What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?

Fair wear and tear is normal deterioration from reasonable use, not damage or neglect. The finance provider should assess the returned car against the standards referenced by the agreement.

In relation to “What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?”, pCP and hire purchase are credit agreements, so the useful numbers are not only the monthly payment but also total payable, settlement and any end-of-contract amount.

For “What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?”, read the agreement for the cash price, deposit, total amount payable, optional final payment, mileage allowance and return conditions. The monthly payment alone does not show the whole cost.

For “What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?”, photograph the car before return, including wheels, glass, interior and service history. Small condition disputes are easier to resolve with dated evidence.

For “What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?”, this answer is written for a Northern Ireland user, but some vehicle-registration, consumer-credit and insurance functions operate on a UK-wide basis. The attached sources — MoneyHelper - Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), MoneyHelper - Buying a car with Hire Purchase, and nidirect - Contact Consumerline — are therefore deliberately mixed where the responsible authority is UK-wide. That is more accurate than forcing every point into an NI-only source.

Practical next step for “What counts as fair wear and tear on a PCP car?”: open the finance agreement and find the figures or clause relevant to this question. If you are changing or ending the agreement, request the current position directly from the finance provider before promising the car to anyone else.