BF asked to pay debt four years later

[Bizawit]

About 4 years ago my BF went on holiday with an old school friend and two other guys (known to BF, but only loosely). During the trip one of these guys suggested renting a car. He took responsibility for organising the rental/ driving etc.

The holiday ended up being somewhat chaotic and money was not fully squared between the friends by the end of the trip. One of the outstanding issues was a parking ticket. The guy who rented the car said that he would wait until the ticket arrived and then work out who owed him what.

My BF heard nothing further from this guy for the next four years, until Sunday when he received a group email saying he (car rental guy) had finally calculated what everyone owed him !! Apparently my BF owes him £100. My BF is between jobs at the moment and definitely does not have £100 to spare!!

I think that given this holiday happened 4 years ago and the guy never bothered to ask for the money until now, the debt should be assumed to be written off. I think it’s really cheeky to come asking for it all of a sudden 4 years later..

AIBU?

smile -just out of interest could I see the receipt? You haven't got one? Gosh, you must have a good memory! One lifted eyebrow!

"The only way it would now be at £400 is if he allowed it to escalate"

This isn't necessarily true. Some US cities have high fines for some parking violations. Where I am at the moment parking fines can range up to $1,000. And if you're in a rental car and the ticket gets sent to the rental company they will normally pay it and then charge the fine and a transaction fee.

Tell him you will send it. Wait 4 years before doing so.
Your ‘bf’ should have chased it up long ago.

It's not unbelievable that it's £400 as the rental company put a hefty admin charge on handling parking tickets and if he took a while to pay this may have escalated.
He should have proof of costs in the paperwork. The guy may just be really bad at doing admin and being broke suddenly motivated him.

Maybe he didn’t pay the ticket and it’s multiplied?

I think he should pay it. It was a joint cost of the holiday. The fact it’s taken a long while to chase up is neither here nor there. I’d have chased it up if I were him.

He needs to see a copy of the paperwork

I think it can affect travelling abroad again, I would check that out.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1364519

A debt is a debt, especially when there are friends involved.
If your Bf doesn’t have £100 right now, make the friend an offer to pay in instalments.

Sounds like the parking authority didn’t chase the fine but DID charge interest on it, and by the time it caught up with the driver it was massive.

The driver should have paid when first due, but in ignoring it he’s just done exactly what your BF did. Your BF knew he owed money, I would have followed up at least a couple of times even with someone I hardly knew “hey thanks for sorting the car what do I owe you?”

BF should pay.

He must ask to see the bill first, to check what he is paying for

If it includes any interest or ate penalty charges, then he should only pay ¼ of the original fine
because those are not his responsibility at all

In my mind there are few avenues open to your BF here @Bizawit.

1 - they could reply "new phone, who dis?"
2 - they could reply "Please forward a copy of the outstanding bill for my attention"
3 - Say to the guy who was late in circulating the outstanding bill "Hi X, I am only willing to pay towards the bill at the time which was for 7 days parking. Any late fees are on you. I will forward £40 (or whatever the day rate is x 7 divided by the number of people on holidays).

4 - if there are any late fees due, surely payment of those is down to the guy who said he would work out the amount due (and in a reasonable timeframe) and circulate that to the group of holiday goers?

sod that 4 years???!!! Ignore and if another message appears ask for the paperwork.

It sounds dodgy as hell. How do you know there is a fine at all? This guy could just be in debt or wants to buy something and wants other people to pay for it.

Ask for proof first definitely. You've no idea if he is being truthful.

If he is then pay obviously, although its a bit weird he never asked before.

I was a bit scatty and socially awkward at Uni and am probably owed hundreds from various people as I paid bills etc then was too shy to ask people to pay me back and then I lost track of everything so didn’t really know who owed what beyond “everyone” and “a lot”. I’ve learnt my lesson, and now all us friends use Splitwise to keep track of who paid what on trips/meals etc. (I’d recommend it to everyone btw - makes it so low stress keeping track of everything and feels way less confrontational to me to ping a quick “can we all settle up Splitwise?” to everyone; plus keeps track of A paid X but B paid Y so B owes A less).

I kind of reconciled myself to never seeing that money again from my younger days, even when I could have really used it!

I do appreciate, however, that I’m in a fortunate financial position now where I don’t have to consider scrabbling around for ancient debts to gather money together. So I wouldn’t chase up an ancient debt; but if someone approached me reminding me of something I owed, with proof of the amount owed, I’d definitely pay up. (And if a suitably close trustworthy friend I’d probably pay up without proof)

I wouldn't just hand money over with no paperwork to show that was my share, but at the same time if I owed a friend or someone money I wouldn't just ignore it. I'd have been in touch asking what I owed a few month after returning if they'd not been in touch

Quite weird for him to follow up after so long, but I don't think it's unreasonable for him to ask them to pay up.

I'd be willing to pay my share of the fine & any admin fees involved, but NOT any late fees or interest accrued because the friend didn't follow up in a timely way with the rental company.

(I'm in the US and rental companies can charge horrendous amounts in 'admin fees' if you get a ticket in a rental AND it can take a long time to get you a final reckoning if you don't chase them for it)

I think he should pay what he owes but, I would question exactly what that is. For example, (not a lawyer but) I wouldn't consider him liable for any late payment charges. And, he might not be liable for the parking charge at all - I mean, did he encourage the driver to park there or did he perhaps question it but the driver insisted, or something else?

What are the other guys doing?

I think I would send a brief message back expressing surprise given the time that's passed. I would state that it's bad timing for me atm and would ask for a run-down of costs.

We got an enormous parking fine in Deia, Mallorca over 20 years ago that probably equates to around that sum now.

As long as friend can scan and email the paperwork to prove it, of course your BF should pay his share. If it was the other way round would you really be arguing that BF pay the full £400 because after 4 years he shouldn’t ask the other parties?

Definitely would want to see proof because that seems like alot but if it's correct he needs to pay it. Very unfair on the other guy otherwise

It would be stupid to just blindly pay the £100 without seeing evidence of the parking ticket first. I don’t believe the ticket cost £400 personally and your DP is naive to.

I think the ‘friend’ is broke and being a total chancer.

Was the parking ticket in the uk?

Pretty ridiculous that it's taken that long to ask, but I would pay up - but only on proof of the parking ticket amount and not to include any late fees etc.

If your BF can't afford to pay it right now then I think it's fair enough to say he can pay in instalments over the next few months - after all it's taken the guy 4 years to ask for it!

Ask him to take a photo of the invoice and email it - then your boyfriend needs to pay his share .