Can you take a family member to small claims court if they have a payment plan already ?

[Scottishgirlinwales]

I owe DB/SIL some money (borrowed right before I lost my job and then have been unable to work since) . I have been paying back a set amount monthly without fail as can’t afford the whole lot as agreed before circumstances changed.
DB is saying they can take me to small claims court - can they ?
It was £7500. I have paid back £3000 already.

Have you anything in writing regarding terms?

Did you sign a written contract agreeing to pay the whole lot back by a certain date?

No it was just a verbal agreement

If it was agreed verbally then it’s not a payment plan. On the other hand, if the original sum was agreed verbally then there’s nothing to prove it was a loan at all and not a gift between siblings….

Depends what's in writing I suspect but can you not try and sort this out before they take this step.
Have you explained your situation and try to work out a compromise that's acceptable to all .

I offered to increase my monthly payment by £50 a month as that will be the maximum I can afford but they’ve declined that

I can’t do that as I did agree to pay it back I just didn’t know my circumstances would change so drastically. I want to pay it back but they are being quite unpleasant about it now and it’s causing me a lot of stress as it’s souring the relationship terribly

Are you working now? In reality, you can't get blood from a stone so if you're still out of work but making regular payments, it's unlikely the court would order you to up the payments.

If you now have a job, the court could order you to increase the payment

How long will it take you to pay back?

Is it heavily impacting them?

If you're able to stretch to another £50 per month and they refuse it, then why don't you put it in a savings account and build up a lump sum to pay it off sooner?

But the fact you are making regular payments is indicative of a loan and not a gift, so that defence is moot

They can by all means try . However the small claims process requires mediation, at which point you show what you have been doing and what your available resources are. If these appear reasonable and they still refuse to accept - it will go to court - where no Judge will impose unfair terms upon you - and they will have wasted a lot of time and have costs .

The verbal/lack of a written contract is a red herring. A verbal contract is a contract. I am assuming you are not disputing that he LENT the money to you and YOU agreed to pay it back ? If so then it boils down to what is reasonable in the repayments.

You will have to show your income and expenditure plus any capital.
It will not be reasonable to expect you to pay over and above - at the detriment of priority bills such as rent/mortgage/council tax. It would however be unreasonable not to repay the lump sum if you have more than 3k in savings .

Well that would be a shitty way to irretrievably break a relationship.

They can make a claim, you will be sent a letter asking if you are aware of the debt. You just reply that you are paying the loan back at £ …. per month and now owe £3,000 from the original £7,500. If your DB wants to get the whole amount back, I doubt the Court will agree as you are paying it back as quickly as you can. It could also backfire on him, considering your circumstances, Court may agree a lower payment plan. It’s always best when you loan money to get a signed agreement, really simple to do yourself.

nothing written
so they just transferred?

if they are threatening you, just stop paying them a thing. They don’t have a leg to stand on as you could just say it was a gift 💝

No savings, still not working (due to a serious autoimmune condition so no idea when I would be able to work again) . As far as I’m aware it’s not impacting them but that’s only going by the information I have (things on social media etc) I could be wrong though so I don’t want to assume anything and I do want to pay back what I owe it’s just the pressure and hostility towards me now is causing me huge stress

Would you actually do this?! That's awful. How much are you making payment of @Scottishgirlinwales ?

have you got things you could sell?

Her regular repayments so far would support it was a loan, although if there's nothing written as to the balance remaining or the initial loan amount, OP might claim that its been repaid in full already (not a suggestion, OP acknowledges loan from family, easier to pay it back as quickly as possible if wanting to maintain the relationships!)

£200 per month and I offered to increase to £250 but they said no they’ll go to small
claims court

They would be taking a risk going to court, just as they took a risk lending you the money.

The court may well look at your circumstances and reduce the amount you are paying to them now.

It is a shame if your relationship is soured. My more well off siblings have always helped out lesser well off siblings with 'loans' as we grew up. In reality there was never any expectation of it being paid back. Family look out for family. I think I'm very lucky in that respect.

this family is threatening to take op to court!

it’s a shit show of a “family”

so all bets are off

£250 a month seems quite reasonable. It will take you another 18 months to pay the money back which means by the time it actually got to court there would be very little balance remaining.

I agree with a previous poster that if you can afford to put the extra £50 a month aside you can give it to them as a final payment once you’ve accumulated enough and get this over with as quickly as possible.

If you are paying out of savings do you have enough to pay in full? There will be a trail of transfers and repayments, so yes it is repayable and you have acknowledged that. What was the loan for?

Is there a reason why they are behaving so shoddily towards you? Have their circumstances changed dramatically?
I would say that if they are going do that then you’ll have to accept it and when the court get in touch you will outline exactly what you’ve been doing - with evidence if you have it. Explain your circumstances and if you can you could ask them to reduce the amount of individual payments as it’s causing severe hardship.
youll have to accept that your relationship with your DB will be irreparably harmed probably but that will be his fault. Not yours!

What does your brother think going to small claims court will achieve? Does he think you have the money? Let him waste his time. However, is there any way you could get a bank loan or credit card to pay him off? You'll end up paying more in the long run, but it might be worth it to get him off your back.