I was chatting with a cousin of mine recently, and he mentioned that his brother-in-law had gotten in some legal trouble. In order to bail him out, his family had to put up their house as collateral. In addition, Cousin and his wife were asked if they would be willing to sign a $200,000 sureity bond. The way I understand it is that if the guy jumps bail and the courts can’t get 200k out of the house, Cousin and his wife would be liable for the money. He asked his wife to give him a few days to think it over.
On one hand, he’s paranoid he’ll end up on the hook for 200,000 in debt. But on the other hand, his in-laws would be indebted to him if he was so willing to take that risk.
Would you do it? Keep in mind, the only way he’d have to cough up any money is if the guy jumped bail AND they couldn’t sell the house for $200,000.
Sounds fishy. They already put up the house and now need someone else to sign on to guarantee the payment of the $200K? Someone isn’t telling your cousin everything. I’d let the guy sit it out.
It would depend on the specifics (the person, the charges) of the situation. Yes, there are people I know who for whom I would put it all on the line. There are others I wouldn’t lend bus fare.
I did. I put up my house as a property bond for my BIL. I then made it very clear that if he did not show up for his court date, prison would seem like a joy ride compared to the misery his sister would bring down on him. Also made it clear that this was a one time event, no more bail in any form, ever.
He made his court date and, over the years, has turned into a gainfully employed husband and father.
So if it’s your cousins BIL, it’s his wife’s brother? That changes things. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be personally be willing to put up that kind of money for my brother-in-law. I’m much more certain that my wife would want to put up that kind of money for her brother.
NFW. And I would have a real problem if my SO wanted to put up that kind of money for his brother, who admittedly got himself into that kind of trouble.
I wouldn’t let his kids starve or anything, but his mess is not mine to clean up. My SO wouldn’t ask anyway, and I wouldn’t ask it of him.
This is the road I was thinking of. If you screw up to the tune of needing that kind of bail I’m letting you go through the legal process–hell, you can even have some moral support and I’ll send you some cookies if the warden lets you have them. But I can’t see the point of risking everything I own for a criminal who promises to deliver. If you have obligations (like kids, pets, etc.) that need care while you’re locked up I would be much more likely to help out in that regard.
A buddy of mine did nearly three years of a 5 - something year prison sentence after falsely confessing to a crime he didn’t do. He confessed because for the real criminal it woulda been his third strike and he would have gone away forever.
My friend did that for her brother. She got a call from him one morning. He was driving home from the bar (drunk) hit a tree, the cops followed the trail of coolant back to his house, knocked on his door asked to see his truck and the damaged matched. He was adamant that he wasn’t the driver (he was) and they told him he had 24 hours to find the driver and have them report to the station. He convinced his sister to take the fall since if he did it would be his third strike and he would end up in jail for several years. She did, got a ticket for the damage to city property and not reporting the accident within 24 hours*.
Two weeks later there was a but with it’s flashers on and it’s stop sign out and he passed it…on the right side. Cop saw him do it, off to jail he goes. Didn’t report to jail, got in more trouble for that. He’s since cleaned up his act, but still.
It taught me that if someone has two strikes and probably had a record full of minor stuff before that it’s not worth taking the fall for the third strike because they’re likely to do something else so you’re getting in trouble for no reason.
*I told her she should fight that since she did report the accident within 24 hours…OTOH it was probably better just to take the tickets and walk away since the cops knew full well it wasn’t her and if she went to court it would probably come out.
Anyways, OP. A few times in college a bunch of friends and I would scrape together a grand or so to bail a friend out but no, I don’t think I would ever put up my house for someone. I have a few very close friends that, depending on the charge, I would probably put up a few grand. But my house…sorry. I’ve worked to hard to risk losing it because someone else did something stupid.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t a $200K bond imply that bail was set at $2 million? And isn’t that an extraordinarily huge amount? What crime might this guy have committed?
Doesn’t that mean that not only would you be out the 200K if the guy skips town, but the rest of the two million? Both amounts are far more then I can afford to be out.
I can’t imagine a bail bondsman (or similar service) working on 10% based on a house that they haven’t seen, hasn’t been appraised, etc. If the house is ‘worth’ $200,000, the bail, I’ll bet, is probably under a million since if they guy skips town the bail bondsman might find he can only sell the house for, what, $150,000 when it ends up being a falling apart piece of junk that they were underwater on.
OTOH, it’s probably easier then chasing someone down for 1.8 million because their friend skipped town so what do I know?