Can SMS IOUs be used as legal basis?

The short message was indeed edited and sent by the borrower himself, and the mobile phone number of the short message is also owned by the borrower, and the content of the short message has not been modified by the lender. In this case, the content of the short message about borrowing money can play a role in proving the written loan.

1. Is the SMS IOU valid?

The IOUs can be proved by SMS. According to the contract law, the parties may conclude a contract in written form, oral form and other forms. If laws and administrative regulations stipulate that it should be in writing, it should be in writing. If the parties agree to use written form, it shall be in written form.

Whether short messages can be used as evidence or replace written IOUs depends on the objectivity, legality and relevance of short messages. If the short message is indeed edited and sent by the borrower himself, and the mobile phone number of the short message is owned by the borrower, and the content of the short message has not been modified by the lender, in this case, the content of borrowing money in the short message can play a role in proving the written loan.

Second, how long is the validity of the IOU?

For an iou with repayment period, the limitation of action shall be calculated from the date when the repayment period agreed by both parties expires. According to the General Principles of the Civil Law, the limitation of action is counted from the time when you know or should know that your rights have been infringed. If the debtor still fails to perform the debt by the repayment date indicated in the debt, the creditor may take this as the critical point to calculate the limitation period of action. That is, two years from the date of indicating the repayment period (the general statute of limitations is two years). After more than two years, the creditor's right will no longer be protected by law and lose the right to win the case.

Non-performing IOU is a settlement of past economic exchanges between the two parties. When the debtor issued the IOU, the creditor knew that his rights had been infringed, so the creditor should claim his rights to the people's court within two years from the date of issuance of the IOU, that is to say, the limitation of action is counted from the date of issuance of the IOU, and there is no time limit for performance.

The IOU explains the reasons for the formation of the creditor's rights relationship, that is, it is formed by borrowing; IOUs cannot literally explain the reasons for the formation of creditor's rights relationship. There are many reasons for the formation of creditor's rights relationship, and lending is only one of them. Whether the reasons for the formation of the creditor's rights relationship can be preliminarily determined is the calculation of the limitation of action. If it is stated that it is an iou and the loan relationship is established, the applicable statute of limitations is two years; If it is written as an IOU, the limitation of action should be applied for several years, and it should be determined according to the reasons for the formation of IOU. There are four kinds of limitation of action stipulated by Chinese laws: one year, two years, three years and four years.

In fact, no matter what the relationship is, when borrowing money, you must write an iou or loan agreement, indicating the name, loan type, currency, amount, time, term, purpose, interest rate, repayment method, guarantor and liability for breach of contract, and sign it, with each party holding one copy and keeping it properly. Because IOUs can be used as evidence to demand repayment in the future. It can be seen that it is very important to write IOUs, but in reality, IOUs of short messages are regarded as legally effective as long as they are made within the scope prescribed by law.