contract is made between the lease company and the company hiring the vehicle, the lease company will have no interest in the end user and their t&cs. As mentioned above it is more than likely that they do not want to go through the admin of a another employment contract change.

If the BMW is leased through Alphabet (bmw) they will offer a settlement against that car at any point of the lease with a fair cost eg I terminated a 330d M Sport after 12 months and only had to pay one months rental, the biggest difficulty for you is if the 1 series is the old model as the resale value for bmw will have been reduced quite a bit.

Company cars are a massive political issue within a business so tread carefully as you may end up not having a choice next time, as they can do that to you too unless you have a really water tight contract which includes the standard spec of or marque.

I deal with this within our business and its a headache, our guys won't get a car signed off until they have spent at least two days in one, unless like for like.


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## WP-UK (Apr 24, 2011)

Thanks for further info! I have been told I can be released but only when another employee takes it over which will hopefully be sooner rather than later! Picking up new car Saturday


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

From my experience with company cars and providing them the issue around the lease and contract length is between the employer, the choice of company car and using your own is between you and HR. I could never understand why people would supply their own rather than take the option of a car, granted you might not get the choice but you also have no costs to worry about.


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