Recovering Money Lent to Family, Friends & Business Partners
Loans between family members, friends, and business partners are usually made on trust — a bank transfer and a promise. When repayment stops, lenders assume the missing paperwork kills the claim. It usually does not. Courts reconstruct loans from e-transfers, texts, and conduct every day, and the two-year limitation clock often starts later than lenders fear.
Proving a loan without a written agreement
The central dispute in most personal-loan cases is not whether money changed hands — the e-transfer proves that — but whether it was a loan or a gift. Contemporaneous texts, partial repayments, discussions of terms, and the surrounding circumstances decide the question. We assemble that record with investigative rigour before the other side knows a claim is coming.
Limitation periods and demand loans
For loans with no fixed repayment date, the limitation clock generally does not start until a demand for repayment is made and refused. That rule rescues many old loans — but it also means a formal, dated demand letter is a critical legal step, not just a courtesy.
Collecting from someone you know
Enforcement against a friend or relative is uncomfortable but rarely optional — a judgment creditor who never enforces trains the debtor not to pay. Garnishment, registration against property, and structured settlement agreements let you convert an awkward personal debt into a managed legal process.
How We Help With This
Common Questions
I sent the money by e-transfer with no contract. Do I have a case?
Very possibly. The transfer record establishes the payment; texts and conduct establish it was a loan. Courts decide these cases on the balance of probabilities, and organized evidence usually beats vague denials.
The borrower says it was a gift. How do courts decide?
Judges look at the context: the parties' relationship, whether repayment was discussed, whether any repayments were made, the size of the transfer relative to means, and what was said at the time. Between non-family parties, large transfers are presumed not to be gifts.
The loan is from 2021. Am I too late?
Maybe not. If it was a demand loan, the two-year clock may only have started when your demand was refused. This analysis is technical and fact-specific — get advice before assuming the claim is dead.
Where We Handle These Disputes
Representation across Ontario and British Columbia — virtually and in person.
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More common small claims scenarios, explained.