# What happens if you damage a car during a lease?

URL: https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/guides/damage-during-a-prestige-lease

Last checked: 2026-10-13

**Report it to us straight away, arrange nothing yourself, and expect the term to continue — the term does not pause because the car is being repaired. Your liability on a covered claim is capped at that vehicle’s insurance excess. What happens about a replacement car is set out in your agreement rather than assumed.**

Damage on an agreement that runs for months is a different problem from damage on a short booking. What happens to the term, the car and the record while it is put right.

## The first hour, briefly

Make sure everyone is safe; if anybody is hurt or the car is blocking a live carriageway, that is an emergency call before it is anything else. Then tell us, before the car is moved if it can safely stay put — recovering a low car is not a job for a standard flatbed and a strap.

Photograph everything: the damage, the position of the vehicles, the road, the other registration, the other driver's name and insurer. Do not admit liability at the scene. That is for the insurers, and an apology can complicate a claim you would otherwise have won.

The mechanics of the claim itself — the excess, what the deposit can and cannot be used for, what is excluded — are set out in full in [what happens if you damage a car](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/guides/what-happens-if-you-damage-a-hire-supercar). This guide is about what it does to the rest of your term.

## Does the agreement pause while the car is repaired?

Not by default. A lease runs for the term you agreed at the monthly figure you agreed, and neither stops because the vehicle is off the road. That is the honest answer and it is the one worth knowing before it happens rather than after.

What can be arranged around it is a separate question, and it is one to settle in writing at the quote stage rather than in the week you need it. On a car arranged through a partner it is the partner's position that applies, not ours.

So ask two things before you sign: what happens to the monthly payments if the car is off the road for a period, and what happens about a replacement vehicle. Have both answers in writing. A guide is not the right place to promise you either.

## Why does a prestige repair take longer?

Because almost every part of it is a specialist job. The repairer has to be right for the make, the paint has to match on finishes that are often multi-layer, and structural work on aluminium or carbon is not the same trade as steel. Add parts that come from one place in the world, and a straightforward-looking repair can sit still for a while.

That is why the sequence matters more than the urgency. A car assessed properly and repaired once is back sooner than a car rushed to the nearest available bodyshop and then put right again afterwards.

It is also why arranging your own repair is the single worst move available. It can invalidate the claim, it puts a non-approved repair on a car that is not yours, and it turns a covered incident into a dispute about the work itself.

## What about small damage over a long term?

Report it when it happens rather than saving it for collection. A kerbed rim in month two is a small, well-documented event. The same kerbed rim discovered at collection alongside three other things is an argument.

Over three months or more, small things accumulate in a way they never do on a short booking. A stone chip, a trolley mark in a car park, a scuff on a splitter from a ramp that looked fine — each is minor, and the sum of them is what people are actually surprised by at the end.

Keep a running record. A photograph and a date, sent to us when it happens, costs nothing and turns the final inspection into a confirmation rather than a discovery.

## Where is the line between damage and wear over months?

Wear and tear is what a careful driver produces by using the car normally for the length of the term. Road film, brake dust, insect marks, and the tyre wear of the miles you have covered are all expected.

Damage is an event: a kerbed rim, a cracked windscreen, a scraped arch, a dented panel, a torn roof. The distinction is not about size, it is about cause.

The genuinely grey area is chips. A handful of motorway chips across three thousand miles is different from a peppered bonnet, and the conversation is held against photographs rather than memory. That is the whole reason both sides photograph the car at handover and again at collection.

## What does it cost you?

On a claim the policy covers, your contribution is capped at that vehicle's insurance excess and no more. Across the catalogue those run £1,500 to £35,000, and £2,000 to £10,000 on cars in our own fleet, with the figure for your car stated in writing before anything is agreed.

The security deposit is separate money and is not the same thing. It is held for the term against a card in the hirer's own name — £1,500 to £50,000 across the catalogue — and returned at the end once the car is checked, less anything properly deducted.

An excluded event is a different situation altogether. If the policy does not cover what happened — an unnamed driver, track use, driving under the influence — the excess stops being a ceiling and the liability is the whole cost. That is why we are inflexible about who drives the car.

## How is it all read at collection?

Against the handover record, which is the reason that record is taken so carefully at the start. The car is walked round and photographed, the mileage and the fuel or charge are read, and everything is compared with what was recorded on the day the term began.

Where everything matches, the deposit is released on the timing given to you in writing. Where it does not, you should already know why, because anything reported during the term is on file and anything visible at collection is looked at while you are standing next to the car.

Nothing is assessed from photographs alone after the event, and nothing is decided in a room you are not in. That is a deliberate choice about how the end of a term should work.

## What not to do

Do not arrange your own repair, however convenient the local bodyshop is.
Do not delay reporting. A late report is harder to evidence and looks worse than the damage usually is.
Do not let an unnamed driver take the car, even for ten minutes, even to move it.
Do not settle privately at the roadside. A cash arrangement with another driver collapses the moment a claim is made anyway.
Do not assume a mark is too small to mention. It is smaller now than it will look at collection.

## Frequently asked questions

### Will damage end the agreement early?

Not usually. A repairable car goes in for repair and the term continues. Where a vehicle cannot be returned to service at all, what happens next is governed by the agreement, which is one more reason to read the termination section before signing rather than after an incident.

### Can I use my own insurance for a repair?

No. The car is not yours, so the claim is handled through the arrangement that covers it, and that arrangement is confirmed with you in writing before the agreement starts. Tell us what happened and let the claim run through the proper route.

### What if the damage was not my fault?

Tell us anyway, immediately, with the other driver’s details. If liability is accepted by the other side you may pay nothing at all, but that outcome depends on the claim being opened properly and early rather than reconstructed later.

### Does reporting damage affect my deposit straight away?

Reporting it does not, in itself, take money from anything. The deposit is settled at the end of the term against what is actually found, and reporting early makes that assessment simpler rather than harsher.

*Pre-launch note: the driver criteria, deposits, excesses and mileage allowances quoted here are read from Performance & Prestige's own catalogue data, which is still being confirmed with the owner and the insurer. Read them as the shape of the figures rather than as a quotation. What binds is your written quote and your agreement.*