Action: Form specifies what dealer will pay

On March 23, I leased a Toyota Camry from Sun Toyota in New Port Richey. The lease is my fourth Toyota lease and my third from Sun Toyota. The procedure when you turn in your old leased vehicle for a new one is that the dealer purchases whatever monthly payments are due plus whatever overmileage is on the vehicle or whatever rate is written in the contract. The mileage from the vehicle is compared with the agreed-upon mileage on the contract, and the dealer calls the finance company to find out the number of payments left on the contract. Everything is totaled up, including a final fee of $250, and a check is sent by the dealer to the finance company. The leased vehicle is no longer the lessee's (mine), and I then proceed to lease another vehicle.

The salesman at Sun Toyota, Don Crossley, assured me a number of times that this was the case with this vehicle I turned in. I signed the lease termination acknowledgment with the assurance that everything was taken care of.

A short time later, I got a bill from Southeast Toyota Finance for $627.39. The manager at Sun Toyota had written up the lease termination agreement, and when I asked him why I got this bill, he said I had told him there were only three payments left when there were in fact four. I assured him that at no time did I tell him how many payments were left on the vehicle. He knows full well that to get final payments due, he has to call the finance company and give it my account number and it will give the number of payments left, just as was done with the last three leases. On every lease it clearly states that there is a $250 disposition fee, which any manager should know about and which should have been made part of the payment to Southeast Toyota Finance. When I asked why he hadn't included the $250 in the final payment, he said, "I guess I forgot."

I continue to get a bill plus a letter threatening to turn it over to a collection agency. I feel absolutely taken in by this deal and I am hoping that you can help me straighten out this ordeal. Michael Hanlon

Response: Harry Norton, general sales manager for Sun Toyota in New Port Richey, said the agreement to which you refer is the "lease termination acknowledgment" form that you signed on March 23. On this form, you and Sun Toyota agreed that Sun Toyota was to remit three payments of $269.70 plus overmileage of 11,346 at 15 cents a mile, for a grand total of $2,511. Southeast Toyota was not available that night, he said, and the automated system does not give information on how many payments may or may not be due.

Norton said it turned out that you owed four payments, not just the three Sun Toyota had agreed to pay, in addition to the $250 disposition fee. There was also tax on the overmiles on the vehicle in the amount of $114.58, and these three amounts totaled up to the bill of $627.39, which you owe Southeast Toyota Finance. He said the disposition fee is set up by each leasing company and is sent with a final invoice combined with any damages or overmiles that the customer may be charged on the previous lease. This is not something that is normally paid by the dealer but by the lessee, he said.

Lee Johansen spoke to you on April 23 about a mistake regarding the taxes on the overmiles. He had not realized this was a taxable item, and because of this he offered to pay the $114.58 you owed on this bill. This was not acceptable to you, however, so he said he would contact Southeast Toyota and see what could be done. Norton said Southeast Toyota told Johansen that you owed four payments, not the three calculated on the lease termination agreement, plus the taxes and the $250 disposition fee, and that the invoice you had received from it was correct. When this information was relayed to you, you became upset with Johansen, Norton said. You also expressed your displeasure to Don Crossley and said you planned to contact a lawyer.

Norton said Sun Toyota heard nothing further from you until it received your complaint from Action. The lease termination agreement clearly states that it will remit the remaining three payments and the overmileage. It does not state that it would pay the $250 disposition fee nor a fourth lease payment.

Norton said he did agree to pay the tax on your bill of $114.58 for overmiles and is still willing to do so.

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Action solves problems and gets answers for you. If you have a question, or your own attempts to resolve a consumer complaint have failed, write Times Action, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or call your Action number, (727) 893-8171, or, outside of Pinellas, toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 8171, to leave a recorded request. Requests will be accepted only by mail or voice mail; calls cannot be returned. We will not be responsible for personal documents, so please send only photocopies. If your complaint concerns merchandise ordered by mail, we need copies of both sides of your canceled check. We may require additional information or prefer to reply by mail; therefore, readers must provide a full mailing address, including ZIP code. Names of letter writers will not be omitted except in unusual circumstances. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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