Advice7 min read5 views
Updated 4 November 2026 · Written by the Wahanaya.lk team
Yes, you can keep paying your lease from abroad, but you must tell your finance company, arrange insured and authorised use of the vehicle, and know that leaving it unused for over two months without the right paperwork breaks the Motor Traffic Act.
Yes. Leasing companies don't care where you are physically as long as the instalment lands on time. Set up an online banking transfer, a standing instruction from a Sri Lankan rupee or foreign currency account, or a remittance through your bank's migrant worker service before you fly out. Some banks offer Personal Foreign Currency Accounts (PFCA) specifically so migrant workers can receive salary and pay off loans or leases from overseas — DFCC's Manusavi scheme and People's Bank's Expats loan facility are examples of this kind of banking support. Talk to your own leasing company about the exact method they'll accept, because not every finance company processes foreign transfers the same way.
If nobody is using it and nobody has been formally authorised, you're sitting in a grey zone under the Motor Traffic Act once you've been gone more than two months. The law says the vehicle shouldn't be used until either a temporary owner is registered with the DMT, or the person driving it can show they were authorised by you to use it while you're away. In practice, many people just park the vehicle at a relative's house and leave it idle — which avoids the legal question but creates a different one: batteries die, tyres develop flat spots, rust starts in humid garages, and the revenue licence and insurance can lapse unnoticed. If you're not planning to drive it again for a year or more, it's worth seriously comparing that cost against settling the lease early or selling once you've paid it off, which you can check against current market prices on price-check.
Only someone you've clearly put in writing as authorised, and who is also covered by your insurance policy — these are two separate things and people often sort out only one. Verbally telling your brother "go ahead and use it" isn't the same as having a signed authorisation letter he can show the police or the DMT if asked, and it's definitely not the same as your insurer recognising him as a permitted driver. Insurance exceptions in Sri Lanka typically exclude cover when the vehicle is driven by someone not authorised under the policy, so if your relative crashes the car while using it without being added to the policy, you could find the claim refused. Before you leave, do three things: put the authorisation in writing, call your insurer to add or confirm the authorised driver, and ask the DMT or your insurance agent whether your specific situation needs temporary owner registration.
If you want someone to act on your behalf for anything beyond just driving the car — signing DMT forms, handling an insurance claim, dealing with the leasing company if there's a dispute, or renewing documents — yes, a Power of Attorney makes life far easier for whoever you leave in charge. Without it, your family member can use the vehicle day to day but will struggle the moment any official paperwork needs your signature and you're not in the country. A notary or lawyer can draw up a Power of Attorney covering vehicle matters specifically, which is cheaper and faster than a general one if that's all you need.
The most common mistake is assuming leasing from abroad runs on autopilot. People set up a standing instruction, then forget that the account it draws from needs enough balance every month, in the right currency, with no interruption — a delayed remittance or a bank holding a foreign transfer can cause a missed instalment even when you meant to pay. The second mistake is letting someone drive the vehicle without checking insurance, discovering the gap only after an accident. The third is leaving the revenue licence or emission test to lapse because nobody remembered it needed doing in person. And the fourth is not telling the leasing company anything at all — if they can't reach you and payments stop, they'll treat it as a normal default, not a temporary overseas situation, and your CRIB record takes the hit same as anyone else's.
If you're migrating permanently, or for long enough that you can't see yourself using the vehicle again soon, it's often simpler to hand the problem off entirely rather than manage a lease long-distance for years. Transferring the lease to a family member, or settling it early if you have the funds, closes out the obligation cleanly instead of leaving a standing instruction running on autopilot from another country. If you decide to sell once it's paid off, you can check what similar vehicles are going for on price-check, browse comparable listings on /vehicles, and list it yourself through /post-ad before you leave, or get someone you trust to handle the sale while you're away.
If your situation doesn't fit neatly into any of this — joint leases, a guarantor who's also leaving the country, or a finance company that won't accept foreign transfers — ask in the Wahanaya forum. Someone who's done this exact move before has usually already worked out the practical answer.
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