Amigo Loan Guarantors - Taking your sister to court

DCFC79

Aromazone1 wrote: »

Hi
We have the same situation with Amigo loans. It was my son who stood Guarantor stupidly for an ex girlfriend. She decided she wouldn’t pay anymore so he was left with the debt. Due to the high interest rate we decided to get another loan at a less rate and he is now paying that monthly and the Amigo loan has been paid off. Altho Amigo agreed with us about circumstances they couldn’t do anything and at the end of the day just wanted their money.
We have been advised by Police that it’s probably not worth pursuing her for the money as she won’t pay anything, but I’d just like to make her life uncomfortable now as she has made my sons.
She has also committed various financial things against my son which is currently being investigated by the Police but it’s taking forever and she still texts my son vile threats when she seemingly gets information from other sources. She is a vile person and is also now pregnant.
She’s just made our lives hell.
Hope you get sorted out but if like us we think we will just have to put it down to experience and never stand as guarantor ever again.

If your son is wanting to stop the texts either block her number, get a restraining order or he can change his number.

CumbrianWolf

Aromazone1 wrote: »

Hi
We have the same situation with Amigo loans. It was my son who stood Guarantor stupidly for an ex girlfriend. She decided she wouldn’t pay anymore so he was left with the debt. Due to the high interest rate we decided to get another loan at a less rate and he is now paying that monthly and the Amigo loan has been paid off. Altho Amigo agreed with us about circumstances they couldn’t do anything and at the end of the day just wanted their money.
We have been advised by Police that it’s probably not worth pursuing her for the money as she won’t pay anything, but I’d just like to make her life uncomfortable now as she has made my sons.
She has also committed various financial things against my son which is currently being investigated by the Police but it’s taking forever and she still texts my son vile threats when she seemingly gets information from other sources. She is a vile person and is also now pregnant.
She’s just made our lives hell.
Hope you get sorted out but if like us we think we will just have to put it down to experience and never stand as guarantor ever again.

I have great sympathy for your situation.

I haven’t said so this far but the Sister in law in the last year has also stooped to other lows. She a couple of month back fraudulently registered one of her brothers credit card as a payment method on amigos and amigos took payment from it for one month. He sought it back from us as guarantors, we told him tough, welcome to our world! Report her to the police. He won’t call the police and do her for fraud though. Before this the she got a store card out at Next her other brothers name and maxed it out buying the clothes for her daughter that she couldn’t afford. Before we were here guarantors she wasn’t this horrid and although the apple had fallen from the tree it hadn’t turned bad.

We knew before what has been said on here that she is unlikely to suddenly change and start paying. We know she hasn’t been able to cover the loan in full since she split with her now ex-partner who was the source of income. Whilst that gave her some excuse we would have liked £10-£20 to come our way each month, anything just to show effort but this would have come from benefits and other family allowances, there was little sympathy. We don’t actually feel she can balance the books now but it would appear she must be if she is able to go on occasional nights out and get her hair and nails done (though this may be done cheap/free by friends). In her mind she has to live and enjoy something in life as she has little to be positive about.

There is a question mark over if she starts to pay a little when she gets work and she is now trying now she has free childcare. It’s probably safer to assume we won’t see anything and that’s what we expect, although for the first time she might be capable to.

CumbrianWolf

Paul_DNAP wrote: »

So what grounds outside of the Amigo loan do you have to convince the court that she legally owes you the money?

macman wrote: »

She may well owe you the repayment morally, but legally she owes you nothing whatsoever, and no court is going to find in your favour.

We do understand what we agreed to as guarantors and that we are committed to cover her debt if she cant. We totally understood that when we agreed.

What I am not very mixed up by the comments on by some people which seem to be in disagreement is that we do or don’t have the right to seek reimbursement for the money through the courts (if we choose to and evening feels it’s worthwhile)

Some have said by agreeing to the amigo loan we have already accepted the debt as equally our responsibility and thus the small claims court would throw out any case.

Can anyone confirm either way.

reason2

personally even if there is no chance of getting the money back i would go all out..
Court, CCJ, HCEO's, claim to benefits or salary for nominal amounts, the works.

People dont learn from their mistakes if there are no consequences to their actions, if you take no action she has basically walked away from conning customers and scamming family members.

take the action, make it difficult, send enforcement officers show her that life is difficult when you take the pee out of people.

sourcrates

Hi,

You could start a claim against her, i suspect she is probably the type who would not bother to respond to the claim and you may win by default.

To clarify, you have the same recourse to use the courts as anyone else has.

