What the £24.99 is actually buying
Most “UK loan agreement” results online are one of three things. American templates wearing a Union Jack — state-law boilerplate, “notarization”, no idea consideration or limitation exists here. AI chatbots, which write fluent clauses with no canonical copy (regenerate the chat and the terms drift), no working date arithmetic, and no questions about who lives where — including whether a signer lives in Scotland, where contract law is genuinely different. And fill-a-form sites, which merge your names into fixed text: nothing computed, nothing checked. LendRight’s agreement is generated by one engine that writes the clauses and computes Schedule A, checks the people, the dates, the rate and the funding story against the law of England and Wales, then seals the exact bytes you both sign. Below is the checklist itself — each item is on it because its absence has a name in the case law.
Check 1 — Papering a loan you already made
A huge share of family agreements are written after the transfer: the money went in the spring, the paperwork happens now. Templates handle this with a bare acknowledgement — “the Lender advanced £X, which the Borrower agrees to repay” — and that is exactly where English law has a trap nearly two centuries old: past consideration is no consideration (Roscorla v Thomas, 1842; Re McArdle, 1951). A promise given only for something that already happened can be an unenforceable bare promise, taking every carefully typed term down with it.
The textbook cure is a deed — but an individual’s deed needs a witness physically present at signing (the Law Commission confirmed in 2019 that remote video witnessing doesn’t cut it), which is useless for two people signing on two phones in two cities. So LendRight uses the route that actually fits: when the funding date is in the past, clause 2 changes shape and the lender gives something real now — a binding commitment to accept repayment on the schedule and not demand the money back while it’s honoured. That forbearance is fresh consideration, and the clause states in terms that the parties intend to be legally bound. There’s a quiet bonus: a signed written acknowledgement of a debt restarts the six-year limitation clock (Limitation Act 1980, s. 29(5)) — documenting an old loan properly can revive an enforcement window that was silently draining away. A template doesn’t know the money already moved; a chatbot doesn’t ask.
Check 2 — Interest without a cliff edge
England and Wales has no statutory interest cap for a private loan between individuals — which is precisely why checking matters more, not less. The courts’ backstop is the unfair-relationships jurisdiction in the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (ss. 140A–140C), which lets a judge reopen a credit relationship that has become unfair — and it reaches informal private loans too. So LendRight warns, plainly, from 25% upward, and never pretends a warning is a block, because no block exists. The same screen enforces the discipline that actually protects you: the rate is always stated per annum and interest accrues daily on actual days elapsed, simply — never compounding, never the “3% a month” phrasing an AI will cheerfully draft. Choosing the number in the first place? That’s its own guide.
Check 3 — The words must match the schedule
Read a random template closely: the interest clause promises “no compounding,” then charges interest on any “overdue amount” — which includes overdue interest. That contradiction sits quietly until a defaulting borrower’s solicitor reads both sentences aloud. AI is worse, because its clauses and its payment table are generated separately and agree only by luck — ask for a schedule anchored on the 31st and watch “February’s” payment land on 3 March, because naive date arithmetic rolls the 31st forward.
In a LendRight agreement, one engine writes the clauses and Schedule A. Interest accrues daily on the outstanding principal only — the words say it and the table does it. Payments apply to interest first, then principal. A 31st-of-the-month anchor pays on 28 (or 29) February, and the clause discloses exactly that. The final row closes at exactly £0.00, because the arithmetic runs in whole pence throughout. The words and the numbers cannot disagree; they have the same author.
Check 4 — One copy you can both prove
The failure nobody plans for: which document did you both agree to? A Word file gets “one small tweak” after somebody said yes by text. An AI chat has no original at all. A LendRight agreement is sealed before anyone signs: the document date is frozen, the exact bytes are locked with a SHA-256 fingerprint, both signatures attach to those bytes, and the Certificate of Completion records the fingerprint, the timestamps and each signer. Anyone can verify a copy against the fingerprint, years later. There is exactly one agreement, and both of you can prove which one it is.
Check 5 — The Supreme Court and Sunday kindness
The most common real defence in family lending isn’t about the original terms at all: “you accepted late payments for a year — you varied the deal,” or “Mum said over Sunday lunch I could skip the winter.” Here the law is firmly on the careful drafter’s side: the Supreme Court held in Rock Advertising v MWB (2018) that a clause requiring variations to be in writing actually works. LendRight’s agreement carries that clause — and its partner, a no-waiver clause saying that accepting a late or partial payment, or being generous once, waives nothing and rewrites no schedule. Kindness stays kindness instead of becoming evidence.
