Loaned a friend and they are not paying back.

Revorocks

Hi,

It seems I'm another one of those people who have lent to a friend and fallen into the trap of what happens when they don't pay you back.
The saying is true. "Neither a borrower or a lender be"



Anyway, we are past that now and the damage is done.

Basically, a family friend (he sold a few properties to us) asked for a short term loan. He is a very active person financially, always starting businesses here and there, likes to have his finger in every pie.

Basically a deal came up where he needed a reasonable amount of cash, however he was £4000 short.
(If you want to know, the cash was to buy a car for £24k, which he knew he could sell for around £27-30k quite easily, so it would be a quick profit and the seller just wanted to get rid of it.)

That £4k was to be borrowed from me, fixed term of 1 month at 8% interest + £20 a day penalty for each day over the 30 day term.

It was all done over text, however he did say and I have evidence of this that I can take the texts as written confirmation as his agreement to the terms.
He was the one who came to me with the terms. I did not set them.

Anyway, this was back on the 20th September.

Since then I haven't heard from him.
I've sent numerous texts and calls but no response.

I thought I knew the guy which is why I trusted him. I never expected this.

What should I do?

I was looking into small claims court but not sure if it's the next step. I've never had this problem before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

bigadaj

You can try small claims court but texts won't carry much weight. Any sort of loan for more than a few quid should have a brief written document laying down terms and signed by both parties, still not perfect but reasonable evidence.

DCFC79

Did he even buy the car ?

I suspect he didn't and has disappeared.

poppasmurf_bewdley

The description of the man you have given is one I would recognise as what used to be called "a fly by night". As in someone who will be there one day and have flown away the next.

Have you googled him? If he doesn't appear, then you probably haven't even got his real name.

If that is the case, then the only way to get your £4k back will be to find someone who will be able to track him and 'persuade' him to return your money.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

Revorocks

I don't know if he bought the car, but I do know he has many assets in the area. He owns quite a few properties & businesses so I expect it would be very difficult for him to sell up and flee.

One problem is he has recently sold his house so I don't know his address.

Pretty sure it's his real name as he used to own an estate agents which he named his own name, and googling does find bits and pieces.

It's just the thing is we have known him for about 8 years now and hes always been around for dinner occasionally telling us of his latest business ventures etc.
Just seems weird he would run off first chance he gets with £4k, unless I'm not the only one he's done it to

For small claims, I know you have to give them reasonable time etc to respond before taking it to small claims.

Should I say to him in a text that if I don't hear in the next say 2 weeks I will be going to small claims court?

Also since I don't have an address, what can I do to notify him that court would find suitable?

Last resort is as you said find someone who specializes in tracking these people down and asking them nicely for the money, however I don't really want to do that right now.

[Deleted User]

Generally someone who jumps from business to business to business isn't going to be doing anything well, running any business (let alone a successful business) requires a lot of work. Are you sure he isn't the sort of person that starts businesses and then once they fail just moves on and starts again? There are people like that, who constantly operate in the red and have no shame about it.

Your best bet would be to look up the known properties he owns on the land registry and see if he still owns them, and perhaps walk by his businesses and see if they're still trading. You can look up his name on a website like Duedil and find out what limited companies he owns and their trading status.

Personally I'd guess that he hit hard times beyond what he could talk himself out of and his final resort was to steal and he'll now be gone for a foreign country.

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks

I am going to bookmark this thread, and if any of my friends get upset that I refuse to lend them money, I will show them this to make them understand its nothing personal.

macman

You lent £4K to a 'friend' on the basis of a few text messages, and you don't even know where he lives?
For all you know he could be ill, in hospital, or dropped dead.
Forget texting him: track him down (through mutual contacts maybe) and go and see him and ask for an explanation. If no joy, then proceed down the small claims route once you have a contact address. But you will have to prove the debt, and you don't have much to back that up with, so don't assume that you will get anything back, even if you win in court.

DCFC79

Nice_Weather_For_Ducks wrote: »

I am going to bookmark this thread, and if any of my friends get upset that I refuse to lend them money, I will show them this to make them understand its nothing personal.

You should direct them to this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/76953

OP you know his name right so use Facebook etc to track him down.

Revorocks

macman wrote: »

You lent £4K to a 'friend' on the basis of a few text messages, and you don't even know where he lives?
For all you know he could be ill, in hospital, or dropped dead.
Forget texting him: track him down (through mutual contacts maybe) and go and see him and ask for an explanation. If no joy, then proceed down the small claims route once you have a contact address. But you will have to prove the debt, and you don't have much to back that up with, so don't assume that you will get anything back, even if you win in court.

The money was done by bank transfer, not cash. Is that enough to prove the debt? He did say he received the money on the texts too...

Also yeah I know it was stupid. Really regretting it now. Should have given myself some insurance or made him sign something.
Infact, shouldn't have lent to him in the first place.

Also I am working on trying to track him down through mutual contacts. He is usually quite involved with people so it should not be too difficult provided he hasn't done a runner...

Revorocks

DCFC79 wrote: »

You should direct them to this thread
(link removed)

OP you know his name right so use Facebook etc to track him down.

He doesn't have Facebook or any social network accounts, he's not that sort of person.

And yeah it's definitely true what they say about lending to friends