The IOU is valid only if it is signed, and the content of the IOU is not necessarily written by yourself. As long as the borrower has no objection to the content of the loan and signs it for confirmation, the loan will have legal effect. If the borrower disputes the IOU, he shall prove that the IOU is defective or forged when he brings a lawsuit in court.

1. Is the IOU valid only if it is signed?

As long as there is the borrower's signature and specific amount, this is valid.

1, as long as it is the expression of the true meaning of the parties, the content is legal and signed by the parties, it is legally binding and does not need special format;

2. Even if there are formal defects in the IOUs or IOUs signed by the parties, it will not affect the court's trial of the case;

3. The court will, in combination with other evidence, determine whether there is a loan relationship between "IOUs" or "receipts" with defects in form. At the same time, for cash delivery loans, we can comprehensively judge whether there is a legal and true creditor-debtor relationship between the two parties according to the delivery voucher, payment ability, trading habits, loan amount, the relationship between the parties and the transaction details stated by the parties.

Second, what should we pay attention to when writing an IOU for private lending?

1. In private lending, IOUs are important documents for claiming creditor's rights. Therefore, when lending to others, you should ask the other party to issue a standardized and unaltered debit note, and attach the contact information and ID number. When repaying the other party's loan, try to transfer money through the bank and keep the transfer voucher.

2. Clearly distinguish between IOUs and IOUs. Don't let borrowers issue IOUs for convenience. IOUs can only show that there is a creditor-debtor relationship between the parties. There are many relationships between creditor's rights and debts, such as arrears of labor fees, payment for goods, compensation, rent, etc. , can appear in the form of IOUs. Therefore, the IOU itself cannot directly correspond to the lending relationship, which will increase the litigation risk.

3. The loan should be as concise as possible, and don't use ambiguous language.

4. Borrowers should be careful when writing IOUs, especially when they have not received loans and have no borrowing facts. Writing IOUs easily may bear the risk of not getting loans but needing to repay them.

The loan itself must be a complete piece of paper, not a torn or scratched piece of paper.

The integrity of the IOU is very important to prevent the borrower from arguing that the IOU is incomplete, because the court doesn't know whether there is other meaning in the torn part. In civil litigation, based on the principle that whoever advocates gives evidence, if the parties as plaintiffs advocate tearing blank and useless waste paper, they need to give evidence by themselves. If they can't give evidence, they will bear the consequences of losing the case.

To sum up, sometimes in private lending, the two sides have not signed a loan contract and need to issue an iou. If the IOU is not written by the parties, but signed by the borrower, and it is valid, the borrower shall repay the amount of the IOU with interest. If the borrower's IOU is forged, it shall provide sufficient evidence to bring a lawsuit to the court.