PM wrote:

Miss Ass is deminstrating why co-habitation is fraught with problems and
why lending money to someone without a written agreement is a really
silly idea. As usual, there's also an element of post relationship anger
and Parents Gullible no doubt what to hurt Mr ******* for the insult and
outrage to Daughter Miss Ass.

Insult, outrage, criminal damage to home and physical assault. So far.

Well trying to be objective. Firstly in relationships like these the
woman ends up going back to the man over and over again. Someone I know
has a female relative who spends most weekends in hospital and once a
year or so in intensive care. The longest she has been away from her Mr
******* is about three weeks and apaprently got a bigger kicking when
she went back. So the prognosis isn't great, she could end up back there
again.

As to the money, if he has no assets other than a £2K car they're never
going to gt £5K back, and from the sounds of it, he'll never agree to
make voluntary payments and will do whatever he can to avoid paying. If
they can't afford a lawyer they're screwed. If they could avoid a lawyer
I suspect that they wouldn't get a very favourable report on their
chances.