I Loaned Money to a Friend Can I Sue
What should you do if a friend owes you lot coin?
Perhaps yous took out a loan or bought something with your credit bill of fare for them considering you had a better credit rating. Or perhaps y'all just lent them the money. And now they aren't repaying you.
It would have been better to have thought all this through Before lending the money… research has shown that almost a third of people have fallen out with a friend or family fellow member over an unpaid debt of £100 or less.
Before you take legal activeness, you lot need to consider ii things:
- are you likely to win your case?
- does your friend have any money?
This commodity looks at whether information technology is sensible to have legal activeness and how you would practise it in England or Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, the small claims processes are different – contact your local Citizens Advice part to find out almost them.
Can you show you lot are owed the money?
To win a case, you need to accept some prove that your friend owes you money. This doesn't have to be a written legal contract, with witnesses etc. Suing someone for money is a civil case and the judge will decide who wins "on the balance of probabilities", looking at whose story seems nearly likely.
Yous can have a valid legal contract if it was just a spoken agreement between the two of you. But there does need to be something you tin testify. If you gave your friend £200 in cash and no-1 saw yous do this, you are going to have problems with this part…
If your friend denies you ever gave them the money or whatever yous bought on their behalf, is there someone who was there when you lot discussed the loan? Do yous take an electronic mail from your friend saying they are broke and could you lot help them out? Was the sofa delivered to your friend's business firm not yours? Does your bank statement show a transfer to your friend'southward account?
If the friend started making some repayments simply then stopped, if these show in your banking concern account or if the friend was making the repayments on your credit bill of fare, that is good prove that there was some sort of loan.
If you aren't sure whether what you lot have is going to exist "good enough", so you lot could go to your local Citizens Advice Bureau and meet what they retrieve.
Was information technology a loan or a gift?
If your friend says the object was a nowadays, does this seem plausible? Friends don't unremarkably give each other furniture or a car for Christmas.
But partners practise give each other gifts, sometimes expensive ones. And parents may give a child a large sum equally a deposit for a house.
If a gift seems plausible, the key facts in a court are probable to be whether in that location is whatever written evidence that the money was expected to be repaid. If some repayments were made, that suggests the coin was not a gift, for example. See this newspaper article My ex says he volition take me to court if I don't pay him back thousands of pounds he gifted me to buy a new motorcar which looks at one instance.
Can your friend really afford to repay you?
If your friend has no money or assets, there is little point in taking them to court. Suppose you win the case – your friend now has a Canton Court Judgment (CCJ) simply they may still non give you lot the money. They could apply to the court and offering you lot £5 a calendar month say, which the court volition agree to if that is all they can beget. Or they could merely ignore the judgment!
If they have a house with a lot of equity, or a car that is worth something – not 1 bought on automobile finance – or a well-paid job, then there are ways that you can "enforce the court judgment" and become the money that you are owed, merely these will:
- all cost you money;
- some, such as bailiffs, may well not work; and
- getting a accuse over their firm will non get you the money until it is sold. Information technology is very, very rare to be able to force someone to sell their house.
This is a really hard decision to take because information technology feels so unfair.
Merely if your friend is in fiscal difficulty, getting a CCJ is very probably pointless. You will accept wasted the court fees and non gained anything.
A more applied alternative may exist to be sympathetic to your friend's problems and ask them if they can pay you a small amount every week or month. Something is better than nothing…
What if you lot don't know where your friend is?
If your friend seems to have moved, isn't answering your calls and no-i knows where they are, this is very bad news. You lot can nevertheless sue them using their terminal accost and win the case.
Only that doesn't hateful you lot will get any money! If y'all don't know where they are your run a risk of being able to "enforce" the court judgment are shut to zero. The courts aren't going to aid you lot locate someone, nor will the law.
There is simply no bespeak in pursuing this unless there is a lot of coin involved, you have a very good case AND yous know they have a lot of assets. Often the best you tin can do is assemble all the evidence you would have produced in court about the debt and keep information technology in a file, in case they reappear.
How practise you sue someone?
Citizen's Advice has a good guide near this.
The outset footstep is to try to sort information technology out before going to court. Yous need to send your friend a "letter before action", there is a template in the Citizens Communication guide. This letter needs to be posted and you should keep proof of posting.
It needs to give your friend a set catamenia, normally a couple of weeks, to reply. This may seem frustratingly irksome if yous call back they are going to ignore it, just it has to be washed.
Sometimes a formal letter makes someone see sense and come up with a proposal for repayments. If they say they volition repay say £thirty a month, unless you are sure they can afford more, it might exist wise to accept it rather than gamble going to courtroom.
After that you lot need to put in your "claim". This can be on paper but information technology is nigh easily done using the Coin Merits Online (MCOL) service. You lot shouldn't demand a solicitor to do this, only your local Citizens Advice can help if necessary.
There will only need to be a court hearing if your friend decides to defend the claim.
What does it cost?
If you sue someone you have to pay court fees at the outset. The amount depends on the amount of coin you are challenge. Issuing a claim for up to £300 costs £35 for example. There will be extra charges if there is hearing or if you demand to try to enforce the judgment.
You may be able to get help with these fees if you lot are on a very depression income.
In theory you become your costs back if y'all win as they are added onto what your friend owes. But this may not work if you don't know where they are or they but ignore the judgment.
Other FAQs
Can I sell my debt to a debt collector? No, debt collection agencies would non be interested in buying this sort of private debt.
Can't the police sue them and go my money back? No, the police volition tell y'all this is a "ceremonious" matter, not a "criminal" matter. They will probably suggest you become to your local Citizens Advice – which is a expert proffer!
What about coin someone owes me outside the Uk? Sorry, I accept no idea. You lot demand to take local advice.
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Source: https://debtcamel.co.uk/friend-owes-me/
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