The Fine Print
I had a lawyer friend who leased a car from a dealer that had a really poorly written contract. Depending on how a car lease is written (and maybe depending on what state you’re in), the dealer either continues to hold title to the car while it’s leased to you (with the contract giving you right of possession) OR you hold title to the car while the dealership has a lien on the title so that ownership returns to the dealer at the end of the lease.
This contract gave the dealer the lien, rather than the title, BUT the way it was written, the entire contract expired at the end of the lease term, including the provision that returned the title to the dealer. So essentially, the contract disappears, my friend is left with both the car and the title to the car, and the dealer has no legal rights to the car.
The dealership called her and asked when she would be returning the car, she said, “I’m not”. They said, “Oh, you’re buying the car?” She says “no I’m just gonna keep it, thanks”. The dealer sued her, then once they looked closer they realized they screwed up the contract and offered to settle.
Since she wasn’t completely confident that a judge wouldn’t just find a way to justify giving the car back to the dealer, she settled but the settlement ended up being her buying the car for like 20% of its value.