At What Point Would You......

T

Tia

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......get in touch with a livery who owes you 3 months rent for 2 horses both on FULL livery and for all farrier and worming bills?

Very, very delicate and tragic situation going on in their household at present
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, so nothing has been said by me as yet, however their bill is now in the thousands.
 
When it is getting into the thousands, I would mention it to them, even if they are undergoing a tragic situation in their life. The loner it is left the worse its going to get. But it would need to bought up tactfully
 
Oh gosh, how tricky. You don't want to seem uncaring, but at the end of the day you are running a business and everyone in life has problems.

I guess you need to send a bill, accompanied by a short letter, being polite and sympathetic but telling them the bill concerns you for their sake as you don't want to shock them when they finally get around to asking for it.

Might spur them on.
 
Hmmm, I can see how tricky this situation is.

How friendly are you with the livery? I was thinking you could send an invoice to them if not that friendly, after all it is a business arrangement. However, if you know the livery quite well maybe a telephone call would be better.

I would definitely not hesitate in asking for it now though, and they will appreciate your honesty.
 
QR -

I'm very friendly with all my liveries, however I really only ever see them on rent day as most of them only come up once a month to see their horses and collect their invoices and pay their bills, however although this livery does phone me once in a while, she hasn't been up since December.

She always telephones me - I never call her and have never sent invoices to her house, therefore if I were to do either of those things it would seem awfully out of character for me and this may upset her because she will think I am annoyed, which I'm not......I could just do with the money
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.

I keep hoping that as the end of the month has just been that she will call me and I can say something about the spiralling cost. I also hate to do these things by phone or letter - I much prefer to speak to people in confidence, face to face.
 
I see, that makes it a bit more awkward.

I think in this situation I would be inclined to give her a telephone call and explain that everything is fine, you were just wondering whether she knew how much money she owed and was there anything else you could do for her.
 
I couldn't imagine having a horse and not going to see it everyday, never mind only going up once a month!

If you think she'll be up soon I'd hold off and speak to her then. But then this is your business, and should not have to worry about asking for backpayments of livery. Blurry line between business and friends I guess.
 
She isn't a personal friend, just in a livery capacity, I'm friendly with them all, LOL!

Thing is I don't think she will be up soon. I don't expect to see her for a couple of months depending on how her awful situation pans out.
 
Maybe I will give her a call through the week......I just don't want her to think I am miffed with her, because I am really not. It's just that I have 2 stables taken up with horses who aren't paying their way and it is winter and I have 25 horses to feed so money is used up pretty quickly here.
 
I know
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. But I am a nice livery yard owner and I don't like to see my people upset.......and I am pretty confident my phoning would upset her.
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As you wish to stay friendly with her and not upset her, I would send a blank card with a message saying you thought it best to warn her her bill was mounting up and you didn't want it to be too much of a shock for her. (put amount after message)
You could always put something prior to the message asking her a question re vaccinations, worming needed etc to justify the note.
I have had a similar problem with someone owing me two months' rent and a huge electricity bill, luckily someone else is doing the debt chasing, but I have a feeling things are about to get really unpleasant.
It may be in her case she is so wound up with the tragic circumstances the invoice has genuinely slipped her mind, if so I bet she posts you a cheque immediately.
 
Excellent idea HH regarding vaccinations! They are due soon so that will be a perfect opportunity to call her.

She won't be able to pay it all, I know that (and I'm not expecting it all in one go), because the tragic situation they are in has mean't that her husband has had to stop working to look after their other little child.

I think most of you know the situation I am talking about and are very aware of just how incredibly sad the circumstances are for this family, so there is no way I would ever come down on them in any other fashion than with total compassion.

Thank you HH - you may have given me the ticket I need here.
 
It is tricky, but i am a heartless bitch when it comes to business and would open up a communication line in some way. As this would be deemed "out of character" it would hopefully jog her into coming up to see you to discuss either payment terms or just paying the bill.
Although her life maybe difficult at the moment, yours could become difficult without the amount she owes!
Jo
 
I, like you, am normally firm in a regular business environment but in this situation I can assure you, you wouldn't be heartless in the slightest. No-one in their right mind would be.

All I have to lose is money.....their loss is far greater.
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