Family paying nursery fees - now want them back

LadyPink1716

I have been seperated from my husband for two years and am just in the last stages of a divorce ... my ex-in laws are trying to take me to court for a 'loan' they insist was for the nursery fees whilst my son was a baby.

They equate this to 15,000GBP and are now claiming they are going to take me to court for the 7,500GBP I owe them.

My husband left me penniless and refuses to pay CSA - I had to sell my house, move, change my job and am left with very little.

This 'loan' was never agreed and whilst we were married they paid the nursery fees ... they are relying on the fact that we jointly owned a holiday home and out of our marital account paid 200GBP every few months to covers costs etc. They now claim this was loan repayments.

Can anyone give me some advise ... not sure I can afford a solicitor .. can they really say I owe them all this money just like that. They seem to think they will be successful in court etc. I should add that their son (my husband) owes me 2,500GBP which he now says he gave to them to repay this debt?! but I have in writing the 2,500 was supposed to come to me ...

Any advise would be greatly, greatly appreciated! :A

[Deleted User]

personally i would call their bluff and tell them to take me to court,if they have no proof these payments were agreed as a loan then i suspect they wouldnt stand a chance.you might be able to get some advice from a solicitor,they used to do a green form fixed fee first interview(not sure if they still do),cab may possibly be helpful?

zzzLazyDaisy

You should inform the solicitor who is dealing with the divorce about this development.

Basically, 'if' it was a loan, both you and your ex would be jointly and severally liable. What this means is that if they decided to go to court, you could apply to have his name joined into the proceedings as joint defendant.

BUT it is highly unlikely that they will go to court - firstly the maximum for small claims court is £5000, so if they decided to go to court for the full amount it would cost them as much in court and legal fees as the debt was worth. Secondly, the burden of proof is on them to show that this was a loan. As far as you are concerned it was a gift. Maybe your OH understood it to be a loan, but in that case there is a good argument for saying that he has sole liability for repayment.

Really they are just being bullies and showing that they are on their son's 'side'. Shame on them when they have a grandchild to consider in all of this.

Please go and see your divorce solicitor and let him/her deal with it.

LadyPink1716

Many thanks for that ... the divorce is completed and I have had to let my solicitor go as I could not afford her :-( ...

I should add that they have mentioned this fact (that I now have no solicitor) in their letter to my mothers address (they sent the letter to her, as they do not have my address) ...

They advise me they have all the nursery fee statements showing their payments .. (now how did they get those as the nursery account was in my name) ... also they have their bank statements showing the money leaving me and my husbands account into their bank account ...

My solicitor sent them two strongly worded letters before Christmas and they backed off ... we pretty much asked them to show their hand.

So I think I am going to risk them taking me to County Court and they can file their papers and I will file a defence accordingly.

Many thanks for the responses ... you have no idea how stressful this has been!!!

zzzLazyDaisy

Well, you have two choices - you can respond to their letter saying something like...
'I refer to your letter of [date]. the contents of which are noted, but not accepted. Please note, any court proceedings will be vigorously defended. No further correspondence will be entered into'.

Of course that may be like a red rag to a bull, and could provoke them into serving court papers just to show you what for. So maybe you'd be best to keep your head down and ignore their letter, and see what happens. If you do get court papers, come back on here, there are people who can help you with the process.

I'm sorry you are in this situation, I hope things improve for you.

Daisy