My boyfriend owes me money

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

In early 2011, my ‘boyfriend’ of six months at the time was offered a new job with a significant salary increase. He, however, needed to do an exam in the US first to obtain an additional rating on his professional licence. After exhausting all his options and obtaining two-thirds of the money, I agreed to loan him the remaining portion (in USD) with the verbal agreement that he would begin paying me back within two months (not dependent on receipt of the job). We agreed on the monthly amount that he would deposit to my account.

He did not pass the exam and as such was not able to accept the job offer. He therefore stated that it would take a bit longer to repay the USD loan.

A few months later he asked me to lend him a smaller amount of money (JMD) towards some business expenses (he had recently started farming as a secondary income). I agreed and he repaid me within less than a week. However, a few weeks later there was another JMD loan, this time much more than the first. I told him that I had strong reservations about doing so as I could not afford to be without that money for an extended period of time. He assured me that it would be returned within three weeks maximum as it was to pay the small farmers who he had taken crops from to make up the amount for export. He promised to pay me back as soon as the cheque for the export crops was received.

There were some rejections in the crops and he received less money than was expected. I was not reimbursed. To date (16 months later) I have verbally enquired numerous times and I only receive an attitude with “didn’t I tell you I would pay you back” and more promises of “soon”.

As you can understand, this is not the type of man I want to build a life with. There have also been other breakdowns in the relationship, mostly with communication, not surprisingly. As such, I have been preparing to leave.

I say preparing, as I want to get this sorted out first. I believe he will choose to completely shut me out when I tell him I am leaving. The sense of urgency to sever ties immediately is not strong as we do not share much of a life together — we now live in different parishes due to work, and hardly speak to or see each other because the relationship has broken down, so there is no real relationship and I am completely independent.

In an attempt to come to some formal written arrangement with him, I sent him a document three months ago, which I drafted myself, outlining the loan amounts, the dates borrowed, methods of transfer (cash, bank deposit and electronic transfer) and the agreements made over time that have not been met. I also proposed what I considered a very fair repayment structure which included monthly payments over the period of one year. In total he now owes me just over half a million JMD (inclusive of the original USD loan). I sent him two copies of the document, asking that he sign and return one to me. Needless to say, he was not happy to have received the document, again gave me the “I already told you I will pay you back” speech, and indicated that he would not sign and send back the document. The conversation brought me no nearer to a resolution and he has still not made any attempt to pay me back.

I am seeking your advice about how best to proceed in arriving at some sort of resolution in this matter, especially considering that our original agreements were all verbal and he was not willing to sign the written document three months ago.

Thank you for your very detailed letter. You seem to be a very clear-headed and efficient person, at least in securing clear agreements with your boyfriend following his requests for loans and in you making the loan to him. You have fixed the terms for him to repay you, to which he agreed on each occasion but which he only met on one occasion.

However, I must make mention of the fact that it seems that some independently successful women in Jamaica (in numbers as to be notable) get themselves into the exact situation in which you have found yourself by being repeatedly agreeable to meet the demands for financial accommodations by their boyfriends, spouses or husbands. The men in their lives always promise to repay the sums within fixed times but fail to do so,and yet the women again and again lend them further sums. When the women eventually decide that they will not enter into another loan agreement with their men, or when they decide to demand repayment of all their loans, their men become resentful and arrogantly rude when the women demand payment.

You should not have loaned your ‘boyfriend’ any more money when he failed to repay the first US dollars loan, in fact some would say you should not have done so at all, as it always causes problems in the relationship. Yet you loaned him some Jamaican dollars thereafter and he has made no attempts to pay you back, even in instalments. Do you really think that he will pay you back if you do not take strong steps against him?

You ask how best to resolve the matter and you seem concerned that the agreements were verbal and that he refused to sign the detailed statement you sent to him evidencing the loans in writing.

Your legal options

Well, my dear, you should forget about resolving the matter amicably because you have tried that. You have been supremely patient but this has been to no avail. I venture to state that I am sure you did not demand interest on your money when you prepared your written statement of account. You are entitled to interest.

You should get a lawyer to file a claim in the Supreme Court (because of the total sum of the debts owed to you) for the repayment of your money, with interest thereon from the date of the loan to the date of payment. You have been deprived of the use of your money because of his failure to repay the loans he obtained and promises to repay by certain times.

It matters not that the agreements between you were verbal — they are binding in law and enforceable in our courts of law.

Proceed to do what you should have done long ago and sue this not only arrogant but possibly deceitful man, who would rather frustrate you to give up, rather than do the honourable thing and meet his legal obligation to pay you back the money he borrowed from you.

Do not hold back. From what you have said you seem to have an iron-clad case and you are more than half-way in the preparation of your case — you have your statement of the principal debts already prepared, with the dates when they were made and the means by which you delivered the money to him. Would that all clients could do this for their lawyers!

Do not forget about the interest from the date of each debt, please. Of course, when you succeed, you would get the costs of the action, as well. He will therefore have to pay the debts, interest to date of judgment and interest on the judgment debt, which is at a different rate. He will therefore have to pay far more than if he had met his obligation to pay you back directly.

If he fails to pay the judgment debt, he would have the court bailiff after him and his goods, plus other further legal means which can be used to ensure collection. You owe it to yourself to use the law to obtain your money. He should not treat you as he has and get away with it. So please take your legal action, which is the only means by which you can be assured of resolving the matter. Good luck.

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.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.