How to demand repayment of a loan with no fixed term

When this applies

This guide applies when money was trans­ferred under a receipt or loan agree­ment, but the parties did not set a spe­cif­ic re­pay­ment date or stated that the debt is payable on demand. In that sit­u­a­tion, the lender first needs an event that can be proved—the bor­row­er’s receipt of a clear demand—and only then a time­line for default.

Read the entire doc­u­ment first. Wording such as “I will repay in in­stal­ments,” a date at­tached to a par­tic­u­lar payment, cor­re­spon­dence about a new dead­line, or signs of a loan from a fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion may change the process. This pro­ce­dure does not cover credit agree­ments, loans with a fixed term, payment sched­ules, or dis­putes about whether a receipt is genuine or was served.

Which deadline or procedure applies

Part one of Article 1049 of the Civil Code of Ukraine sets a special rule: if the loan re­pay­ment period is not spec­i­fied or is set by ref­er­ence to a demand, the bor­row­er must repay it within 30 days from the day the demand is made. The general seven-day rule in Article 530 does not replace this rule for loans.

Under Ar­ti­cles 253–254, the period starts on the fol­low­ing day. The loan re­pay­ment dead­line cal­cu­la­tor shows the plain 30th cal­en­dar day and a sep­a­rate cau­tious ref­er­ence date if it falls on a Sat­ur­day or Sunday. Public hol­i­days do not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly extend the dead­line: during martial law, check the holiday regime and actual working day as of the rel­e­vant date.

How to proceed step by step

First, rec­on­cile the prin­ci­pal. If there were partial pay­ments, make a simple time­line with the date, amount, purpose, and re­main­ing balance. Do not add in­ter­est, in­fla­tion, or a penalty to the prin­ci­pal in a single line: Ar­ti­cles 1048, 1050, and 625 have dif­fer­ent grounds and periods.

In the demand, iden­ti­fy the parties, receipt or agree­ment, date the money was trans­ferred, re­main­ing prin­ci­pal, and re­pay­ment method. The letter does not need to be over­loaded with legal ar­gu­ments, but the re­cip­i­ent must clearly un­der­stand which loan and what amount you are de­mand­ing.

In Kyiv, it is im­por­tant in prac­tice not to rely only on the address where the receipt was once signed. Check the bor­row­er’s avail­able current details. For postal service, keep a copy of the demand, en­clo­sure in­ven­to­ry, track­ing, and de­liv­ery con­fir­ma­tion. If de­liv­er­ing it in person, obtain the date, sig­na­ture, and clear iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the re­cip­i­ent on your second copy.

Once the period expires, handle the next tasks sep­a­rate­ly. The 3% per annum cal­cu­la­tor pro­vides a pre­lim­i­nary mon­e­tary ref­er­ence, but it does not cal­cu­late in­ter­est for use of the loan under Article 1048 or in­fla­tion losses. If the bor­row­er does not pay vol­un­tar­i­ly, proceed to prepar­ing a claim to recover the debt.

What to check before filing

Compare the receipt date with ev­i­dence of the demand’s con­tents. A postal status without an en­clo­sure in­ven­to­ry may show that an en­ve­lope was de­liv­ered, but not what it con­tained. A mes­sag­ing-app screen­shot needs to connect the account to the re­cip­i­ent and pre­serve the data in a form that can be ex­plained. If the bor­row­er dis­putes the sig­na­ture or receipt, an au­to­mat­ic cal­en­dar does not resolve the ev­i­den­tiary dispute.

Check the lim­i­ta­tion period sep­a­rate­ly. Its start, ac­knowl­edg­ment of the debt, partial pay­ments, and any change in the re­pay­ment date cannot be de­ter­mined from the demand date alone. A future claim also re­quires the de­fen­dant’s current address, the proper court, the orig­i­nal debt doc­u­ment, and proof that the money was trans­ferred.

When to consult a lawyer

Get the demand re­viewed before sending it if the amount is sig­nif­i­cant, the receipt is unclear, the money was trans­ferred in several in­stal­ments, there were partial pay­ments, or the parties dis­cussed a new date in cor­re­spon­dence. One im­pre­cise sen­tence can create a dispute about the amount, dead­line, or whether a demand was made at all.

For cases in Kyiv and Kyiv Region, a lawyer can build an ev­i­den­tiary time­line, check the address and de­liv­ery method, sep­a­rate prin­ci­pal from dif­fer­ent types of charges, and prepare ma­te­ri­als for the proper court. This is es­pe­cial­ly useful if the bor­row­er has moved or the doc­u­ments were signed in another region.