How to rescind a contract

[Sunflower3332]

My ex and I separated some years ago, and because we had very young children he agreed to lend me £15,000 to help me set myself up with my next house.
A contract was drawn up by a Solicitor that basically says that I would pay him back when I could, and no date was put on the contract.

Although my ex is well off, he's never paid the correct amount of child maintenance, which he now admits to as our children have grown, and has agreed to squash the contract providing I don't go down the CMS route.
He has told me that I could just word something myself on a piece of paper and he'd sign it, but I'd rather have something official to state that the contract is now null and void but I don't know how to go about it, and don't know if it has to be officially done as such. Any advice appreciated.

You can agree to end the contract. A solicitor will advise you whether you’re best to null and void the contract or do the £1 full and final settlement. See a solicitor.

You can’t agree this instead of him owing CMS, though. He cannot contract out of that without a court order.

Don’t go the notary route for this, it’s too important that it’s done correctly.

IAAL. Forget notarisation - total red herring.

You need an agreement to cancel the contract which itself fulfills the requirements for a valid contract (consideration, offer, acceptance, capacity etc) and which is signed by both parties. It shouldn’t take a solicitor more than 30 minutes (although they may not even want to open a file for that amount), or alternatively, find a template online. I would put a copy of the original agreement in the appendix so that it’s very clear that your obligation to pay £15k is canceled.

Contracts do not need to be notarised to be legally binding. The use of a notary in this country is limited to very particular tasks, usually involving a foreign law aspect because the law of the other country requires notarisation to make the transaction valid.

To be binding, a contract requires offer, acceptance, consideration and intention to create legal relations. The consideration is your promise not to pursue CM in return for him waiving the repayment of the loan. However, since your promise not to pursue CM cannot be enforced even if you do sign this contract (since if you did go to CMS afterwards they would still make him pay CM), the arrangement will not work.

The only way to make this binding in the way you intend is to put it into a consent order and have it sealed by the court. However, if he doesn’t know that, it’s a “his problem” issue. Properly advised by a lawyer, he will quickly find out.

Thanks all, I'll go down the solicitor route I think

You are correct that absent a specific repayment date a loan is generally considered repayable on demand on reasonable notice (that last bit is important) but that isn’t quite what the @Sunflower3332 said, she said the co tractor provided for repayment “when she could”. That is impossibly vague and a good solicitor would have advised her ex that he should put parameters on that, for example “when she had a gross annual income of x repayment would start with installments of y being paid every z period” . Sounds like a shit contract tbh.

@Sunflower3332 ignore all this stuff about £1 and notaries. In your case contract is just an agreement between 2 people which can be varied by agreement ( some limited circumstances other rules apply, but based on what you have said here it is difficult to see what other regimes could apply). Basically get the agreement I writing, get it to confirm there is no further liability to pay and the loan is extinguished, make sure it is a deed and make sure it is specific, this is where a lawyer could help.

As an aside I would t agree to waive child maintenance, not so I know if that is even enforceable.

“Will pay back when I can” is still repayable on demand.

CM cannot be waived without a court order.

If you want to terminate the loan agreement anyway, you just need a deed recording:

Party A lent Party B £15k under a loan agreement dated X

The parties have now agreed to terminate the loan agreement with no repayment of the loan and Party A releases Party B from any liability to repay the loan.

Executed as a deed this X day of [month].

Executing a document as a deed requires the signatories each to sign it IN THE PRESENCE OF A WITNESS, who then also signs and adds their address. If the witness does not actually see the signatory add their signature before the witness signs themself, the deed is not validly executed and will be of no effect. Many people get this wrong.

Why can't you just rip up all copies of the contract so it no longer exists?

If only that was possible! Unfortunately the original is held at a Solicitor's office.

Would my ex and I have to be present together if we do it this way and sign a deed, or can we sign separately but as long as we sign in front of a witness?
And could anyone be a witness (not family I assume) or would it have to be a Solicitor?

You can sign separately - you each sign your own version of the deed and then deliver your signed copy to the other (“deliver” can mean just giving it to them). Your witness must be independent ie not your boyfriend, but doesn’t have to be a solicitor. It can be anyone independent of you. The important thing is that they watch you sign it and then they sign it and add their address. They do not need to read the document before signing. They’re just witnessing your signature.

Thank you, that's helpful to know too.