Borrowed money from sisters and not sure what is fair for all parties?

Cuticuraser

So I purchased a properly recently and in order to pay for the deposit, my two elder sisters sold their gold and gave me the funds.

nothing was clearly defined initially, but the middle sister said she wants the money back at the market price of gold.

At the time, gold was about £60/gram and my middle sister gave me £12,000.

my eldest sister gave me £22,000 from selling her gold.

my middle sister just told me last week that she needs £5000 by the end of July (next month). And she said she wants that deducted from the total gold me gave me at current market price. I.e. currently gold is about £80/gram so that’s equivalent to about 62 grams in today’s prices. She initially sold 195g so I still need to pay her 130g of gold at whatever the price is at the future.


naturally my eldest sister also has followed suit from my middle sister and has said she wants the gold (she lent me 345g worth) at whatever the future price is.

i don’t feel this is fair?

jackieblack

The time to agree the repayment terms should have been before the loans were made… 

Cuticuraser

jackieblack said:

The time to agree the repayment terms should have been before the loans were made… 

Yes but now I am where I am.

middle sister did say she wanted market price of gold back but didn’t say when or how much she wanted back etc. 


I’m now thinking to get a personal loan out and pay them back in full plus 10%. If they agree 

flaneurs_lobster

It rather depends on what you have agreed with your sisters.

Have they lent you cash (interest free) or have they lent you gold?

I bet their preferred repayment method would be different if gold had dropped in price by 30%.

pramsay13

So you borrowed £34,000 from family members with no discussion about paying back?

Hoenir

What did your sisters lend you cash or gold? Repay them in the same form. 

Brie

a bit late in the day but I think you'll need to agree terms.

You say you were given money so you could get a deposit.  Was there any questions from the mortgage provider where that money came from?  Normally if someone gives you cash like this there is a need to provide a document to say that it is a gift and that the giver expects nothing in return and will have no stake in the property.  Did they do that?  

And even if they did was there anything implied by them that they would want their money back at some point?  

I think at this point, unless you want to huge rift in the family, you need to go back to them with a proposal on repayment.  Agree what they gave you when gold was at whatever price.  Maybe agree to pay them back at the rate of a certain unit each per month at the rate gold is selling for that month.  

So maybe pay them back at 1 gram a month at the rate gold is worth on the first of each month.  That way they get the benefit of gold price fluctuations.  

That any one, particularly a sister who appeared to have done you a favour, should expect you to suddenly magic up £5k in less than a month is unreasonable.  Unless of course you have just won on the lottery and can afford it of course.  But if that had happened you probably would have been generous in your repayment to them.  

retiredbanker1

To be honest this sounds like an exam question to me.

Cuticuraser

pramsay13 said:

So you borrowed £34,000 from family members with no discussion about paying back?

There was a brief discussion but no solid terms were agreed. As I said middle sister did say she wants the market value of gold back and as soon as possible. The eldest sister at the time seemed more relaxed but now wants market price 

Cuticuraser

Hoenir said:

What did your sisters lend you cash or gold? Repay them in the same form. 

They sold their gold and gave me cash.

so surely I should pay them back the sell price of gold rather than the buy price?

Keep_pedalling

So if the value of gold had fallen would they want less back than than they lent you? They did not give you gold, they gave you cash, and unless you had an agreed interest rate they get back the same amount as they gave you.

Presumably your mortgage company demanded that they provide documentation that this was a gift and they had no claim against you for repayment, which has a couple of implications. The first is that the 3 of you committed mortgage fraud, and secondly if push came to shove your sisters have no legal right to get their money back.