Real Answers for Life’s Money Challenges
My brother-in-laws home was being foreclosed on.
He still owes me over $92,000.
I basically gave him a $100,000 interest-free loan.
Once you finally get your finances in order, you want to keep them that way. Here arefour moves to make now.
-Unlucky in Kentucky
Dear Unlucky,
You did an extraordinarily kind thing by saving your brother-in-laws home from foreclosure.
In a perfect world, your brother-in-law would be motivated to repay you out of gratitude.
Think about it from the borrowers perspective.
Imagine if banks never sued anyone for failing to make payments.
How much debt do you think would go uncollected?
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There are no consequences if they dont pay it back.
The good news is that you had the foresight to make your brother-in-law agree in writing to pay you.
But an agreement only has teeth if youre willing to bite.
If you have any hope of recouping this money, you better flash your teeth.
Your brother-in-law and his wife clearly dont believe youll hold him to the agreement he signed.
Present them both with a copy of the agreement.
Tell them that youll have no choice but to take them to court unless they resume payments.
Hire an attorney to send a certified letter demanding payment if they still refuse to pay.
Probably not as good as youd like.
It always seems like an uphill battle to build (and keep) a decent amount in savings.
But what if your car breaks down, or you have a sudden medical bill?
Ask one of these companies to help…
Im hoping you wont actually have to sue here.
But nothing in this situation will change unless your inlaws see potential consequences for not paying you back.
Taking your brother-in-law to court may be your only hope of getting that money back.
You clearly care about your brother-in-law if you were willing to pay off his mortgage.
Unfortunately, you also need to prepare for family drama if a lawsuit is necessary.
I think you’re gonna wanna plan as if you wont be getting this money back.
Lawsuits can take a long time to resolve.
Also, collecting on a judgment could be difficult if your inlaws are dead broke.
Youre certainly not the first person to learn this lesson the hard way.
Robin Hartill is a certified financial planner and a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
Send your tricky money questions to[email protected].
(Can you sense my millennial sarcasm there?)
You know which ones were talking about: rent, utilities, cell phone bill, insurance, groceries…
