loan to a friend, please help.

barrydh

ok, this is my story. in february last year my then partner was getting grief over loans she had taken out with those Wonga type companies. she asked if i could help. to cut it short i loaned her 5.5K with a verbal agreement she would pay me £200 per month until it was fully paid, this was half what she was paying the loan companies. since then we have split up and she has a different excuse why she cannot pay this month etc. to date she has paid only £600 of the loan when she should have paid £3400-00. I have various emails asking for payments but although she doesnt deny owing me the money she just replies with another excuse and still doesnt pay. there is still over 4.5K outstanding.
Is there any way i can force her to repay the loan? I know she can afford it now due to a new better paid job, she just refuses.

Can anyone enlighten me as to any avenues i can take to get my money back?
thanks in advance.
regards.
Barrydh

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

When I saw the thread title "loan to a friend, please help." I was going to respond with DON'T! I see it's too late for that

Gaz83

Take her to court. Usually the difficulty in these cases is proving it's a loan and not a gift. But if you have e-mails from her acknowledging that she owes you the money then it's likely that a court will find in your favour.

That said, the same advice I always give in these situations is - are you sure she has the money? If she doesn't there's little point in taking her to court (from the point of view of getting your money back, although I appreciate it could prove satisfying) - she can't be forced to pay what she doesn't have, even if the court find that she is in the wrong.

CKhalvashi

Gaz83 wrote: »

Take her to court. Usually the difficulty in these cases is proving it's a loan and not a gift. But if you have e-mails from her acknowledging that she owes you the money then it's likely that a court will find in your favour.

That said, the same advice I always give in these situations is - are you sure she has the money? If she doesn't there's little point in taking her to court (from the point of view of getting your money back, although I appreciate it could prove satisfying) - she can't be forced to pay what she doesn't have, even if the court find that she is in the wrong.

Bank statements also.

I'm expecting £1 a month offer to be made.......

barrydh

Gaz83 wrote: »

Take her to court. Usually the difficulty in these cases is proving it's a loan and not a gift. But if you have e-mails from her acknowledging that she owes you the money then it's likely that a court will find in your favour.

That said, the same advice I always give in these situations is - are you sure she has the money? If she doesn't there's little point in taking her to court (from the point of view of getting your money back, although I appreciate it could prove satisfying) - she can't be forced to pay what she doesn't have, even if the court find that she is in the wrong.

thank you so much, i was hoping i didnt need to take that route. cheers

poppasmurf_bewdley

barrydh wrote: »

thank you so much, i was hoping i didnt need to take that route. cheers

An alternative would be to talk to her, face to face, and tell her she has two alternatives:

1). Pay the money back as agreed, and keep to the agreement.

or

2). Be taken to court, which will ruin her credit rating (and her chances of credit) for at least six years.

Another threat which apparently has some success is to threaten to expose the debt to friends on Facebook. Evidently, some people don't like the idea of all and sundry knowing their little debt secrets.

macman

If she's refused to repay despite your requests, what other route is there other than a civil action? With only a verbal agreement, you'll have to prove the debt-she has to prove nothing (though the emails may help).
You can certainly take her to small claims, but there's no guarantee of recovering the loan, even if you win. No assets, no repayment.
Start with an LBA, that will focus her more than emails. Post it by recorded delivery and give her 14 days to commence a repayment plan.

barrydh

macman wrote: »

If she's refused to repay despite your requests, what other route is there other than a civil action? With only a verbal agreement, you'll have to prove the debt-she has to prove nothing (though the emails may help).
You can certainly take her to small claims, but there's no guarantee of recovering the loan, even if you win. No assets, no repayment.
Start with an LBA, that will focus her more than emails. Post it by recorded delivery and give her 14 days to commence a repayment plan.

thank you but what is LBA.

bsms1147

Letter before action

Gaz83

barrydh wrote: »

thank you but what is LBA.

A letter before action.

Something like:

Dear <name>

I write to you with reference to a loan of <amount>, provided to you as a loan by myself on <date>, and acknowledged as a loan (and thus repayable) by yourself on <date>.

As so far you have failed to keep up the repayments of <amount> on this loan, I am hereby giving you a period of no more than 14 days to repay the full amount owed, plus interest charged at <interest rate> over the period of the loan.

Failure to comply with this request will result in legal action being taken to recover the monies owed.

Yours Sincerely,

<Your Name>

macman

Make it as formal as you can-and send it in writing by recorded delivery-do not text it or email it.