Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I signed as a guarantor for a should-be friend; however, she refuses to repay the loan even though she has migrated and is working in a very good corporate job.

Even after speaking to her about my illness that I have developed, she will not make a payment.

When she was asked by another friend why she is not making the payments, she answered that she doesn’t have a reason, and said she didn’t want to speak about it anymore.

She has assets here in Jamaica, including a house. I am being forced to pay. The loan deductions from my account will start in December when my own personal loan with the company ends.

What can I do before then? Help! I am at my wits’ end as I have been struggling to pay my own bills due to loans for my treatment.

Your friend is acting in a most invidious way, one that I can only describe as not only offensive and unfair, but very dishonest. I can only conclude that she never intended to pay back her loan at all.

You have asked what you can do. Well, since as her guarantor you are legally bound to pay her total indebtedness to the lenders, you must get a lawyer to act for you. You have a clear legal cause of action against her. There is no reason why you cannot have the case filed against her, even though she is abroad. I hope that you have her address.

I know that you will think about the cost of filing a claim against her, and having to pay the lawyer. But you should explain your circumstances to the lawyer and ask for an agreement for the fees to be settled at the end of the case from the payments ordered by the court in the judgement against her. I suggest that you inform the lenders what you plan to do, and ask them to prepare and give you a full and complete statement of accounts of your friend’s total indebtedness to them, for you to use in proof of the claim you would be making against her. You should also ask that they be a witness for you in the proceedings, and your lawyer can later follow this up for you. The lenders should be made to understand that it is in both your interests that they assist you with your case, so that they can get their money back from the actual principal of the loan.

Your lawyer would have to decide when your claim for the total sum should be filed, because you cannot only apply for the total sum stated in the accounts, but also for any interest due and owing from the date of the statement of account. The claim can ask for your friend to indemnify you for the total sum due to the lenders, plus any further interests, and for your full and total legal costs. This should take care of your lawyer’s fees; that is why it is the “full” legal costs.

I suggest these claims because of your illness, so that you can be free of the burden of her liability as quickly as possible. Try to get a good and experienced contract and commercial law lawyer.

You see, the only avenue a guarantor has is to meet their legal obligation on the principal borrower’s failure to repay the loan, and file suit against the borrower for whatever the guarantor has or had to meet to bear the burden. In your case, because of your illness, I am suggesting that you get a lawyer and discuss whether your case can be filed as soon as possible in order to have the borrower be ordered to indemnify you and pay all that is due and owing. Remind your lawyer that she has a house here in Jamaica and a good job abroad.

Do let this person get away with her disgustingly dishonest conduct. Please try to use the right of access to the law in order to be made free of the yoke you have been burdened with as a result of your agreement to assist.

Good luck and God bless.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com ; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.