Legal Advice on Loans and Contracts

Questioner

good afternoon. I had a quick question. an old colleague of mine has a call center company in Amsterdam South East. He wanted to open another branch in Alkmaar and needed to pay a deposit. He didn't have the money himself, so he asked me to lend him €1,000. I was quite skeptical, and he told me he would draw up a "legally valid" contract. Now, the contract states that I paid €1,000 on April 19, 2019, and that I'll get it back on May 5, 2019, with €750 in interest. So, a total of €1,750. The contract also states that if I haven't received my money after May 5, 2019, he has to pay a penalty of €100 per week in interest. On May 9, 2019, I received my loan of 1000 euros back but no interest. We are now 9 weeks further and should in principle receive 750 euros interest plus 900 euros interest penalty. Both of our signatures are on the contract. Now my question is, can I take action on this? And how "legally valid" is it? Thank you in advance Rick Groenen

Questioner

In my opinion, the agreement is legally valid. Based on the agreement, your former colleague owes you the loan amount plus interest. Now that he has repaid the loan but not the interest, he is still liable to pay the interest. I would need to see the agreement to determine whether the penalty also applies to the interest.

Questioner

Of course, you can claim this, but formal proceedings will need to be initiated. If you'd like, I can provide legal assistance. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Questioner

The considerations are somewhat on the high side compared to the loan, and the condition regarding the requested penalty in particular may be unreasonably onerous.