Why this comes up in Brooklyn so often
If you're reading this, you've probably seen an ad, or gotten a text from a neighbor, offering to hand off the rest of a car lease. Someone's moving, someone got a company car, someone just can't make the payment anymore. In a lot of Brooklyn, where a car sits on the street instead of in a driveway, this happens more than people expect. A lease that still has a year or two left is easier to pass along than to break, and it's cheaper for both sides than paying it out or eating an early termination fee.
The confusing part is that a lease transfer isn't really a sale. You're not buying the car. You're stepping into someone else's contract with the leasing company, taking on their monthly payment, their mileage limit, and whatever condition the car is already in. That last part matters more here than in places where cars live in a garage.
What to actually check on the car before you take it on
Walk around it in daylight, not under streetlights. Brooklyn winters are hard on cars that live outside all year. Road salt gets into wheel wells and along rocker panels and starts rust that isn't visible from three feet away. Crouch down and look at the underside of the doors and the frame near the wheels, not just the paint.
Ask for maintenance records, especially anything about the undercarriage, brakes, or exhaust. Street parking means more curb strikes, more pothole damage from winter freeze-thaw cycles, and more time spent idling in alternate-side traffic, which adds engine hours without adding much mileage. A car with low miles but three winters of street parking can be in worse shape than a car with twice the mileage that's been garaged.
Check the tires and brakes yourself if you know how, or bring someone who does. This is the point where it stops being a homeowner-level check. If you're not comfortable getting under the car or reading a maintenance history, a mechanic can look it over for less than a bad surprise would cost you later.
More on this from What Happens When A Car Lease Is Transferred.
The parking and paperwork side, which is where it actually goes wrong
Before you agree to anything, find out if the car has any parking tickets or camera violations attached to it, and whether they follow the plate or the leaseholder. In New York City, unresolved tickets can follow the vehicle registration, and you don't want to inherit someone else's alternate-side violations along with the payment. Ask directly and ask for proof, not just a verbal assurance.
You'll also need to sort out insurance before the transfer is final, and in Brooklyn that's rarely cheap. Get a quote before you commit to the monthly lease number, because people forget to add insurance into the math and end up with a payment that's higher than what they were trying to avoid.
If the car doesn't have off-street parking waiting for it, think about where it's actually going to live. A car that gets a spot in a driveway in Bensonsurst is going to fare very differently over the lease term than one that circles blocks in Park Slope looking for parking twice a week.
The parts of this that aren't a homeowner's job
The leasing company has to approve the transfer. This isn't optional and it isn't something you can work around with a handshake and a check. They'll run a credit check on the new person and there's usually a transfer fee, sometimes covered by the person leaving, sometimes not. Get that in writing before any money changes hands.
If there's a dispute later, about who's responsible for excess wear, mileage overages, or damage from before the transfer, that's a leasing company and possibly a legal question, not something you settle over text messages. Read the transfer agreement closely, or have someone who understands lease language read it with you, before you sign.
A reasonable way to think about it
A lease transfer can be a fair deal for both sides. It saves the person leaving from an expensive early exit, and it can get you into a car for less than a new lease would cost. But the car has usually lived through at least one Brooklyn winter, and that leaves marks that aren't always obvious on a quick look.
Treat the inspection like you would a used car you're buying outright, even though you're not buying it. Get the parking and ticket history straight before you sign anything. And once you're past the visual check and into questions about brakes, frame condition, or the actual contract language, that's the point to bring in someone who does this for a living rather than guessing.