Friend Won't Pay Back Loan

mary-harp

Apologies if I have put this message on the wrong board - I am new to this.
Several years ago I lent a friend some money. He needed it to do some training, and just didn't have the money himself. Little by little I kept on sending more money when he said he needed it, resulting in a total of just under 10k. I actually had to borrow some of this money myself, because at the time I was fighting a court case and needed to take out a loan in order to pay the solicitor's fees. This all happened 4-5 years ago, and although the friend did initially pay a small amount of interest back to me, he has not given me any money for the last couple of years.
I remind him every so often about the loan, and he says that he hasn't got the means to pay me back, and has not been able to come up with any suggestions as to how he intends to pay me.
I feel that this has all been dragging on for too long now, but am unsure as to what steps I can take next. I do have an email from him stating the amount which he owes, so I guess I would not have any difficulty in proving that he owes the money.
Any suggestions?

Caz3121

Worth having a read of this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/76953

dancingfairy

Send him a letter before action. Remind him that he owes you the money and if he doesn't pay it in the next 14 days you will take court action.
You could allow him to pay installments if you wanted.
Do you have anything in writing from him regarding the loan? Any emails or texts?
Can you account for the payments made?
If you are not careful then the 6 year deadline for court action may pass and you will struggle if you go down the court route. If he can claim he hasn't written to you about the debt or made nay payments for a period of 6 years then he can claim it's statute barred (ie you've had your chance to recover the debt and haven't).
I think it's around £50 to take out a court case and you can do it online easily but it may cost you more due to the amount you are claiming.
If you win then you need to decide what you want to do next, whether you want to apply to bailiffs, whether you want to attach his earnings so his employer has to take it out of his wages, whether you want to apply for bankruptcy, whether you want a charging order etc.
df
edit: I think I would send the letter before action and then proceed to court, purely because if you don't then you will be out of time. You will then buy yourself more time to decide how you want to enforce the debt.

Fishingtime

Should the title be ex friend not paying back

redpete

Fishingtime wrote: »

Should the title be ex friend not paying back

Either that or "I gave friend some money."

BadBehaviour

dancingfairy wrote: »

Send him a letter before action. Remind him that he owes you the money and if he doesn't pay it in the next 14 days you will take court action.
You could allow him to pay installments if you wanted.
Do you have anything in writing from him regarding the loan? Any emails or texts?
Can you account for the payments made?
If you are not careful then the 6 year deadline for court action may pass and you will struggle if you go down the court route. If he can claim he hasn't written to you about the debt or made nay payments for a period of 6 years then he can claim it's statute barred (ie you've had your chance to recover the debt and haven't).
I think it's around £50 to take out a court case and you can do it online easily but it may cost you more due to the amount you are claiming.
If you win then you need to decide what you want to do next, whether you want to apply to bailiffs, whether you want to attach his earnings so his employer has to take it out of his wages, whether you want to apply for bankruptcy, whether you want a charging order etc.
df
edit: I think I would send the letter before action and then proceed to court, purely because if you don't then you will be out of time. You will then buy yourself more time to decide how you want to enforce the debt.

He did say " I do have an email from him stating the amount which he owes, so I guess I would not have any difficulty in proving that he owes the money.".

bris

Personally I would start court action for that kind of money now before it becomes statute barred.

Brock_and_Roll

The important question is whether he does actually have the resources to pay the OP back - otherwise taking action would be a waste of time.

iolanthe07

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

The important question is whether he does actually have the resources to pay the OP back - otherwise taking action would be a waste of time.

Yes, but if you've started court action then the statute barred 6 year limit will not apply.

lynz68

I think you need to face up to the idea that you might not get this money back. There are numerous threads on here about people lending to friends and family .... And the results aren't good.


Yes you can start Court proceedings and they may well find in your favour but if your friend doesn't have the means to pay it back they can't get blood from a stone.


If he owns his property you could get a charging order placed on it so that if they sold the house you would be paid out of any profit.

I wouldn't hold your breath in getting anything back anytime soon.

DCFC79

I wish you luck in getting the money back if you decide to do so. This is the problem lending friends money.