My husband & I took out a personal loan for my son and his wife to purchase a fixer upper mobile home. Basically it was a personal loan we took out in our name and then made a personal loan to them. We wrote up a promisary note stating in short they would make the monthly payments and if any payments were late they would pay any/all late fees. Unfortunately this loan is now 2 months overdue and our bank has started taking the payments out of my husbands savings. My son is not responding to our demands for payments and we are at our wits end. Can we put a lien on this mobile home? We are seriously thinking of calling his employer. He works in law enforcement, and I am sure the warden at the prison he works at would not like any problems on his property. This mobile home is on prison grounds, where some of the guards live with their families. I must also mention this mobile home is in another state. I sure need some serious help with this issue. My husband and I are elderly and cannot afford to make their payments.

If your son won't pay you, your legal recourse is to take him to court and sue him for payment.

You made a personal loan not tied to the filing of the deed, so you can't put a lien on it (and you would have to foreclose and evict like any other mortgage anyway). You have to make a decision about contacting the warden and what repercussions it might have. It seems that it could go either way. Maybe he or she will know if this fixer upper was a disaster money pit and your son is bitter about the price and he's sinking every dime into it. You could at least ask in a cautious way in a first phone call, without getting into the loan yet.
Be sure to be ready to change your wills at any moment. You can do it in a way that assesses the amount with interest he will owe when either of your estates is probated. (He may be counting on that and doesn't care that interest will accrue.)

I would not talk to his employer, especially since you have no legal claim to the mobile home. But you were smart to get a promissory note. With that you should have no problem getting a judgment. Since he's employed she should be able to garnish his salary.

First you have no legal claim to his mobile home, that was your choice when you did not place a lien on it.

Calling a third party about a debt ( without a judgement) is illegal and they could sue you if you contacted anyone other than them about the debt. So no calling their work, no calling their friends.

Also you did not co-sign a loan for him, but make you own loan

So first and foremost, you need to start paying the loan that you made, and get it caught up, any and all late payemnts will hurt your credit.

Then you need to sue them for the money from the personal loan, with a judgement ( assuming you win and get it) then you should be able to get a garnishment of his pay from the state.

I have a promisary note signed both by my son & his wife, I have been told I have a better case, almost sure to get the judgement. I am wondering if I have 2 go to the state he lives in or can I file this case here where I live. Have N E idea on that?

First, please don't use the Comments feature for Follow-up. Use the Answer options (at the bottom) instead.

Yes, with a promissory note, you have a slam dunk for a judgment. It depends on where the note was signed. You should be able to file locally.

My son & his wife signed & had notorized in their state. We also had our signatures notorized in our state. We also included if there were any problems with payments that we would be able to file in our state. The exact wording on the promisary note is: GOVERNING STATE OVER THIS AGREEMENT: South Carolina.

Then why are you asking? If the note states that then SC it is.

I am sorry, It is a needless question, I was just wondering if you would agree that we would have the right to file the paperwork here? Thanks, I didn't mean to sound stupid. I really appreciate your responses and opinions.

You didn't sound stupid. The law can baffle many people and I understand your apprehension. But you were smart to get a note signed and protect yourself. Appears you did a good job doing so.

I wanted to get back to my great advice giver last night but well the evening got away with me and time flew by and I fell asleep. I think I am emotionally drained with this problem. Anyway... Do I need to get any kind of form from a court so I can file this myself. I really can't afford any kind of extra money so I need to do this with the least out of my pocket expenses as possible. I am not even sure of which court I have to go to. Someone had said it is a small claims suit? That is a different court. The more help and advice I can get, I think that will be the best thing for me. I am just so overwhelmed with this mess, it is taking a great toll on me emotionally and physically. Please send me any thoughts you may have on this. Thanks so much in advance.

Small claims has a cap, it depends on the State. I looked on line but I really don't know if this info is valid. It says the max you can sue for in SC in small claims is $7500.

