1. Is the IOU more than ten years ago still valid?
The IOUs from more than ten years ago are valid.
Article 188 of the Civil Code (effective from 202 1 1) requires a people's court to protect civil rights for three years. Where there are other provisions in the law, those provisions shall prevail.
The limitation period of action shall be counted from the date when the creditor knows or should know that the right is damaged and the debtor knows it. Where there are other provisions in the law, those provisions shall prevail. However, the people's court shall not protect the rights that have been damaged for more than 20 years. Under special circumstances, the people's court may decide to extend the time according to the application of the obligee.
Article 195 If the limitation of action is interrupted under any of the following circumstances, it shall be recalculated from the time of interruption and termination of relevant procedures:
(1) The creditor makes a performance request to the debtor;
(2) The debtor agrees to perform its obligations;
(3) The obligee brings a lawsuit or applies for arbitration;
(four) other circumstances with the same effect as bringing a lawsuit or applying for arbitration.
Second, what should I pay attention to when writing IOUs?
(a) loan procedures should be complete.
No matter how good the loan relationship is, you should also make an IOU when borrowing money. No IOU is the biggest legal risk. When hearing a loan case, the court shall require the plaintiff to provide a written loan. If there is no written loan, the necessary factual basis shall be provided. If there is no evidence, you have to bear the risk of losing the case. Therefore, when borrowing money, the borrower should take the initiative to write a written loan, and the lender should also remind the other party to write a loan. In case of special circumstances, if it is impossible to make an iou on the spot, a third person shall testify and make up the iou afterwards. When repaying, the repayment person should pay attention to take back the IOUs or destroy them together. If the lender claims that the loan is lost or damaged, the repayment shall require the lender to issue a receipt, and the repayment shall properly keep the receipt.
(2) Identity problem
There are two points worth noting.
First of all, the creditor should check the debtor's identity document and let the debtor write the loan in person. If the debtor gives the creditor a pre-written IOU, it does not rule out the possibility that the debtor's signature in the IOU is signed by someone else. When creditors demanded money back, they refused to pay back on the grounds that it was not their own handwriting. If the IOU is printed, it is best to ask the borrower to sign, stamp and fingerprint the borrower's signature column.
Secondly, if the borrower is also the legal representative or person in charge of a company, the creditor must find out whether the debtor is the borrower himself or the company or enterprise he represents. Legally speaking, the legal representative or person in charge can engage in civil acts including payment on behalf of the company or enterprise. If the creditor is not clear about the identity of the debtor, there may be confusion about the identity of the borrower. The direct consequence is that creditors will face mutual prevarication between companies or enterprises and borrowers in future lawsuits, which will bring trouble to the realization of creditor's rights.
Keep the IOUs properly. Special attention should be paid to prevent the white bars from being stolen, lost and polluted, and the storage place should be safe and reliable, not easy to get wet and not in contact with chemicals. At the same time, it is best to make several copies, and then you can issue copies to the borrowers first to ensure the safety of the original.
(3) Language problems
Don't use polysyllabic and polysemous words to write IOUs. Our country's culture is profound, and many Chinese characters have the phenomenon of multi-tone and multi-interpretation. Once these Chinese characters are used on IOUs, they may cause disputes. For example, "paying back 10,000 yuan" can be understood as "paying back 10,000 yuan" or "owing 10,000 yuan".
(4) interest.
The interest rate should conform to the regulations. The interest rate of private lending can be appropriately higher than the bank's interest rate, but it shall not exceed 4 times of the bank's similar loan interest rate (including interest rate). Otherwise, excess interest is not protected.
Lending can be divided into interest-bearing lending and interest-free lending, in which the interest rate of production and operation lending between citizens can be appropriately higher than that of living lending. "When the loan contract between natural persons stipulates to pay interest, the loan interest rate shall not violate the relevant provisions of the state on limiting the loan interest rate." At present, the state stipulates that the interest rate of private loans is at most four times that of similar loans of banks. The interest rate of usury is not protected by the state.
Interest may be agreed, but the interest shall not be higher than 4 times of the bank's interest rate for the same period, and the higher court will not support it. If interest is not stipulated, if the loan contract between natural persons does not stipulate or is unclear about the payment of interest, it shall be regarded as not paying interest. Personal loans between citizens, if there is no agreed interest, are regarded as interest-free. If there is no agreement on the debt, there will be no interest, but if it is not repaid after the repayment date, you can ask to calculate the interest according to the bank interest.
An iou is a written document indicating the relationship between creditor's rights and debts, which is generally written and signed by the debtor. If the IOU expires, that is, it exceeds the limitation period, it can be negotiated amicably first, and it is best to reach a new repayment agreement. If the two parties fail to negotiate, the creditor may send a dunning letter and other documents to the debtor to collect money from the debtor. If the debtor signs, it will constitute an interruption of the limitation of action.