Money collector

My maid borrowed money from a so called "money collector". She cannot repay. The "money collector" is harassing me over the phone every other day so that I push her to pay. What should I do?

You are in an unfortunate situation but in the end you are not responsible for her loan.


I would tell the guy that his constant calls are tantamount to harassment and if he calls again you will report him to the police.

I already threatened him to report him to the police but, still, he keeps calling me.


I do not want to call the police at this stage as my maid is likely to be ousted of the country which I do not want to happen.

I see your point. Unfortunately there aren't that many good options. Either he gives up (not likely) or you change your number.

I believe as an employer you are financially responsible for your maid. I might be wrong, but this is what I vaguely seem to remember.

whether or not you are legally liable, you and/or your maid should pay if she did borrow the money. If you help her evade the collector by changing tel numbers etc, you may get away from this one. But it won't be long before your maid borrows from another.

If the interest rate is too high, suggest paying the principal with a small extra amount - if the collector is desperate, he might just agree. And your maid won't borrow from the likes of them again.

dadda said:

"onemorething. You are 100% wrong about that."


If you say so, I stand corrected!

A few points of order here.

Nort: Reporting the money collector to the police will not get your helper ousted. He is harrassing you and you are taking action against that. The money collector has a legal course of action he can take against your helper (if he is legitimate) and this does not include harrassing you.

Onemorething: you are not responsible to a contract taken out by any of your employees unless you personally signed as guarantor on it - otherwise all our employers would be responsible for our mortgages etc!

Dadda: under the employment ordinance you are not allowed to deduct anything from your helpers salary even if it is in repayment of a loan. You have to pay the full amount and get her to give back the agreed repayment. This is to stop unscrupulous employers deducting spurious charges from thier employees.

Furthermore once you have repaid her loan there is nothing stopping her from resigning and leaving you out of pocket.


I would recommend that you find out the extent of the loan, why she borrowed it, why she is not repaying it - its not easy to get the truth out of them unfortunately, but this is really a way of assessing the risk you have. That is, is she so desperate or fearful that she is going to start stealing from you. Is the debt significant enough that the money lender will come to your home to recoup it and thereby put you and your family at risk as well and therefore you need to contact the police for this reason. Has your helper got a problem that is going to affect her work with you (alcohol, gambling, illness, being bribed), make her likely to flee without notice or indeed that you can help her with. Often the problems they think they have can be overcome with a little advice from the right people and your world will be all the better for it.

informer> That is not entirely true. If you, as an employee, do not pay your taxes and flee from HK, your employer is responsible for your taxes. I wrongly thought there was a similar law/clause where the employers of domestic helpers are financially responsible for their DH. Obviously a DH would not be able to borrow money through the official channels (eg banks). But I am getting semi-OT now.

You did the right thing to let the maid go, otherwise she will borrow from the sharks again. But what is to stop her from getting another HK employer and then causing the saga with them? (now that she has the phone, won't she be embolden to borrow more, thinking she could always use the tactic you described?).

Thanks to all. Your pieces of advice are great!

6789, the trick of the japanese phone recorder will not work with me as our maid also gave my prof. mobile phone number and I have no other choice than to answer this one.

Will try to push for a solution between the money collector and my helper. If it does not work, I believe that I will trigger the police button.

I was bought to Ap Liu St the other day and saw mobile SIM cards for as little as $10. So having the collector's phone number means nothing - I think the police know that.