Suffering from lessee’s remorse?

In the past, making an early exit from a car lease was about as easy as getting out of jail free. Now a handful of websites are offering restless consumers a chance at freedom while also providing an option for those who want to lease but aren’t happy with the terms their local dealerships are offering.

Two leading lease transfer sites -- LeaseTrader.com and Swapalease.com -- operate somewhat like the online car-selling services that have become common in recent years.

Sellers (the leaseholders) list their vehicles in a searchable database. Buyers (who assume the lease) contact the sellers directly. Assuming that a deal can be struck, such sites help usher the lease transfer process through the finance company, collecting fees from both parties.

“For the person getting out of the lease, it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” said Joanne Helperin, who follows the trend for auto website Edmunds.com. “Until now they were just stuck.”

LeaseTrader cites a recent study estimating that nearly half of the current 17 million vehicle leaseholders in the U.S. want to get out of their leases early.

Changing circumstances, such as the arrival of a new child or a sudden drop in income, can saddle people with a leased vehicle that is suddenly too small or too expensive. It’s no accident that an article about lease transfers appeared recently in Pregnancy magazine. (Out with the Miata -- in with the minivan!)

And lease transfer sites are reporting a rising tide of users who are caught in the housing crisis and can no longer afford their monthly lease payments, or who want to unload vehicles with lousy fuel economy ratings.

“We are hearing from our clients that they’re looking to get out of their vehicles because of economy-related issues, such as home foreclosures,” said Scot Hall, head of operations at Cincinnati-based Swapalease. The number of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles listed on their site is also on the rise.

Lease transfers can benefit the person assuming the lease as well, Helperin said. They can save money by leasing a vehicle without making a down payment, or they may be looking to assume a lease with only a year or two remaining -- a much shorter term than dealers typically offer.

“When I get out of my lease later this year I may go shopping for a short-term lease that I want to assume,” she said.

Jason Mehrvarz, owner of GDI Computer Consulting in Van Nuys, turned to LeaseTrader after his bank told him it would cost $50,000 to get out of the four-year lease on his wife’s 2006 Range Rover SUV.

Within six weeks he transferred the lease to a buyer in Sherman Oaks. He replaced the Land Rover with a leased 2008 Mercedes-Benz ML350 SUV, reducing his monthly lease payment from $970 to $580. The total cost in fees was less than $400.

“It was a very positive experience,” Mehrvarz said. “I would absolutely do it again.”

He especially liked LeaseTrader’s policy of pre-certifying buyers by means of an initial credit check, helping to weed out folks who were just kicking tires.

“That means I’m not getting contacted by the whole world,” Mehrvarz said. “I’m getting contacted by someone who has gone through at least one filter.”

The lease transfer sites stress that their transactions are not subleases. A transfer must be approved by the bank or auto finance company that handled the original lease, and in most cases the new leaseholder assumes all liabilities associated with the lease.

The costs to users are fairly modest. On LeaseTrader’s site, which has 20,000 to 25,000 listings, sellers pay $79 to list their vehicle for an unlimited time. Both parties pay an additional $150 when a transaction is completed.

Swapalease, which lists about 11,600 vehicles, charges about $50 for a basic listing, and an additional $95 (to be paid by the seller) if a transaction is completed.

On both sites, shoppers can browse for free, but must pay a nonrefundable fee to contact sellers. (Swapalease charges around $35 for 45 days; LeaseTrader charges about $40 for 60 days.) There are other costs as well. Assuming the lease of a car located far away means hiring a vehicle inspector (typically $100 to $200) and a transport service (which can cost more than $1,000, depending on the distance.) Both sites will connect buyers with firms that provide those services.

Users of both sites, however, have complained on online consumer forums about finding a car they want and paying the upfront fee, only to discover that the vehicle is no longer available.

Sergio Stiberman, chief executive of LeaseTrader, said his site has worked to improve the timeliness of its listings, and vehicles that are in the process of being transferred are now clearly marked. He noted that good deals go fast -- often within the 24 hours that it takes LeaseTrader to perform a credit check and activate a buyer’s account.

Although Swapalease has been around since 1999 and LeaseTrader since 2000, the practice is just beginning to gain traction. (Online data trackers such as comScore don’t even have a separate category for measuring visitors to lease trading sites.)

Leasing transfer companies had to overcome initial resistance from the auto and finance companies, which traditionally have shown little inclination to let customers out of car leases. Nissan Motor Co., which also makes the Infiniti brand, said it still wouldn’t allow lease transfers. (The ban affects only leases handled through the carmaker’s in-house financing arm. Leases handled by banks or independent finance companies aren’t affected.)

Honda Motor Co. allows lease transfers, but only on a case-by-case basis, the company said. Audi allows transfers on a restricted basis, according to lease transfer sites.

With auto sales soft, automakers are aggressively pushing sweet lease offers on new cars, and lease terms are getting shorter. For those reasons, some dealers argue that consumers may be better off shopping for a new leased vehicle than assuming the lease on a used one.

At Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach, the biggest Mercedes-Benz dealer in the country, typical lease terms now run from 27 to 33 months, said Garth Blumenthal, general manager. And the monthly payments are often lower than they were on 48-month leases a few years back, he said.

But even those shorter terms can’t match the needs of some of Swapalease’s customers.

“We have people who swap leases because they want to drive an SUV in the winter,” Hall said, “and a convertible in the summer.”

martin.zimmerman@

latimes.com