Hyundai, Kia & Genesis Lease Buyout: Payoff, Dealer States & Title

By Austin D., Lease Solutions

First, Confirm Who Holds Your Lease

This guide covers leases held by Hyundai Motor Finance, Kia Finance America or Genesis Finance. All three are names Hyundai Capital America does business under, per each brand's own FAQ, and their buyout instructions are nearly word for word the same. That is why a Hyundai lease buyout, a Kia lease buyout and a Genesis lease buyout all follow the steps below. Your statement shows which one holds your lease. If it comes from a bank or credit union instead, that lessor's rules apply, not these. One more thing: the odometer form all three brands use names Hyundai Lease Titling Trust and HCA Exchange, Inc. in its fine print, so seeing those names on your paperwork is expected.

Can You Buy Out the Lease? Yes, at Maturity or Early

Your purchase option is the right to buy the car, typically at the scheduled end of the lease, for a fixed price plus a predetermined purchase option fee, with your contract setting the terms. No fee figure is published, so your contract is the answer key. The price isn't something you negotiate with the lessor; our guide to negotiating a lease buyout covers what can still move.

Hyundai's and Kia's FAQs say lease accounts may be paid off at any time without a penalty, so buying early is allowed there. Genesis's FAQ answers that question only for finance accounts, so Genesis lessees should confirm early-purchase terms on the quote call. An early quote is built differently from the maturity price, as our early lease buyout guide explains, and our partner lenders finance mid-lease buyouts as well as maturity buyouts.

Start With the Buyout Quote

Log in to your account and choose Request Payoff Quote, or call and use the automated system or an agent. Each brand also lists a lease-end line: Hyundai Motor Finance (855) 463-5378, Kia Finance America (855) 537-8542, and Genesis Finance (833) 537-5441.

Two cautions. The quote doesn't include external expenses you may owe but haven't been billed for yet, such as property taxes or parking tickets. And no validity window is published, so read the date on your quote and line up financing before it runs out. (In the eight dealer-required states below, Hyundai and Kia send you to a licensed dealer in your state for the quote.) To check the math first, try the lease buyout calculator. There's no credit pull to see your estimate.

The Eight States Where a Dealer Must Handle the Sale

If your car is garaged or registered in Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina or South Dakota, you can't pay the lessor directly. The reason, in its words: each is “a state that requires a seller to have a motor vehicle dealer license to sell used vehicles.” The instruction is blunt: do not send the lessor the purchase funds. You buy the car through an authorized Hyundai or Kia dealer (a Genesis retailer for Genesis), or another authorized dealer the company holding your lease selects.

The same rule protects buyers who bring their own money: “The dealer cannot increase the sale price above the purchase option price and should not charge additional fees if you have your own financing.” It adds that financing through the dealer may come with extra fees or costs. So outside financing still works here: the loan pays for your purchase, and the dealer handles the sale paperwork. If a dealer quotes above your purchase option price or stacks on fees, read that sentence back to them. It covers dealer add-ons, not your state's sales tax (or its equivalent) or title and registration fees, which still apply.

Genesis lessees in Kansas should ask first: the main Genesis FAQ uses these eight states, but Genesis's separate lease-end site (genesisleaseend.com) adds Kansas. Other lessors keep their own lists (GM Financial's has ten states). Florida and Pennsylvania also have their own tax and title steps, covered in our Florida and Pennsylvania guides.

Everywhere Else: Pay by Mail or Online

Outside those eight states, you pay the lessor directly:

• Payee: Hyundai Motor Finance, Kia Finance America or Genesis Finance, matching your statement. Send a check or money order for the full payoff with your account number written on it.
• Address: P.O. Box 660891, Dallas, TX 75266-0891. By overnight carrier: Attention: Box 660891, 885 East Collins Boulevard, Suite 110, Richardson, TX 75081.
• Odometer statement: attached to the check, e-signed in your online account, faxed to (888) 295-8891, or uploaded to your account as a PDF (the form and the checklist list these options).

Genesis lessees: the Genesis FAQ's lease payoff answer, the newer Genesis odometer form and the lease-end contact page all use the same Dallas box. But an older odometer form that several Genesis FAQ answers still link, and Genesis's separate lease-end site, give an HCA Exchange address in Palatine, Illinois instead, and one Genesis FAQ answer prints a different Dallas box. Go by your quote, and call if they disagree. To pay online, log in, choose Make a Payment and enter the payoff amount; it is a one-time payment on top of any autopay, which you cancel afterward. A large online payoff may need to be split into separate transactions or paid another way, and the published limit isn't consistent, so check the payment screen or call first.

Whichever way you pay, don't skip the odometer statement. In the lessor's own words: “We are legally required to collect this form before we can release your title.” The form cites federal law (and state law, where it applies) requiring the lessee to disclose the mileage when ownership transfers. E-signing it in your account is the fastest route.

Financing With an Outside Lender

There is no separate procedure for outside lenders. The payoff instructions cover any lease payoff check, and the checklist speaks directly to buyers with their own financing. Outside the dealer states, the sequence looks like this:

• Your lender approves a loan to you. You're still the buyer, exercising the purchase option in your own lease.
• The payoff goes to the lessor against your quote, with your account number on it and the odometer statement attached or already e-signed.
• The lessor releases the title to the primary address on your account, the published default. In electronic-title states, you get a paid-in-full letter instead and request the paper title at the DMV, for a DMV fee.
• Your lender's lien is recorded when the car is retitled in your name. If your lender wants the title sent to it instead, see below.

