Car Lease Debacle

[gla...@gmail.com]

There's the one extra line the major brand dealer wrote into a new
car
lease, and it seems there are at least two principal ways of
interpreting it. Here's the line.

"This Lease is subject to assignee approval within ten days of
execution. Otherwise, this Lease shall be void, and Lessee shall
return the Vehicle on demand."

That could mean:

1) if it's not approved by the assignee within 10 days, then it's too
late for them to get it approved and too late for them to void the
lease and too late for them to demand returning the car and the
Lessor
is still as named on the lease...the dealership. In other words, the
lease
is only "subject to" assignee approval within 10 days, but after 10
days
it's no longer governed by whether an assignee approves it.

2) if it's not approved by the assignee within 10 days, then the
lease
is simply void and they can demand the car back any time.

Which is the correct interpretation?

The assignment wasn't rejected by the assignee until 20 days after
execution of the lease. The dealership is named as the Lessor on the
lease. It has been 50 days since execution. The dealership
("Lessor") refuses to accept monthly payments theoretically due to
them, and instead advised around 30-40 days from execution to wait
until it's due at the assignee. The assignee denied the lease so
they
will not accept monthly payments. Is there a valid lease here or a
void lease? Can the Lessor legitimately deny payment? At what point
is this going to come to a head?

[Al Bundy]

Leases and car sales are very time sensitive. I read that clause
literally to mean that since the assignee did not approve within the
ten days, you don't have a valid lease. The fact that they formalized
the rejection at 20 days is meaningless. They were required to approve
it within the ten days. You are driving their car. I would return the
car and get any upfront money back for failure to perform.