You may be guarantor, but she is still equally liable :

https://www.moneyclaimsuk.co.uk/helping-people-like-you/I-signed-for-a-loan-as-a-guarantor.aspx

Once a CCJ is obtained, you then have various enforcement options.

You can upgrade to the high court for around £60 and then instruct HCEO's to recover the debt, that would be your best chance realistically of getting anything back.

macman

You are not just liable for the debt if she can't pay. You are liable for the debt if she doesn't or won't pay. Small but crucial difference there, That has already happened, Amigo know you can pay it, so it's you they will pursue for payment.
I would go the CCJ route. It may not recover you your losses, but it might deter her from committing further fraud on family or friends.

Paul_DNAP

CumbrianWolf wrote: »

We do understand what we agreed to as guarantors and that we are committed to cover her debt if she cant. We totally understood that when we agreed.

What I am not very mixed up by the comments on by some people which seem to be in disagreement is that we do or don’t have the right to seek reimbursement for the money through the courts (if we choose to and evening feels it’s worthwhile)

Some have said by agreeing to the amigo loan we have already accepted the debt as equally our responsibility and thus the small claims court would throw out any case.

Can anyone confirm either way.

You absolutely do have the right to take her to court and attempt to get a ruling that will make her responsible for a debt towards yourselves.


What I (and some others) doubt is if you will be successful in obtaining that ruling, because as a guarantor you have already signalled that you will be responsible for the debt if she is unable/unwilling to pay up herself.


Then, when/if you are successful, there are doubts about if any CCJ order you obtain will ever be paid up by her, possibly forcing you to take it to a higher level.


Finally, there are doubts that if you do go for a high court ruling, and then an enforcement order, if she has enough possessions of significant value for the bailiffs to seize and auction off to clear the debts.

fiisch

Well, at least you saved Christmas.


You're far too lenient in continuing any form of relationship with her - if it was me, I would alienate them totally unless they settled the debt. Clearly still a bad egg from recent behaviour, and you're left £14k+ out of pocket.

CumbrianWolf

fiisch wrote: »

Well, at least you saved Christmas.


You're far too lenient in continuing any form of relationship with her - if it was me, I would alienate them totally unless they settled the debt. Clearly still a bad egg from recent behaviour, and you're left £14k+ out of pocket.

We pretty much have ceased communication as much as we can.

Communication lines exist only so my wife can see her niece and our son and niece can have play dates. Said niece comes over every odd week and occasionally stops with us.

At one point our niece was being used as a bit of a power pawn to keep the peace and we my wife and son were being blocked from them seeing their niece/cousin. My wife quite rightly said if you stop me seeing her I will keep asking week on week and keep these text and show here when she his old enough to understand that is was her mum that stopped her seeing her Aunty and explain what her mother had done.

Personally I am loathed to even say a word to my sister in law when I drop off her daughter, but the kids and their friendship should not suffer as a consequence of this.

We’ve tried to keep things amicable to some degree (amidst threats and pressure and at times my wife wanting to publicly slander her sister to facebook and all and Sundry) in order to keep some form of communication lines open in waiting as long as we can for the situation to possibly change (i.e. when she gets working hours). Despite her appalling behaviour she does want to work to make hers and her kids life better and is under consideration for hours at Costa (once upon a time she was a hard worker at a Frankie & Benny’s and earmarked for management before she fell pregnant and the restaurant closed). When she works it opens the door that she ‘may’ and I say may, if she could, and would want to, repay the debt that we will as guarantors have to cover for her. At this point in her life she could desire to live off the state and probably have to never repay a penny to us or a miniscule amount. She is looking at work at least to make her and her children’s lives better. We will most definitely will be third in the pecking order behind herself and her kids and she may or may not have any interest in trying to pay us back.

Its clear she will neve have a relationship with her older sister (and let’s face it, 2nd mum unlit she starts to repay us)

Potbellypig

I agree CW. It isn't as straight forward as some suggest. I done a similar thing to you but on a much smaller scale. My SIL told my partner her daughter had asked for a computer for Christmas but couldn't afford to get her one. The daughter 2 days before Xmas thought she was getting one and it pulled at my heart strings. I offered to lend her the money and she said she'd pay back within a couple of months. Fast forward 2 years this coming Xmas and I'm yet to see a penny. I even offered £10 here and there whenever you could. Like your SIL, she goes out all the time, hair, nails, holidays, all that stuff. But says she can't afford it when I or my partner ask for the money back.

I digress, but the point I'm making is that boils my p!ss when I hear she's spending money on this and that, but I have to keep it amicable. Like I say, much much smaller scale, but I understand your concerns about keeping the peace.