Settle two questions before money moves. First, what kind of funds the lender sends, because the title clock is shorter for certified funds. Second, where the title should go. The FAQ says that on finance accounts, a title or lien release goes to a third party only with the primary account holder's written authorization. It publishes no rule either way for lease buyouts, so if your lender wants the title sent to it directly, ask the lessor what it needs from you. Our guide to how a lease buyout loan works covers the lender side.

Selling the car to an outside dealer is a separate question, and the lessor publishes no policy on it, so ask before counting on a dealer sale. Our third-party lease buyout guide explains the difference between a dealer buying your lease and you buying it with outside money.

Title Timing: 10 or 15 Business Days, Then Your State

Title release is tied to how you pay, counted from the day the full payoff is applied:

• Certified funds or a cashier's check: within 10 business days.
• Non-certified funds (online, by phone, or a personal check): within 15 business days.

Release times may vary where a state regulation requires, and Genesis names AK, DC, FL, MA, MO, NY, OH, OK, PA and TN as states with state-regulated timeframes (it also offers a Title Tracker in your account). Both clocks assume the paperwork is complete: the title goes out when the required documents are in, meaning the odometer statement plus any state form the lessor sends you. Your state's title and registration steps follow; our title transfer guide covers that part.

State Add-Ons the Lessor Sends You

Depending on where the car is garaged, the lessor adds a state-specific step, some before it releases the title and some for your retitling. Its pages don't agree on every state, so treat this as a watch list:

• Bill of sale: one set of answers lists North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; the checklist lists Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Virginia. In any of those six states, watch for a bill of sale to sign and return.
• Illinois: a state tax form (ST-556) that every purchaser signs and returns. Our Illinois guide explains what that form is and how Illinois taxes the buyout.
• Ohio: a sales tax check after payoff, which you present to the Clerk of Courts office when you transfer the title. See our Ohio guide for the courthouse-then-BMV sequence.
• California: a letter the lessor calls a Board of Equalization letter, as proof of sales tax paid at purchase. Our California guide covers the rest.

Property tax is the other state-driven surprise. Hyundai and Kia name AR, CT, KY, MA, MO, RI, TX, VA and WV as personal property tax states, where the lessor pays the bill for your car and passes it to you under your contract. Other pages of theirs and Genesis's add a few more (Alaska's Juneau and North Slope, Louisiana's New Orleans, Nebraska, North Carolina and South Carolina), and all of them say other states and localities may tax too. If your state taxes vehicles as personal property, expect a bill. Since the quote leaves out property taxes not yet billed, a charge can still reach you afterward.

Sales tax on the buyout itself is its own topic; our guide to lease buyout sales tax explains how states tax a buyout and who collects it.

Returning Instead: The Loyalty Reward

The lessor's case for returning the car instead is its Loyalty Reward:

• Hyundai and Kia: lease or finance a new vehicle of the same brand through Hyundai Motor Finance or Kia Finance America within 60 days of returning your lease, and it covers the disposition (turn-in) fee up to $400 and excess wear and use up to $500, a total of up to $900.
• Genesis: the same two items for a new Genesis through Genesis Finance, plus excess mileage below 2,500 miles covered up to $625 (at $0.25 a mile), a total of up to $1,525.

That's real money if you want a new car from the same brand, financed by the same company. It doesn't help if you want to keep the car you have. The fee it covers only exists on a return: the lessor defines the disposition fee as payable at lease end if the lessee does not purchase the vehicle, and buying means no turn-in inspection, so no wear or mileage bill. The Hyundai and Kia rewards don't list excess mileage at all (their lease-end overviews cite $0.20 a mile; your contract is the final word). Our guides to over-mileage costs and lease equity run the rest of the comparison.

The Lessor's Own Checklist: Before and After Payoff

• Verify every address on the account, because the title goes to the address on record.
• Make sure every posted payment cleared, and cancel automatic payments, whether they run through ACI Payments, Inc. or your own bank.
• After the title arrives, register the car and cancel or transfer the lease plates as your state requires. Otherwise you remain liable for tickets, official fees and taxes billed on that vehicle.

Your side of the paperwork is short; our document checklist lists it.

Where a Broker Fits

Everything above is doable on your own. What we change is the order and the legwork. Lease Solutions is a broker, not a lender: financing is arranged through partner lenders, and all loans are subject to lender credit approval. You fill out one application, and your specialist chooses the lender or lenders with you and tells you before any credit inquiry is run.

Once a loan is approved, we coordinate the payoff with the lessor, get the odometer statement and any state form signed and returned, and handle the title, registration and plates, with no DMV trip for you in most states. In the eight dealer-required states, we coordinate the dealer step with you. Our partner lenders can finance your state's sales tax and title fees into the loan along with the payoff, subject to lender credit approval. Our fee is one flat $695 processing fee, disclosed before you apply and typically rolled into your financing. Lenders also pay us for arranging completed loans; that comes from the lender's side of the deal, never as a markup on your buyout or payoff (how we make money has the details). Start with the buyout calculator, or get your buyout options.

Hyundai, Kia & Genesis Lease Buyout FAQ

Lease Solutions LLC is an independent lease-buyout financing broker, not a lender, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Hyundai Capital America, Hyundai Motor Finance, Kia Finance America or Genesis Finance, or any vehicle brand named above. Financing is arranged through partner lenders; all loans are subject to lender credit approval. Details of the lessor's lease-end process reflect its published materials as of September 2026, including the Hyundai Motor Finance FAQ, Kia Finance America FAQ, Genesis Finance FAQ, the Hyundai and Kia lease-end overviews, the Genesis lease-end site, and the Odometer Disclosure Statement. Addresses, fees, and policies change; confirm current details with the lessor before acting. This article is general information, not financial or legal advice.