I signed for a loan as a guarantor

I signed for a loan as a guarantor, now the loan owner has stop paying the loan and the company who issued loan has sent me a default notice and asked me to pay it off as the guarantor.

Should I pay and if I do how do i get my money back?

When you act as guarantor you can pursue the party who has let you down but first, if you can afford to, you should pay off the loan as you are legally bound and it could affect your credit rating if you do not. You could continue with the instalments rather than paying the full sum but as this would include interest it should be less expensive to make an offer in full and final settlement to the loan issuer.

To get your money back you would make a fixed sum money claim through the Small Claims Court. You do not need a solicitor to do this and if your claim were to go as far as a hearing you would not be able to claim costs for legal representation.

Getting judgment secures your debt for at least 6 years. If your debtor cannot pay immediately you can look at continuing with a smaller instalment plan or use other post judgment enforcement methods.

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