Abandoned Stallion dilemma - posting on behalf of friend

Perissa

Perissa

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I am posting this on behalf of a friend who is not a member here but is deperate for advise. I have copied the text as written by her.

During October 2006 I agreed to take Azim Ibn Alidaar (Alidaar x Dorian Sha Halima) on loan – at very short notice. Had I not agreed to take him, he would have been put down!!!!

I had not seen him before his arrival but I agreed to give him a home until his owner relocated to another country.

My lease was until the end August 2007 after which time he would be on livery until returned to his owner. I agreed to look after him during the lease and was able to stand him at stud and use him on my mares.

Azim arrived and soon settled with us here. When his lease was up, I wrote to his owner giving him my terms for livery. Livery has been paid up until the end of December 2007.

Azim picked up a serious virus in October 07 and was on medication and we were advised he was unable to travel anywhere at that time. I wrote to his owner on the 16th October informing him of this and suggested he make arrangements to have him collected the second Tuesday of January 08 – this would give Azim time to recover fully.

I was informed by his owner that the transport company ONLY collected in UK on a TUESDAY. On 7th January (evening before Azim was due to travel) I received an e.mail from his owner stating he had been trying to contact the transport company since the previous Friday (!!!) trying to arrange transport (despite me requesting this on 16th October) and that Azim would not be collected on the agreed date but “maybe” the next. This was not convenient and I asked for more notice and a daytime pickup.

As I heard nothing – I sent another livery account for January and was assured by phone that this was being transferred to my bank account. I informed him and the transport company that collection would not be possible until all outstanding accounts had been paid in full. The transport company informed me that they could give me at least two days notice and that they actually collected in the UK on most days.


To this date – despite having sent numerous invoices, international letters that were signed for on receipt, I have heard NOTHING from his owner or received ANY OUTSTANDING LIVERY MONEY.

So Azim has been abandoned with me here and I have tried repeatedly to contact his owner to ask what he intends to do with him, but without any reply.

I have even offered to take the horse in exchange for the outstanding monies due.

So here is my dilemma – what would you now do???
 
Over here, we take a lien on horses when their owner has defaulted on payments for 14 days or more. It all has to be done through a lawyer and you invoke The Innkeepers Act. This gives you the rights to selling the horse through public auction. The amount raised from the auction should pay any outstanding bills owed to you including costs to get the horse to the auction. Any money over and above this amount must be given to the previous owner.

Personally, I would have made sure I was there to hand over the horse to the shipping company - that would have been a priority for me. If it was simply not possible (would have to be extreme for me not to have been able to reorganise though) then the horse would have been shipped on the first available date after this. I would have waived any charges if it was just a matter of a week or so.

I think it will be quite difficult to get any money in this particular situation as the owner is overseas and has made attempts to have the horse relocated. S/he hasn't really abandoned the horse and had every intention of having the horse shipped out to her/him. I think the only thing your friend can do, would be to have a lawyer send a letter to owner informing them that if they do not make arrangements to take the horse then your friend can proceed to the next step of selling the horse to recoup her money.
 
You are in a tricky situation here. Had the owner still been in the UK you could have gone to small claims court to recover the livery monies owed (as the owner had contracted you for livery) however quite where you stand as the owner is domiciled abroad is a bit vague.

Personally I would get some qualified legal advice on this as it appears the owner is making some sort of effort to pick up the horse.

I have a nasty feeling that the transport co may not be paid either and this could also backfire onto you in the future.
 
Can I just ask; why does your friend say that the stallion was going to be put down if she hadn't taken him?
 
Hi,

I have just read this on another forum, and was checking a few facts before I answered, but Tia has already said what I was going to.

Good Luck with getting it sorted out.
 
Again I would suggest proper legal advice but your friend currently has a lien over the horse as monies are outstanding. However, she must not allow it to leave until all outstanding monies are paid or she will lose the lien and it will be very hard to recover the debt.
 
Sounds bizarre that one minute the owner says he is going to have the stallion put down and then the next he is going to ship him overseas
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It's always easy to say what you should have done after the event, but it's a shame your friend didn't ask for the horse ownership to be transferred to her name when he said he'd have the stallion put to sleep.

Just one other thought, perhaps the guy has moved? Now that really could be a pickle of a situation if no-one can find him. Is this the Mike guy on the other forum?

Your friend definitely needs good legal advice on this one. Good luck to her.
 
I'd just assume that the horse is now hers, go about getting a passport etc for it, if she doesnt already have one, and if the owner ever gets back in touch tell him you sold the stallion to pay for the livery debt
 
She took him on lease October 06, which was up in October 07 - I wouldn't say that was saying something one minute and then something else the next when I year has gone by.

When the owner went abroad he was supposed to be having his horses back once he'd got settled and found another place to keep them once the year had passed.

 
Not your friend I don't mean, I'm talking about the owner saying one thing one minute and then changing his tune the next; but on reading this post, I think you are saying that he was going to have the horse put down in Oct 06? And not at the end of the lease in 07 as I first understood?

The thing is, the guy was still going on about this horse back in Aug 07. I'm confused lol!!

Your friend needs good legal advice to try to resolve this problem. Best of luck.
 
i also am confused - you say loan and then lease, they are two very different things. A lease is a form of financial arrangement, a loan is not. If on her paperwork it states the word'loan' then i would tread very carefully, in a loan arrangement regardless of timescale the loaner does not have the right to demand money from the owner for any costs incurred whilst the loaner is still in possesion of said horse and if any public coversation ie. on forums is deemed to be damaging to the owners business it could get horribly expensive and complicated. For your friends sake i would remove this stallions name from this thread or any other forums in case the owner picks up on it. Good luck. <font color="pink"> </font>
 
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