Loaned money to a friend

FenlandFowl

Sadly, I think you have had a lesson which cost you £10,000.
You gave someone money without a signed agreement. Presumably he begged you for the money because no bank would lend to him. You don't even know where he lives. He's not a friend, he's just someone you know. 
He won't repay you because he knows you can't prove there ever was a loan.

Hopefully you learned the lesson well. TRUST NOBODY!!! And, never lend money you can't afford to lose.

lordmountararat

This desperately sad scenario comes up here on almost a weekly basis. The advice as always is never lend to family or friends unless you can afford to write it off. My wife is owed thousands of pounds by her brother which she'll never see again, but she suspected that at the time and felt sorry for him.

_Penny_Dreadful

cola1099 said:

I regretfully loaned money to a 'friend' in April, and he said he would pay me back at the end of May. May has obviously come and gone and now I do not hear from him at all. Prior to me loaning him the money, he had been calling me daily almost begging for the money so he can pay for his wedding, and he said he would pay me back at the end of May, as he had some funding that was coming through regarding the financing of a property. 

We unfortunately did not sign an agreement, but I told him I dont feel comfortable loaning the money to him as these circumstances tend to break up friendships. He said he understood and said if I don't get the money by 31st May, I should complete an RX1 form (I've never heard of this before) to put a restriction on his property.

Now that we're in June, I want to complete the RX1 form but I dont know how it works and if this is even the relevant form to fill out. I am content with taking him to court if need be as I took out a loan to lend to him, thinking that he would pay me back, so now I am paying interest on top of the principle borrowed. It's all a mess and I regret having ever met him.

Can anyone advise on the next best steps etc. For added context, the amount I loaned to him is £10k+

Thanks in advance,
EB

There doesn't appear to be much in the way of written evidence to corroborate that this was indeed a loan and not a gift.  The RX1 form is red herring, the effect of a notice is very limited and furthermore, the entry of a notice does not guarantee that the interest that it protects is valid or even that it exists.

You can file a Money Claim Online (MCOL) to try and recover the money.  As the amount owed is over £10,000 that means your court fees will be 5% of the amount being claimed.  You also need to follow the pre-action protocols which involve you and the defendant trying to settle the issue without going to court.  At a minimum you would need to send the defendant a letter-before-action that includes sufficient information about the matter to allow them to understand your position and allows them a change to respond. E.g. you would set out the amount owed, when it was supposed to be repaid and give the defendant 10 working days to respond to your letter.  You would send the letter to the last known address of the defendant if you don't have their current address.

You can DIY the letter-before-action and MCOL if you feel confident doing so however you may wish to seek the advice of a solicitor.  You never known, a letter-before-action on headed noted paper from a solicitor's firm might be enough to scare the defendant into repaying you.

Grumpy_chap

cola1099 said:

 the money so he can pay for his wedding

You've lost the money
You've lost the friend
The only consolation for you is that you were not the one marrying him - I feel for his new wife.

sourcrates

I`m afraid to say it, but your meeting was likely intentional, you were probably sort out, you were, in essence, the mark, you meet a guy in the supermarket, park, pub, wherever it may have been, you strike up a conversation, you arrange to meet again, things get friendly, maybe it was on social media, whatever the scenario.

All of a sudden his plans for finance have fallen through, he`s getting married and can`t pay for the wedding, he can pay you back in a few months, he has a deal completing, and can pay it all off then, he`s just short right now........a scam from start to finish, he will be long gone, false name, false address, RX1 form was just a sweetener for the deal, it`s of no real use to anyone, it won`t have been his house anyway.

Scams of this nature are quite brutal as no one likes to be taken for a ride.
I very much doubt you will hear from them again, a call to Action Fraud would be a logical next step, but as for the loan, you are stuck with it now unfortunately, you could go down the fraud path, but convincing a lender it was actual fraud is not an easy thing to do.

It`s also likely this is not this guys first Rodeo, do you have pictures of him at all ?
Police might be interested.

Jami74

cola1099 said:

begging for the money so he can pay for his wedding, 

Did you go to the wedding? Or if it hasn't happened yet, do you have an invite?

