Return of company car and personal user contribution clawback

[verifiable]

I am leaving my current employer at the end of this month and will be returning my company car.

An extract of the company car policy is below:

"5.6 Personal User Contribution
An employee may choose a car that has a higher monthly rental payment than the monthly company car contributions as set out in Clause 5.1.1 and Clause 5.1.2 of this Policy, up to a maximum of an additional £150.00 per month. The employee will pay the additional amount (Personal User Contribution) as a net monthly deduction via the payroll. Employees who elect to pay a Personal User Contribution will be required to sign a Company Car Repayment Agreement prior to the order for their company car being approved. By signing the Agreement the employee agrees that in the event they leave prior to the end of the car lease period for a reason other than redundancy, they will pay back a penalty payment equal to the amount of the Personal User Contributions that would have been payable for the remainder of the lease period."

In my case, I did choose a car that had a higher monthly rental payment than the company car contribution but I did not sign a Company Car Repayment Agreement. Instead, there was an email exchange between the Fleet Manager and me:

"Subject: Trade Up Confirmation - Vehicle

Dear XXXXX,

I received your order for a Vehicle for approval.

As there is a personal trade-up contribution I have to ask you to confirm that you accept the trade-up of £109.09 which will be deducted from your salary each month and should you leave before the end of the lease period, you will be liable for any remaining months of trade-up contribution.

Do you want to confirm the order on this basis?


Best regards,"


To which I replied:

"Hi XXXX,

Yes – I accept the terms of the trade-up.

Kind regards,"

So my question is - is this legally enforceable based on an email without a signed Repayment Agreement as stated in the Company Car Policy? I have not had any Personal User Contributions deducted through payroll while I have had the vehicle for the past 12 months. The costs will be significant as there are 36 months of the 48 month lease still left to run.

Your advice would be much appreciated!

[ULA]

Even though you did not sign the Repayment Agreement you have been made aware by the Fleet Manager of the trade up and what that would be as deduction each month and that that you would be liable for any remaining months. You were asked for your confirmation for the order being processed on that basis and you agreed by return of email. Yes you are liable.

[Pezza54]

What I fail to understand is why you haven't been deducted monthly additional contributions from your salary. Do you know if it is just an admin error? Or is it possible that the fleet manager made a mistake ordering the car without a signed agreement?
Are all new employees allowed to chose a new car and not be allocated a used car previously driven by an employee that has left? This could turn out to be costly to your employer who faces paying lease car termination charges for employees that choose a car with no or little additional contribution and then leave during the lease period

[verifiable]

Thanks for your replies.

I had 6 months of probation during which time i had a hire car, which was taken away the day my order arrived. It was a slick process, which I assumed would follow the car policy (which it did up to that point).

Like you, Pezza54, I am wondering whether the monthly deductions didn’t happen because the paperwork was not processed correctly, through a formal agreement!

I will find out next week, assuming the Fleet team will contact me to take the car back. It’s just hard to understand how the first part of the agreement hasn’t been implemented but the second part will be enforced.

[atticus]

And be aware that they may catch up with you about the deductions that should have been made to date.