Dear Queenie,
When we were first married and wanted to buy a house, my husband’s parents offered to lend us the money for the down payment. We made regular payments on the loan until my husband got sick and we had problems paying the doctor bills and they said we should wait to pay them until things got better.
That was many years ago and they never asked us to start paying again, so we thought they had forgiven the loan, but now they came to us and asked for the money.
Queenie, is this fair, after so much time?—In debt and indignant
Dear Indignant,
Of course it’s fair. You agreed to pay back the money and you haven’t done so.
What isn’t fair is that your in-laws had to come to you and ask for their money. You should have been making at least token payments all along, as a gesture of good faith. And if you had, you wouldn’t still owe them so much.
Pay what you owe and beg their pardon for taking so long about it.
