30,000 Yuan Construction Loan Default: Borrower Ordered to Pay Principal Plus Interest From Filing Date

A borrower who took 30,000 yuan for a construction project and failed to repay by the agreed deadline was ordered to return the full amount plus interest calculated from the date the lawsuit was filed, after the court rejected the borrower’s implied statute of limitations defense.

In February 2010, the borrower, a friend of the lender, requested a loan citing the need for construction project funding. The borrower signed a receipt for 30,000 yuan with a specific repayment deadline of February 26, 2011, at five o’clock in the afternoon. The receipt contained no interest provision.

When the deadline passed without repayment, the lender filed suit in February 2012, exactly one year after the loan matured. The borrower was properly served with a court summons but failed to appear at the hearing or submit any written defense.

The court treated the borrower’s absence as a waiver of the right to challenge evidence. The lender presented identity documents for both parties and the original signed receipt, which the court found authentic and directly relevant. The receipt clearly documented both the amount and the precise repayment deadline.

Although the loan matured in February 2011 and suit was filed in February 2012, the two-year statute of limitations had not expired. The court ordered repayment of 30,000 yuan plus interest calculated from the filing date at the central bank’s contemporaneous lending rate, rather than from the original maturity date, as no interest had been agreed upon and the lender’s claim was limited to post-filing interest. The judgment required payment within ten days, with double interest on any delay. Court costs were reduced from 550 yuan to 275 yuan under simplified procedure, charged to the borrower.