Defects of Will in Credit: Discover your Rights

Questioner

In 2006, I was forced under threat to sign a revolving credit agreement. At the time of this I had no job, no income and no collateral, my boyfriend did. We were not married or registered partnership. In 2011 I fled. there are reports of domestic violence and threats Now I have a letter from the bailiff stating that I have to pay the amount within 8 days. Can I appeal to defects of intent?

Lawyer

If you have been induced to sign an agreement under threat of personal or financial harm, you can terminate this agreement under certain conditions on the basis of Article 3:44 paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 3:44, paragraph 2 of the Dutch Civil Code. It should be noted that the credit institution may first require proof of your claim that you signed the agreement because of the threat. The credit institution may also require you to explain why the threat was such that a reasonably judging person could be influenced by it. In this respect, it is not relevant whether the threat of injury was directed at you personally or at a third party (for example a family member or friend), as long as there was a direct relationship between this third party and you. If the credit institution takes the position that it was not aware of this threat but acted in good faith, you will also have to prove that the credit institution at least had reason to believe that you did not enter into the agreement of your own free will. Although the law provides opportunities to annul the agreement on the grounds of the defect of intention 'threat', it may not be easy to provide evidence in this regard. Although I am not familiar with the background of the matter (including whether you may have been approached about this claim before), I can imagine that the fact that the credit agreement was already concluded in 2006 does not work to your advantage, if you never reported this threat in the meantime. In any case, the question then arises why you did not report this earlier. A completely different question: have you been informed by the credit provider in recent years that a loan had actually been taken out and, if so, what the amount was? And has the credit institution approached you in recent years to repay the loan taken out (and the interest due and any additional costs)? If the credit institution never informed you of this, the claim may have expired (although I can only really say anything about this when I know more details of the matter).