Legalities around paying back gifts of money

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  • Puddylove
    Puddylove Posts: 507 Forumite
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    Parents aren't perfect, but it sounds as though yours love you, and are trying.

    Perhaps you could try a little too, before they are lost to you.
  • Lungboy
    Lungboy Posts: 1,953 Forumite
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    I don't get why people are saying that paying it back is the morally right thing to do. It was a gift. It's pretty morally bankrupt to start asking for gifts back.
  • stuartJo1989
    stuartJo1989 Posts: 461 Forumite
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    Lungboy wrote: »
    I don't get why people are saying that paying it back is the morally right thing to do. It was a gift. It's pretty morally bankrupt to start asking for gifts back.

    Maybe our moral compasses are pointing in different directions.
  • Voyager2002
    Voyager2002 Posts: 15,289 Forumite
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    Lungboy wrote: »
    I don't get why people are saying that paying it back is the morally right thing to do. It was a gift. It's pretty morally bankrupt to start asking for gifts back.

    However, if someone gives you what you need when you need it and then is in trouble themselves, it is common decency to try to help.
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,944 Forumite
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    Voyager2002 wrote: »
    However, if someone gives you what you need when you need it and then is in trouble themselves, it is common decency to try to help.

    The OP doesn't have any money to help them with. "2 years later we are just getting back on our feet" End of moral debate.

    OP - to answer the question you asked, if you have described the facts correctly, particularly the handwritten note, legally they don't have a leg to stand on.
  • laidbackgjr
    laidbackgjr Posts: 529 Forumite
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    Lungboy wrote: »
    I don't get why people are saying that paying it back is the morally right thing to do. It was a gift. It's pretty morally bankrupt to start asking for gifts back.

    I think the moral view is not that you payback a gift - but that OP also gifts money to their parents to help them out - in the same way that their parents gifted money to them to help them out. If the amount happens to be the same so be it!
  • Shakin_Steve
    Shakin_Steve Posts: 2,701 Forumite
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    OP's question: Where do we stand, legally?

    What the hell has any of this morality stuff got to do with anything?
    I came into this world with nothing and I've got most of it left.
  • bengal-stripe
    bengal-stripe Posts: 3,349 Forumite
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    Malthusian wrote: »
    OP - to answer the question you asked, if you have described the facts correctly, particularly the handwritten note, legally they don't have a leg to stand on.

    That handwritten note does not say whether it was a gift or a loan. Either would have been a welcome help for someone in financial distress. And in her reply, the OP talks about paying it back, she doesn't talk about a gift and neither does she thank her parents.

    Ultimately it might be necessary for a judge to decide, not on evidence (there doesn't seem to be any) but on probabilities.

    Theaze wrote: »
    I received a hand written note from them at the time outlining they wanted to help us but I also text them expressing how uncomfortable I felt as we probably wouldn't ever be able to pay back the money.

    We have a hand written note to this effect- that they wanted to help us out so we didn't have to sell.our home.
  • bobbymotors
    bobbymotors Posts: 746 Forumite
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    pay them. they helped you out. pay them back
This discussion has been closed.
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