Check 6 — Drafted for people, not companies
Template default clauses are lifted from commercial lending — “the Borrower’s reorganisation,” “its insolvency” — corporate language between two human beings. LendRight’s agreement names the events that actually happen to people in England and Wales: an individual voluntary arrangement, a debt relief order, or a bankruptcy petition are expressly default events, so the whole balance crystallises and the lender can prove for the full amount. The borrower’s death makes the debt a claim against the estate; the lender’s death keeps everything payable to the lender’s estate on the same terms; loss of capacity hands the wheel to an attorney under a lasting power of attorney or a Court of Protection deputy without voiding anything. And the agreement carries the standard exclusion under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, so nobody who isn’t a party can claim rights under it. Templates go silent exactly where families need words.
Check 7 — Boundaries that protect you
Some checking is refusal. LendRight covers England and Wales only — Scotland has its own contract law (it doesn’t even use the doctrine of consideration) and Northern Ireland its own courts, so Scottish and Northern Irish addresses are politely declined rather than quietly mis-served; borrowers living outside the jurisdiction are declined too. Type “secured against the car” or “my brother will guarantee it” into the extras box and you get an on-the-spot warning: typed words create no charge and bind no guarantor who hasn’t signed — that’s genuinely solicitor territory. The notices clause points at email addresses actually printed in the document, with deemed-delivery timing that lines up with how the courts count service (first-class post lands two business days later, on paper as in procedure). Every payment carries a payment reference that turns bank statements into a ledger for this exact loan, and a payment counts when it’s received — the detail that makes the grace-period clock unambiguous. And there are no hidden fees anywhere in the document: the rate is the whole cost.
The receipts
None of this is marketing vibes. Every change to the agreement’s wording runs against hundreds of automated checks — including fully rendered sample agreements at different rates, payment frequencies and funding dates — verifying that the clauses, the schedule, the numbering and the totals still agree to the penny. The agreement includes an independent-legal-advice acknowledgement, because the honest position is that £24.99 is the right tool for a straightforward family loan and the wrong tool for secured lending, business borrowing, or anything woven into an estate plan — here’s where that line sits.
| What gets checked | Free template | AI chatbot | LendRight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Money already advanced (consideration + s. 29(5) restart) | No | No | Yes — clause 2 switches shape |
| Rate per annum, simple daily interest | Sometimes | Often “per month” | Enforced |
| Unfair-relationship awareness (CCA ss. 140A–C) | No | No | 25%+ warning built in |
| Clauses and schedule from one engine | No | No | Yes |
| Month-end dates (31st → 28 Feb) | N/A | Frequently wrong | Engine-clamped, clause-disclosed |
| One provable signed copy (fingerprint) | No | No original exists | SHA-256 sealed + verifiable |
| Late-payment tolerance ≠ variation (Rock Advertising) | Rare | Rare | Built in |
| IVA / DRO / lender’s death / capacity | Corporate boilerplate | Silent | Named, plainly |
| England & Wales only, checked per person | Claims “UK” | Doesn’t ask | Enforced at entry |
| Tells you when you need a solicitor | No | No | Yes — and blocks the risky bits |
Frequently asked questions
Is an AI-written loan agreement enforceable in England and Wales?
It can be — the law doesn’t care who typed a contract. The practical problems are everything around the text: no canonical signed copy, arithmetic that contradicts the clauses, “per month” interest phrasing, no consideration analysis when the money already moved, and no idea whether a signer lives in Scotland. Enforceability disputes turn on exactly those details.
The money went months ago — don’t I need a deed?
A deed is the textbook fix, but an individual’s deed needs a witness physically present when they sign, which defeats remote e-signing. LendRight instead builds fresh consideration into the agreement itself — the lender’s binding forbearance — states the intention to be legally bound, and the signed acknowledgement restarts the six-year limitation clock under s. 29(5) of the Limitation Act 1980.
Why warn at 25% if there’s no legal cap?
Because the real backstop isn’t a cap — it’s a judge’s power to reopen an unfair credit relationship under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Rates that would look punishing between relatives are exactly what that jurisdiction exists for, so the builder says so out loud, at 25%, every time.
What does the £24.99 actually pay for?
The checks in this guide, clauses and a schedule that share one author so they can never disagree, and a sealed, fingerprint-verifiable signing record. Drafting is free — the fee applies only when you finalise, and the person creating the agreement chooses who pays it.
Related guides
Lending money to family: the five conversations · What interest to charge · Family loans and tax · The family loan agreement, explained · Do I need a solicitor?
Not legal advice. LendRight is a self-help document tool operated by RULE8 Inc., not a solicitors’ firm. Reviewed against the law of England and Wales, July 2026 — including the Limitation Act 1980 s. 29(5); the Consumer Credit Act 1974 ss. 140A–140C; the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999; Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd [2018] UKSC 24; and the Law Commission’s 2019 report on the electronic execution of documents.