Have I Made A Mistake Accepting A Personal Check?

I split apart from a guy I was investing with. I have just under $8,000 invested with him.

Yesterday he gave me a personal check for $6,000 as a partial return of my capital.

I noticed he'd dated the check 05.19.23 (he gave me the check on 05.18.23). I didn't want to accept a post-dated check, so I had him strike through the incorrect date, write the correct date above it and sign the correction.

I took the check straight to his bank and asked the teller if there were funds in the account to cover it. She told me she couldn't tell me, but suggested I call the guy who'd written the check. I did so and handed the phone to the teller.

From the teller's side of the conversation I overheard, he'd deposited a personal check for more that $6,000 from someone two days before and had misunderstood the bank's policy on when the funds would be available (05.24.23).

If I wait to run the check through, am I losing any legal ground here ?

 

Thank you very much for the advice

 

We had a handshake agreement to refurbish and sell Jeeps. I purchased the Jeeps and bought the parts, he fixed and sold them.

We've been doing this for about a year and I made some money, but it was constant grief and drama. He was also refurbishing a Jeep for me (which I paid him for), so I had to stick it out with him until that was finished. It is now.

Once I have the 6K check cashed, with the profits I've made on the Jeeps we've done I will actually be ahead 14% on my investment. I hope to also recover some, or all of the other 2K, but he is a narcissist and he is escalating. The more time that passes, the more he is able to rationalize and paint himself as a victim, the result of which will surely be he will try and cheat me out of some or all of that additional 2K.

I'll pursue it, but it will be a small claims court matter, the only documentation I have is text messages and the only remedy small claims court offers is a judgement against him.

Regarding the check, Back in the 80s in another state I managed a business where I dealt with a lot of checks. From the times I had to go to court to try and collect on bad checks I had the judge rule against me any time we'd accepted a post-dated check, or accepted a check knowing funds were not in the account at the time we took the check.

My former partner is shady. I believe there's a good chance he's paying me the 6K because anything 2K and under is a small claims court matter, and that's where he'd prefer I have to deal with this if we end up in court.

I also believe he tried to give me the check with the wrong date on it in order to get me to accept a post-dated check. He just texted me telling me he'd called the bank and they've released the funds. I'm going to burn rubber up there and see if I can get that thing cashed!

 

So it didn't go entirely smoothly, but I got the check cashed.

Whew. Now on to the 2 grand he still owes me.

Thanks all for the help and advice.

 

So I didn't invest in his business, I'd invest in individual Jeeps. I'd buy the Jeep and any parts and outside labor (seats re-covered, title services, etc). My partner would invest his labor. After the Jeep sold, I'd first recover my expenses, then he'd recover his labor and we'd split the profit 50/50.

My money was always guaranteed. We specifically discussed that on numerous occasions, including by text message that I still have. My partner put us into a Jeep that turned out to be stolen, for example. I'd paid 2 grand for it. By the terms of our agreement I was to recover that $2,000 from future projects. We agreed I'd recover $500 from the next 4 Jeeps we did.

At the time I told him I was done, we had 3 Jeeps in the pipeline, as well as 2 co-owned parts Jeeps and several sets of wheels and tires I'd purchased for current and future projects. My total investment at that point was 7,955.11, plus several hundred dollars' equity in the co-owned parts Jeeps.

As I said earlier, this was a handshake deal, but we hammered out the details in text messages I still have and discussed the details further many times by text in the year we did business together.

 

Let me clarify.

Our agreement (which he proposed) was that my money was never at risk; that I was guaranteed on ever project that my investment would be returned.

 

All of the Jeeps have now been completed and sold.