Will I be charged for scratches at the end of lease?
Quick answer: Yes, you can be charged for scratches at the end of a lease. Under fair wear and tear, single scratches under 25 mm are acceptable provided the clear coat isn't broken, but a cluster of scratches is still chargeable. Most will either polish out cheaply with paintwork correction, be tidied with a cosmetic repair, or need a full repaint -- so it is usually worth trying to polish first.
Scratches are one of the trickiest items on any end-of-lease inspection. They range from faint wash marks that are barely visible off-angle, to key-scratches running the full length of a car and cutting through to bare metal. Because the damage sits on such a wide spectrum, and because the BVRLA fair wear and tear guide still leaves interpretation to the lessor, two cars with similar-looking marks can come back with very different recharge bills.
What the fair wear and tear guide actually says about scratches
The BVRLA fair wear and tear standard treats a single scratch of less than 25 mm as acceptable, provided the paintwork isn't broken -- in other words, the clear coat is still intact and no primer or metal is showing. Anything longer, anything that has cut through the paintwork, or a cluster of shorter scratches grouped on one panel will normally be chargeable. Lessors apply their own rates on top of the guide, so the exact figure depends on who the contract is with rather than a BVRLA price list.
How inspectors grade a scratch
- Length measured with a ruler -- the 25 mm threshold is a hard line for single marks.
- Depth -- has it broken the clear coat, or is it only sitting in the top layer?
- Grouping and location -- multiple short scratches on one panel tend to be treated as one defect, and a scratch on a bumper corner is viewed differently to one across a door.
- Whether it photographs -- if the inspector can capture it in daylight, expect it on the report.
What it usually costs to put right
There are broadly three outcomes once a chargeable scratch has been flagged:
If the clear coat is unbroken, paintwork correction will often remove the mark entirely for a fraction of a repaint cost. Where the clear coat has been breached but the damage is contained, a localised SMART repair blends a small area without touching the surrounding panel. If the scratch runs the length of a door or straight through to metal, the panel will typically be stripped and resprayed -- which is where recharge figures climb quickly.
A real-world example
We have had 100 mm scratches with broken paint where we polished most of the scratch away until only about 25 mm remained, then touched in the small section where the paint was actually broken. That is borderline as an 'acceptable repair', but the alternative was the panel being repainted and the recharge reflecting the full respray price. Getting a second opinion before the hand-back inspection almost always pays for itself here.
Before the inspection: your options
- Wash the car in good light and photograph every scratch from the angle it shows up -- keep these photos; they are your evidence if the end-of-lease invoice looks wrong.
- Measure anything that looks close to the 25 mm line -- borderline marks are the easiest wins.
- Try a proper polish first on anything where the clear coat is still intact.
- Get a quote for a cosmetic repair and compare it to the likely recharge before committing to anything.
When it is worth paying for a DIY fix first
The bottom line is that most scratches will either polish out (cheap) or need a respray (expensive). If a local polish or SMART repair costs less than the expected recharge -- and doesn't leave a worse mark than the original -- it is usually worth attempting before the car goes back. A botched DIY touch-up that needs stripping and redoing, on the other hand, will push the recharge up, not down, so the skill of the repair matters as much as the price. For the full decision -- when polishing, a SMART repair, or touch-up paint makes sense versus accepting the charge -- see should I repair scratches on my leased car?