Info found here: http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDAQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.consumeraffairs.com%2Fconsume rism%2Fsmall_sc.html&rct=j&q=south%20carolina%20small%20claims%20court%20limi t&ei=ApUGTaL7A42qsAOB1LiICA&usg=AFQjCNEX5t3R1qo1OTf6uwHMhQZOpzJU0g&cad=rja

So it depends on how much your son owes you. If it's under $7500 than I'd sue in small claims, as it is cheaper.

I see Alty answered you. If the amount owed is more than the small claims limit, then you will have to sue in Civil court which may require more stringent filings. If you want to try to do this yourself, check out local law schools. Some have clinics that will help you prepare the proper paperwork.

Thank you so very very much. I have gotten some absolutely great advice. I will follow up on all of it. Again, thanks everyone for all the fabulous information, advice and knowledge you have all shared with me. Scott Gem & Altenweg. I would have been crazy by now if I had not gotten great advice and information from you both. I will let you both know how it works out for my husband & I. A mother should not have to go through this with her child, but unfortunately some children are not what you expected them to be or do what you expected them to. You want to give your child the benefit of the doubt, especially after doing this once before, but when that child cries and swares it will not happen again,you want to give that child a second chance. First time was almost $10,000.00. This time was another $10,000.00 but close to $15,000.00 with interest but this time I was going to protect myself with some kind of note or paper work with signatures added for legal issues if needed down the road.
THanks again,
MicciW

If you can use small claims court normally you can do it without an attorney ( many don't allow attorneys) but there is a dollar limit, so the issue will be how much they owe, You will need to check with the max amount you can sue for at your local small claims court

FR_CHUCK. Your advice is going to come in so handy when I make my calls today. I hope I can get this resolved with my son without doing anything at all but I have to believe that after 2 months. No payments and another one due on the 25th, no answered phone calls, emails or messages, I am quite sure my son is waiting for us to make a move and that is going to be what will happen. I will copy all this advice down and have it right next to me on the phone so I know what to ask and say when I speak to the courts. God Bless You and all the others who have helped me out. It is greatly appreciated.

IN SHORT RECALL OF OUR SITUATION -
My husband took out a personal $10,000.00 loan for my son so he could purchase a fixer upper mobile home for his family. We wrote out a promisary note and he and his wife both signed it & had it notorized. Unfortunately, he did not do what we trusted him to do and that was add my husband & I onto the title and also, did not keep their end of the agreement of keeping insurance on the mobile home. The only agreement he "was" doing was making the regular monthly payments on the loan. Although a couple of days past the due date at times, he "was" making the payments, until 3 months ago. He has not made a payment in 3 months. Telling us he was having some hard times, he promised to catch up the loan. After 2 months there were more late fees added onto the loan and the CU has started taking the payments out of my husbands savings account. At first he told me he was sorry, he swore he would send the money as soon as he could, but still nothing. Now my son is not returning out phone calls and is not responding to emails or messages left at his job. He works for the St. of Florida prison system,as a guard. We need help badly. NOW I am reading in a website that he can file bankruptcy on this promisary note and could be the last bill paid in his list of debts. I don't know if that is what he is doing. PLEASE HELP ME!

Yes, since you just have a non secured note with them, so if they file a chapter 7 bankruptcy you will not get any money at all from them and can not even ask them for it, or talk to them about it. If they file a chapter 13 on it, you will get about 10 to 20 cents on the dollar over 3 years.

But you have learned a tough lesson about loaning money to family members, you don't feel good about suing them or taking them to court, and they are the first ones not to pay you when things get tough.

I have lost money to every family member I ever loaned money to.

Hind sight is great, he should have never been givent he money before closing on trailer, and the money be written to the seller not him, which you on the deed.
*** but that would not make him pay either, just list you on deed.


I will say this, the prison system is very hard on employees who don't pay their bills, you need to sue in small claims court NOW, and get a judgement that way you can put a garnishment on his paycheck