Falling out with friends and family over money is more common than you might think.
In fact, one in three of us have had a bust-up with a loved one over sums of £100 or less.
The old saying 'never go into business with friends or family' is common for a reason - if a dispute happens, the problem becomes personal as well as financial.
Lending cash to friends can be a recipe for disaster because it relies on trust.
Most of the time that trust is enough, but it can easily go wrong because there tends to be no written agreement or evidence that the money was meant to be repaid.
One Mirror reader emailed in to ask: "Last July I lent my friend £500 to tide him over until the end of the month, as he said he was out of work and had bills to pay. I felt bad for him.
"We agreed that he would repay me the money as and when, in dribs and drabs, but I've not had any repayments yet.
"Every time I bring it up he either promises me he'll pay when he can or changes the subject. We are already falling out over it, I am not wealthy and desperately need that money back. I want to know if there is any way I can make him take these repayments more seriously."
The short answer is that you will struggle to force him to make any repayments unless you've got proof you lent him the money.
The formal options open to you include financial mediation, sending a 'statutory demand', going to court or applying for bankruptcy.
Using any one of these options is likely to end the friendship. You are almost definitely going to be better off carrying on what you're doing and waiting for your friend to pay.
It might be that he has every intention of paying and is not trying to give you the run-around.
He could still be in financial difficulty and finds the problem hard to face up to, and so is changing the subject because he doesn't know what else to do.
But you know the situation, and it might be that taking further action is the only option.
This is a run-through of the options available.
Mediation
This is a process where a neutral third party tries to work out a solution to your problem, in this case an unpaid debt.
Mediation costs money, which normally varies depending on the size of debt, and both sides need to agree to it.
However, it is cheaper and less stress-filled than some of the other options, like going to court.
You can find a mediator using this list.
Statutory demand
This is like a formal request that someone pays you what they owe.
Government advice is that you can only make a statutory demand if the debt is less than six years' old.
Once someone is given a statutory demand, they have to either pay, or make an agreement to pay, within 21 days.
You can make a statutory demand here.
The problem is that if he ignores the statutory demand, there isn't much you can do.
You cannot apply to make anyone bankrupt unless they owe you at least £5,000.
Going to court
Another option is to go to the small claims court to try to get the money back.
You can start a claim online here, but for £500 there will be fees of £50 just to file the claim.
Your friend then has to respond to the claim.
If they ignore you, or do not pay, you will then have to ask the court to order them to pay.
Fees can then rack up throughout the process, especially if your friend doesn't agree to pay and there is a hearing.
You may be able to get financial help with fees if you are on a low income, but otherwise the fees will quickly erode the £500 owed.
One hurdle is that you will need some sort of proof - which you might not have.
A verbal agreement can count, but you will likely need more than that.
Debt advice website DebtCamel says: "To win a case, you need to have some evidence that your friend owes you money.
"You can have a valid legal contract if it was just a spoken agreement between the two of you. But there does need to be something you can show. If you gave your friend £200 in cash and no-one saw you do this, you are going to have problems with this part."
