The term, break a lease, generally refers to the concept of ending a car lease before its normal contract end date.

Since most leases are designed to be completed according to the schedule specified in the lease agreement, early termination can often be expensive.

Many leasing consumers don’t understand that leasing is not renting and can’t be ended at any time simply by returning the vehicle. To break a car lease means breaking a legal finance contract.

Breaking a car lease usually means paying the difference between the leased vehicle’s current wholesale auction value and the amount still owed on the lease. This can be a substantial amount and usually surprises leasing consumers who attempt to get out of a car lease early.

Lease companies usually describe, in the small print of their lease contract, how they compute an early termination lease balance, and it’s usually quite complicated and not to the advantage of the customer.

Since leasing customers can’t compute this lease balance on their own, the only way to find it is to contact the lease company and ask.

The best and lowest cost method to break a car lease is actually to transfer the lease to another person who is interested in taking the vehicle and taking over monthly payments. This can only be accomplished with the agreement and help of the lease finance company.

For anyone wanting to do a lease transfer, there are online companies who match up “sellers” with “buyers” and help with the paperwork. This process has been made popular by Swapalease.com, a well-known and respected company that has been very successful in transferring leases for thousands of people.

There are fees and service charges involved in a lease transfer, but it’s much less expensive than any other method of breaking a lease.

This method may not work for some people because their lease company may not allow transfers. In this case, other options must be considered. These other options are explained in the Lease Termination Guide, which is part of our optional Lease Kit.