Obviously it is of no consequence, I just wondered if you at least got a slice of wedding cake.

cola1099

Ryan_Holden said:

He's a friend. But you don't know where he lives. He's not taking your calls. You have nothing in writing and everything only by unrecorded video call. And before you'd even loaned him money he gave you a contingency plan for what would happen if he didn't pay.

I think it's pretty obvious you've been scammed, and I am so sorry for you. But you've also been incredibly naive. 

If you're going to involve any third party to help you, you need to be prove it wasn't a gift.

Do you have a text, an email, a WhatsApp message, a message on Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, anything where you're even just discussing him borrowing money from you?

A written agreement with a repayment schedule would have helped you prove it wasn't a gift and was in fact a loan, but it wouldn't have have helped you actually get the money out of him if he doesn't have the money to pay you with in the first place. You can sue, if you win he'll get a CCJ, but still no guarantee of the money.

As others have said, the RX1 form would only help you if he owns his property and if he sells up. And even then, you've still got to wait for him to actually sell or move, but even before that you've still got to prove that it's a legitimate debt. I suspect that if it ever got to that point he would claim he thought it was a gift. 

I don't suppose you can even know if the RX1 would work and if he even owns the property since you don't actually know where he lives.

The property is an investment property that he bought to rent out. If he were to refinance it, would the RX1/charge prevent him from doing so?

Ryan_Holden

cola1099 said:

The property is an investment property that he bought to rent out. If he were to refinance it, would the RX1/charge prevent him from doing so?

Honestly cola I don't know, you'd have to seek legal advice.

I tried to read the government's guide on it for you but it's massive and very vague. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notices-restrictions-and-the-protection-of-third-party-interests-in-the-register/practice-guide-19-notices-restrictions-and-the-protection-of-third-party-interests-in-the-register#who-apply-restriction

But again, do you actually know he owns that property? I'm not sure that the RX1 form is intended to be a protection against an unsecured debt. 

MrFrugalFever

Jami74 said:

cola1099 said:

begging for the money so he can pay for his wedding, 

Did you go to the wedding? Or if it hasn't happened yet, do you have an invite?

Obviously it is of no consequence, I just wondered if you at least got a slice of wedding cake.

*Your wedding cake

So sorry to hear of your situation. I hope it can be resolved and the man is genuine but I fear, like other posters, you may have been scammed

I would start doing some background research in to him (checking out Social media, LinkedIn etc to see how genuine he is), then as suggested above, a nice but firm letter of intention, outlining the fact that £10+ (be exact) was loaned ‘in good faith’ and it was verbally agreed to be paid back by 31st May, which you deemed to be contractually binding at the time. Hopefully it will spark a response.

Failing that, send in the heavies 😂

FashionHeart

cola1099 said:

I regretfully loaned money to a 'friend' in April, and he said he would pay me back at the end of May. May has obviously come and gone and now I do not hear from him at all. Prior to me loaning him the money, he had been calling me daily almost begging for the money so he can pay for his wedding, and he said he would pay me back at the end of May, as he had some funding that was coming through regarding the financing of a property. 

We unfortunately did not sign an agreement, but I told him I dont feel comfortable loaning the money to him as these circumstances tend to break up friendships. He said he understood and said if I don't get the money by 31st May, I should complete an RX1 form (I've never heard of this before) to put a restriction on his property.

Now that we're in June, I want to complete the RX1 form but I dont know how it works and if this is even the relevant form to fill out. I am content with taking him to court if need be as I took out a loan to lend to him, thinking that he would pay me back, so now I am paying interest on top of the principle borrowed. It's all a mess and I regret having ever met him.

Can anyone advise on the next best steps etc. For added context, the amount I loaned to him is £10k+

Thanks in advance,
EB

£10k is a lot of money to be giving to someone, especially if it was a 'friend.'
I was in a similar situation 6 years ago but with a family member when I discovered that my dad was having an affair and requested the same amount from me to 'help' his mistress out (I rightfully didn't believe him as he was a massive gambler).
Anyway, I didn't trust their intentions of what they wanted to do with my hard-earned money, which resulted me in not lending the money and cutting ties with him. Wisest decision I had ever made in my life.
It was a messy and complicated situation, to say the least.
If I was you, I'd get a Solicitor to see what your options are.