Loan to Ex partner

[Ethel Street]

Is the agreement between you and your ex-partner in writing?  What evidence do you hold that she agreed to make the payments?

 

How did the repayments work? Are you paying the your credit card bills  and your ex-partner is repaying you? 

 

Does your ex-partner still have the car? 

 

What reason has your ex-partner given you for refusing to pay?

[Ethel Street]

Who is the legal owner of the car? Your ex-partner is the registered keeper but that isn't evidence that she is also the legal owner. Being registered keeper doesn't make someone the legal owner.

 

Have you still got the documents - especially the invoice -  from when the car was bought? Do the documents show that you are buying the car or your ex-partner?

[Ethel Street]

Normally I'd be thinking that starting a court action to recover your loan is the obvious thing to do  (how much does she owe you by the way?)

 

I can see two hurdles for you

 

(1) Lack of written evidence that she agreed it was loan that she would repay. The text is far from ideal evidence but might be sufficient, especially if she doesn't deny she sent it. Depends what it says.

 

(2) Courts typically regard agreements between people who are a couple, who are one family, as family arrangements that weren't intended to create legal contracts. ie, in effect the court might decide that it was a gift from you to your partner. However the text might be sufficient to show a contractual agreement was intended. Again, depends what it says.

 

I'm not a lawyer so even if I knew what the text says I couldn't say whether it's sufficient to start a court action. And in any case, as dx says, because texts aren't hard to fake she could simply deny it came from her.

 

Let's see if others have an opinion on this.

 

 

[Ethel Street]

@NTscott22How much is the total loan you made to your ex-partner?

[Ethel Street]

@NTscott22  If you want to pursue this further I believe the only route open to you is a small claims court action.

 

But before you start that one question: does your ex-partner have any money to pay you the £8k if you win the court action? Presumably she didn't have the ready cash or she wouldn't have asked you for a loan. Does she have other sources of funds to meet an £8k claim? Or would you be dependent on her having to sell the car (likely to raise less than she owes you I'd have thought)?

 

There's not much point financially in bringing a claim against someone who can't pay you even if you win. That's just throwing good money after bad.