[Question] Postdated Cheques

[Blurock]

What is the position with post dated cheques these days?

I was given post dated cheques (as a sign of good faith and commitment) by a debtor who was struggling to settle his debt. Two months in a row he has cancelled the cheques deposited. On one occasion he paid half of the amount, but the rest is still outstanding.

Can this be constituted as fraud?

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

A debt based on a cheque can be collected via provisional sentence proceedings.
A summons showing cheque is basically sufficient.

It seems debtor is struggling.
In my experience I find agreeing on a small weekly payment works well. The guy can afford it and chips away. People tend to keep hoping tthey will be able to pay in one go, which seldom happens.

Of course it depends on amounts involved.

[Dave A]

Can this be constituted as fraud?

Only if you can prove he had no intention of honouring the cheque when he issued it - an impossible task...

Otherwise it's the equivalent of a promissory note - a declaration of an intention to pay.

The stopped cheque trick irks me. I understand why people do it - it isn't as harmful to their account scoring by the banks as a cheque declined due to insufficient funds. Unfortunately depositing a cheque that comes back with a stop payment on it harms the scoring of the depositor.

Nowadays when it comes to PDC's, I call the client on the morning I intend to deposit and ask if it is still OK for me to deposit the cheque. Essentially it's a very friendly "I'd rather hold back another day or two than deposit a cheque that isn't going to be honoured" call. Haven't had a single client's cheque bounce for over ten years doing it that way.

It might also establish grounds for fraud if the client did happen to issue a stop-payment order
Never had to test that possibility, though.