Private loan for life partner - gone wrong!!

SlowMo_2

Bit of a sob story,but hey ho...

In early 2010 my 'then' partner was in the throes of starting a small business. Because she had bad credit I took out a private loan to fund the start-up costs, and we had an informal agreement that from business revenue she would pay me the amount required every month to cover off the monthly loan amount that would be taken from my account.

The loan was over 4 years and for the first year or so everything was fine. We then split up (boo hoo) and surprise surprise her payments became sporadic to say the least! Her rationale for this was that the business was not bringing in enough to enable her to pay me in order that I can pay the bank.

I have taken out county court actions against her to try and retrieve the payments she has missed to this point, so this is in hand..

..my question? She is closing the business down within the next month, but there remains over 2 years left on the loan I took out on her behalf. Is there any legal recourse at my disposal that I can go forward with to try and ensure that she pays the remainder of my informal loan to her, which is of course a VERY formal to me as far as the bank is concerned??

Thanks for any opinion, advice etc!

ps.. please feel free to comment that one should never mix business with love!

jonesMUFCforever

Not what you want to hear but you are stuffed!
The loan is in your name - the bank couldn't give a hoot what you spent it (or gave it to) on and you are fully responsible to repay it.

You may get a judgement in your favour but if she claims that she has no money expect to get £5 a month off her.

Bravehearted_2

Sorry old chap.

Lesson to everyone - taking loans in your name for ANYONE is a bad idea.

Elvisia

It wouldn't hurt to talk to the CAB, just in case you can go through the small claims court, even though it was informal. Did you have anything written up about the loan?

LovelyLeeds

SlowMo wrote: »

..my question? Is there any legal recourse at my disposal that I can go forward with to try and ensure that she pays the remainder of my informal loan to her, which is of course a VERY formal to me as far as the bank is concerned??

Lose the formal/informal - it's superfluous. Unless you have a paper trail, and on reading all your post it would seem you have ongoing legal cases? Not sure how you can take out any more? You need to post up missing information so that posters can try to assess and then advise you accordingly.

endora

When you say a private loan, do you mean a personal loan from a bank or was it from a friend or relative?

SlowMo_2

Thanks chaps - your replies are appreciated!

1) it was a loan I took out through a bank, she had bad credit, so I took out the loan.

2) the loan money came from the bank into my account, and I immediately transferred it into the bank account she had created for the business. All evidenced in bank statements.

3) over each month she would transfer from proceeds of the business £x, which would go into my account and from there the bank would take the same £x from my account to satisfy their monthly needs. Again, all evidenced by bank statements.

4) all fine until she started to maintain that the business was not pulling enough revenue for her to pay her monthly sum to me. Of course the bank were still wanting payment which I funded by hook or by crook - but importantly, her missed payments are evidenced by their absence on my bank statements.

5) There are a number of missed payments that are currently the subject of a county court action with me as the claimant, not gone to hearing as of yet..

6) There are 2 missed payments - December 11 and Jan 12 that she has not paid.. again, I may make these the subject of a county court application..

7) But here's the rub, there are 30 more monthly payments of £x that I will have to find for the bank before the original loan plus interest is repaid. Obviously the bank will come after me for that, but can I take any form of action to ensure that she pays me? Remembering that I have bank statements showing monies being transferred from the Bank into my account and immediately into her business account, and I also have statements showing regular payments on a monthly basis from her business account into my account in order that the funds were there to cover what the bank took every month?

Unfortunately nothing was in writing between the two of us, as I stupidly believed that we would be together for good and that she would honour the loan! There are a number of emails between us where she acknowledges her need to pay the missed and future payments, but I'm not sure of the position of emails as something a county court would consider??

opinions4u

Follow this through.

Let's say the County Court rules in your favour for all or part of it.

The she doesn't pay.

Then what?

Unless she decides to pay of her own free will, you aren't going to see this money again.

Mara69

Playing devil's advocate, can she not argue that the money you gave her (evidenced by the bank statements) was a gift. Secondly, the payments she was making you on a monthly basis (evidenced by the bank statements) were for something else (rent, a private savings account, services rendered, whatever) and thirdly now you have separated there is no need for her to make these payments any longer? If all that fails, simply claim poverty and state that she can only pay £1 a month.

MonkeyMad

As previous posters have said even if you got a judgement, your chances of getting the money back is probably close to nil.

Your arrangement is entirely informal. The fact you have monies transferring between you shows a link, but doesn't necessarily imply that there was any intent for the monies to be paid back in full. It could be equally argued that the business would only pay you back if it could afford to (which it did for a while) and that you had agreed to guarantee any shortfall (which you in fact did by taking the loan in your name).

Mixing personal and business finance is bad news.....

Apples2

The fact that the business is failing is enough to convince anyone she is falling on hard times. If she had money to spare, the business would be flourishing.

Bad news for you but I think you are throwing good money after bad. Even a Judgement in your favour does not mean you will be getting it back in the short term. It could be £1 a Month if she takes her own legal advice and there is nothing you can do.

The first reply outlined it very well, the debt is yours entirely, anything you get out of her is nothing more than a bonus. Eve a bailiff route will see you with hardly anything as the bailiffs take a hefty chunk of whatever they manage to extract.