Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I’m trying to get some more information on what rights I have even though I’m in the wrong. I took out a small payday loan in November of 2020, amounting to $15,000. I was supposed to pay back $18,000 plus in December. I ran into some difficulties and was unable to. About April of 2021 I was contacted by a bailiff saying I owed his client over $300,000. He kept showing up to my address threatening to take my things. These things are not mine, they are my common-law husband’s stuff. I started paying little by little, but I don’t think it’s fair to pay back $300,000 after borrowing $15,000. I need some legal advice. Thank you.

It is clear from the contents of your letter that you needed legal advice before you committed to the loan because you have not even stated whether or not you signed an agreement for the loan and what conditions for payment and penalties for late or non-payment it contained. The terms of all agreements, even oral ones, are always vital to both sides of the contract. Yet you only refer to the fact that in November 2020 you took out a small payday loan which you were supposed to pay back in December. It seems to me that you did not ask and were probably not told what the lender’s rate of interest was on your loan.

It is a very sad thing but too many people do not seek legal advice before they enter into legal contractual relationships of some kind or the other, and only think of this after they find themselves embroiled in situations which they describe as unfair and unjust, and then they often expect the lawyer to perform miracles which the circumstances created by them too often make absolutely impossible.

Such a rate of interest, which is 20 times the loan sum you borrowed, on the face of it seems clearly wrongful and may in fact be illegal. If this is so, such a demand would not be legally collectable from you, as it would render any contract between you and the lender unenforceable. The question would also arise whether the lender is a moneylender in fact and in law, a question which you clearly did not ask or get any information on. In addition, was the person you describe as a bailiff indeed a bailiff? If so, what court was this person connected to? If a bailiff went to collect from you, did he present an order from a court that such a judgement had been entered against you in a claim filed by the lender? Was this person merely a debt collector who was assuming powers he/she does not in fact have, and who by his harassment and overly frequent visits to your home has been committing wrongful acts against you and your common-law husband, which may include trespass? Of course, even a court bailiff cannot take items from a debtor, a judgement debtor or otherwise, which are not the debtor’s own property. But if the lender filed a claim in a court, you would have had to be served with it and you have made no mention of being served to attend court for any such claim. At the unconscionable high rate of the lender’s interest, I somehow doubt that a claim was filed in any court. So if and when this supposed bailiff appears at your home again, tell him the lender should take you to court and not to come back trying to intimidate you to pay an illegally inflated sum, and that the lender would be hearing from your lawyer.

You clearly must get yourself a lawyer to represent you quickly and who, I hope, you can give far more information to and any documents relating to the loan. Your lawyer can communicate with the lender and demand full particulars of their interest rate and their statement of your account and thereby ascertain how they arrived at such a high sum in such a short time, and he can insist that the so-called bailiff never goes to your home again or he/she would file a claim for trespass. Your lawyer can also negotiate with the lender to arrive at a more reasonable sum for the full settlement of your loan.

From your letter, I see nothing which indicates that you ever made any payments to repay the lender the loan with reasonable interest for the term it had been outstanding, which you must pay. You clearly owe what you borrowed and because of your continuing default to repay and more and more time keeps passing, the lender is entitled to reasonable interest for the whole period the debt remains outstanding.

Your lawyer, once you fully relate all the facts to him/her, would be able to decide what can be done for you. You must act to clear up your obligation to repay your loan, which will cost you money for legal fees to have this done. Do not let more time pass as this will keep getting worse. With a lawyer acting for you, the interest chargeable on your loan can be brought within legally acceptable bounds.

I hope you and others reading this will obtain legal advice before entering any contract. I hope that I have clarified matters for you about your loan and the effect of your failure to act before now.

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.

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.