WA Debt - How to Recover Money Lent to Overseas Student?

[evsbud]

Hi, I lent $26500 to a South Korean whilst living in Adelaide. She worked really hard on her nursing degree and then her family had financial trouble and she said she would have to return. I lent her the money to pay for the course and buy a car to do some work thinking that once she qualified, it would be very easy for her to repay.

I then moved to Perth and unfortunately, she disappeared from all online social avenues. I have her drivers licence ID from South Korea.

Anybody know if I can legally claim her debt and track her down? I am studying a bit of law and it seems that we had formed a legal contract.

Thanks for any help,

 

[Sophea]

Hi evsbud,

Do you know if she is back in Australia? Or if she is still back in Korea? Australia would be the appropriate jurisdiction to institute proceedings in to recover the debt. You would obviously need to provide evidence of your contract and her breach of that contract to be successful in such legal proceedings.

However in order to serve her you would need to first locate her and then serve her. You could retain a local process server or investigator to track her down in Korea, and there are various conventions and treaties such as the Hague Convention which allows the service of Australian legal documents on people in foreign countries. Check this out on international service. Serving a legal document across international borders | Attorney-General's Department

If it was a decent amount of money it may be worth it.