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.

How long did you not pay for or pay a reduced amount?
Did they have it in savings or take out a loan in their name but for you?

theres more to this , admit it OP

they were kind enough to give you a substantial loan without anything in writing

and now this

but i doubt we will hear anything approaching the truth

Truth is op has paid more than half back and offered to pay it back faster this isn't poirot sometimes there is no big thing

so this sounds like something someone would threaten their sister with…. when only recently then lent them £7,000 on trust with no protection or guarantee whatsoever

Are they angry because they've seen you spend on something they think is unnecessary or has something come up that means they really need the money?

When you took the loan from them what was the original plan for repayment? £7500 is a big loan. Were you meant to be paying it back in full quickly or still by instalments, just bigger ones? Just trying to work out what has changed for your brother and why he is so annoyed. Also have you ever not paid back a previous loan? Also wondering if your sil was aware of the loan?

Even if they take it to the small claims court, they can’t take money off you that they don’t have so the result would still be a payment plan. The court may even order that you pay less per month than you currently do, if the current repayments are leaving you in hardship.

If this were reversed posters would be advocating going via small claims,

If the original plan was to pay the £7500 back straight away, then what has happened to the funds you were going to use to do this?

Where was the £7500 going to come from originally?

Or was it a plan to pay back far larger sums over a much shorter period?

What was the original agreement?

Did you tell DB as soon as you realised you were going to lose your job? Does he appreciate your health difficulties?

Is there anyone else in the family that could mediate?

It depends on what was agreed at the time and why the circumstances have changed.

I don’t know i think @circumventM is probably right. The brother lent a huge amount of money, with little protection with the understanding it would fairly shortly be paid back. Now he won’t get the full amount back for another 18 months.

where did he get the money from? Savings that were earmarked for something else? A loan which he’s having to pay the interest on? he’s obviously clearly massively annoyed but was at one point supportive enough to loan substantial money.

to answer your q though @Scottishgirlinwales he can take you to small claims court but there won’t be any impact on you.

He'd be wasting his time. Maybe he gets a judgment for what's owed. You tell the court what you can afford to pay per month and they'll more than likely make an order that you pay that. You can't get blood from a stone.

£250 seems reason. You have £4.5k left to pay. There it will take 18 months of pay.

I don't know what the original agree was before you lost your job.

I think if you have something in writing I.e. text messages and dates and duration, their is a chance. But I think the judge will also look at your circumstances.

Can you sell some things to make up for the money? Clothes? Electronic etc?

If they take you to court they will get the same outcome as now but with fees on top. You don't have the money and they'll likely assess what you can afford to pay monthly, plus court fees. Where do they think you'll magic the money from? They might ask you to sell assets if you have any I guess but if it stops you from working- like a car- the court might decide against it.

It was meant to be paid back in one lump and DB just said to me at the time ‘within the next year just whenever you can’ . Not long after that circumstances changed a lot and because I couldn’t pay it all back I paid a lump of £1000 as I had that in savings and started the £200 a month payments.

As far as I’m aware they aren’t in hardship but as I said before that’s as far as I’m aware. I don’t have anything I can sell unfortunately. I dont think they are worried about court costs as they said I’ll be liable for those ?

I wonder if SIL was unaware of the loan and DB is now under pressure from her to retrieve the money?

How are you getting the £200 every month OP?

So that's a bit different in that the original loan was supposed to be paid back by now. What happened that meant you couldn't? The job loss? Would the amount you earn have covered repayment within that year as it seems strange someone who could repay that in one year didn't have it to hand if they earned that much to do so?

Have you shown that you are actively seeking work? Or does it seem to them you aren't trying and this is worrying them.

How are you paying the £200 a month. Perhaps their circumstances have changed and they need it now. Maybe they could do without their £7500 for the original term ie within a year and are now worried they can't pay for something they had it earmarked for.

You don’t have any money, or a job, so how does he think you could pay the court costs?

It sounds like you are making efforts to pay it back. I would tell him to take you to the small claim courts. Nobody can take what you don't have

My income is UC and PIP. Currently I am not able to work as I used to so I’ve been looking at working from home and exploring that but it’s such early days

Do you have text messages/emails talking about the agreement and that he's trying to change it? How are you paying him? Bank transfer? A verbal contract is still a contract and if he's accepted monthly payments so far and there's a record, that's evidence of your agreement. He can't just unilaterally change the repayment terms afaik.

Yes lots of them. He never accepted it as such because when I explained he said ‘well I haven’t got a choice have I?’

Where does he think you are able to get the money from to give back to him? Is he under the impression that you have the money available?

Having been in a situation where I lent a similar amount to a relative I can understand their frustration. Your assumption that they can afford to wait was exactly what I experienced and does make things difficult. Maybe they assume that you can pay back more and just need a bit of a prod (via threat of small claims)

It did and has soured the relationship many years on so if I were you I would do everything I could to pay as much back as soon as possible making it clear you understand the problems this is causing for them. Unless you don't care about the relationship in which case sounds like there is nothing much they can actually do.

Technically that's acceptance, although I wouldn't split hairs about it with family. If he'd returned the money, or messaged you every time complaining that it wasn't enough that would be different.

It would be one of those small claims cases that is essentially a waste of everyone's time, the court and yours. You're making the repayments on time, it's only now he/they have decided they want it faster. You've made a higher offer, they've declined it, the ball is in their court.

There's also still a backlog in the system so by the time it got in front of a judge you'd probably have repaid it anyway...