MUST I PAY?

I desperately need your assistance.

In 2020, my aunt bought a sleigh bed at a furniture store with the sales representative’s idea that she opens an account with my initials and when she has a letter from her workplace she’ll transfer everything to her names, which she never did. I was given forms to fill in under my names.

Unfortunately, along the way, she failed to settle her debt, now I’m the one who has been blacklisted even though I was just there to assist until she was able to sign the account in her names.

Just recently, I tried to buy a TV by hire purchase and my application was declined because apparently I have been blacklisted.

That is when I tried to explain my situation to them and they told me that their hands are tied.

I’m only 26. I’m starting my own life and now I can’t buy anything through higher purchase. I desperately need you to help me solve this issue.

I wish I could offer you some good news. But I can’t. There isn’t any.

I think you now know that you made a serious mistake in signing the forms in your name on behalf of your aunt, don’t you?

I’m not an attorney but I suspect the legal issue here is very simple. Your aunt doesn’t exist. Her promises don’t exist. Her plan to switch the contract into her name doesn’t exist. Only you, the store and the written agreement, exist.

There’s a principle in law that says that when an agreement is put in writing, that writing is all that matters. “She promised”, “she said”, “but we agreed”, “the salesperson thought”, none of that matters. Only what’s in writing matters. The agreement is between the furniture store and you.

Morally, it’s obviously up to your aunt to find a way out of this situation but if she has no money, there’s little she can do. Perhaps the extended family can help?

The only practical suggestion I can offer is that you keep talking to the store and assure them that you’re doing your best to pay back the debts that are in your name. I’m sorry I can’t offer better news.