QUICK ANSWER
Responsibility for the insurance doesn't automatically end when you hand back the keys on a leased car. If the dealer is slow to make an off road notification for the vehicle or process the ownership change, you're still the registered user of an active vehicle. Keep your insurance until the change or off road notification is actually registered.
With private leasing, you're usually the registered user in the vehicle register, and you're required to keep the vehicle insured, just like an owner would be. That responsibility doesn't end just because you've physically returned the car – it ends when the vehicle register is updated.
How the fee arises
A common sequence: you hand in the keys on a Friday and cancel your insurance the same day. The dealer or finance company doesn't get around to making an off road notification for the vehicle or processing the ownership change until early the following week. Over that gap, the vehicle stays listed as active in your name, with no valid insurance – exactly what TFF charges for.
How to protect yourself when returning a leased car
Don't cancel your insurance until you know the exact date the ownership change or off road notification was registered with the Swedish Transport Agency – not the date you handed in the keys. Ask the dealer to complete the change or off road notification digitally while you're still there, so you both see it go through immediately. Keep the handover protocol with date and time as evidence if a delay on the dealer's side still leads to a fee.
Selling privately or trading in at a dealership instead? The same delay can happen there too – see selling a car and the insurance and trading in a car at a dealership.
Sources: Swedish Transport Agency, ownership change. Swedish Motor Insurers' Committee, about vehicle insurance. Last checked: 2026-09-21.