Forcing Debt Repayment by Someone Who Did It All Himself (Me)

First things first. Lets start at the beginning of debt repayment and collection. If someone stole from you or your business, the obvious solution would be to approach the police, wouldn't it? The police suggested that since we were partners, how could they prove it was theft? They thought it would be just my word against his, so not worth the effort. I countered that most crimes are one person's word against another, but that didn't get me far.

The gentleman with whom I had had this 'business' relationship was still (at that time) in possession of a company car, which we had bought for his use and he had secretly registered in his name! The police told me and I quote, 'To get someone to sort that out for you. Best not to break the law though!'

In complying with this unusual suggestion, I had a close friend who is a very big and very strong, former martial arts champion to gently discuss the return of the car for me. From what I can gather, that saved months of legal paperwork and wrangling! And no force was used!!

I ought to point out at this point that during my school days I sat and passed 'A' Level Criminal Law and I also worked for a while in the Legal Department of a national Building Society dealing with property matters. It would be reasonable to say that I had an idea of what I needed to do, but I had to relearn as I went. As with anything legal, including forcing a debt repayment, it is important to operate carefully and accurately.

I don't know where you may be reading this, but I imagine that people trying not to pay you are the same everywhere. They have your money. You want it back. They have spent it on wine, women and song, or maybe even wasted it! They need to 'postpone' repayment in the hope that they can renegotiate the debt repayment downwards and that inflation will erode the purchasing power. This could mean that the money they actually repay you might be just half (or less) of the amount owed.

If you are reading this because someone owes you money, you might not like to hear the sound of that. I didn't when I first started to understand.

Here are a few early pointers...

If you are planning to chase your debt legally and force debt repayment, don't phone, don't 'pop' by his or her house, from now on all communication is written.

Ensure all your letters are formal, polite and non threatening. Get to the point and do so quickly. Make it businesslike. Write formally and keep a photocopy of everything. Why? You can bet that in court you'll want to have a copy of everything to hand. Get organised early.

A big plus to keeping copies of everything relates to the behaviour of deadbeats. Why?

Well, if you loan a friend money and he explains how he plans to repay, how often and how much and then he does what he said he'd do, you don't need to chase him do you? He is behaving as an honest and honourable person should.

However, if you are chasing the debt, chances are that you are owed money by a deadbeat who has no plans to ever repay the money owed. You are going to have to take it back from him or her.

Luckily for us, deadbeats hardly ever reply to letters, if they do they don't keep a copy. The letters you send probably end up in the fire or fed to the dog in disgust. Voila! You have proof in court that you are trying to be fair and reasonable. The deadbeat just has excuses. Judges and arbitrators have heard all the excuses before and can see through the vast majority of them.