BEWARE! Selling 'at livery' or via an 'agent'....

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Dovorian

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My niece bought from a local equestrian centre, apparently being at livery there for sale. Bought horse, paid cash, got a 'vague' receipt to be fair. Horse brought into my yard and after 5 months contacted by alleged legal owner who has not received a bean from agent selling. Cue huge panic as the horse is dearly loved, my Sister ended up paying a 4 figure sum to the (technically) legal owner to keep said horse.
Motto - absolutely INSIST on speaking to the legal owner of the horse, in this case the sales livery believed that £350 per WEEK!! was due, hence not notifying the owner of the sale because the purchase price equated to 2 months livery + commission!

Further details of yard if you pm me, but very sorry tale indeed. The loser was potentially the dear horse.
 
Agree there can be problems but all four of my horses were bought from livery yards and in two cases I never met the owners at all and they all worked out fine.
 
Did the old owner not go and visit the horse?

I have just sent my mare on Selling Livery. They do have her passport and I've signed the transfer of ownership form. Had your niece recieved the passport and transfered the ownership? I am visiting her a couple of times a week and so far (she's only been there since Friday) have been in contact with them every other day.

I think you have to be very vigilant and not blindly trusting in these situations.
 
we sold a horse through someone and the new owners never contacted us and we didnt contact them - it was all done through this one guy who was schooling to sell on.

i think the one in the wrong is the original owner tbh.....
 
From what we have been told, the owner moved abroad to work and left his horse at livery to sell, he then contacted the yard for an update and was told that the horse had not been sold. In the meantime my niece has completed the purchase via the yard & sent passport off, only to find that the owner had not signed the necessary transfer (* he held back pending receipt of funds). Fortunately the owner was a very decent person who realised that the yard had held on to his cash and not told him that they had sold. A lesson indeed for those who cannot be on the spot!
 
I don't quite see how the owner had a claim against your sister since he had instructed the livery yard person to sell the horse on his behalf and the livery yard person had accepted the money. I wouldn't have paid the owner anything, I would have sent him back to the livery yard person. For all you know they may both be in on it in an attempt to get paid twice for the horse!
 
very odd!
surely the original owner had known how much per week the charges were when they left the horse with the agent to sell?
it sounds an awful lot of money, but if it was agreed to and the sale sum just covered the sale livery bill, his hard cheese?
 
Booboos is right - you paid for the horse, the horse is yours. The original owner has to take it up with the vendor, i.e. the dealer. No further monies should have changed hands.
 
Weezy said:
Booboos is right - you paid for the horse, the horse is yours. The original owner has to take it up with the vendor, i.e. the dealer. No further monies should have changed hands.
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Booboos may be right in moral terms; but I'm afraid that is not necessarily the case legally! The law is funny like that. I would recommend the OP called the BHS legal helpline or sought legal advice.
 
Dovorian said:
Motto - absolutely INSIST on speaking to the legal owner of the horse, in this case the sales livery believed that £350 per WEEK!! was due, hence not notifying the owner of the sale because the purchase price equated to 2 months livery + commission!

.
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apart from the bad luck of friend which i think is not on, ....

I take in sales liveries and one of the reasons horses come to me is because the actual owner doesnt want to/doesnt have time to talk to god knows how many people about the horse in question.

if the owner of any of the horses i have want to stay in touch with new owners then this is advertised and if it was a really keen buyer then i would ask the owner if they wished to speak to a potential buyer after a viewing. but in general I wouldnt mention the owner as being avalible to speak to anyone on a I am intrested in the horse basis..

I hope that all makes sence.
 
The dealer selling the horse did not have legal title to the horse - therefore could not sell it.

The other thing to be careful about when buying horses for sale on behalf of a client is that you have no comeback on the dealer - there have been many posts on HHO about how a horse has turned out to be a cripple and the dealer has got away with it because they claim they never owned it.

Always speak to the owner and get a receipt from the owner - this wouldn't have been something I would have worried about if I hadn't read all the horror stories on here.
 
It is very true that you have no come back if the sale is *on behalf of the owner*

However, and believe me I have been finding out about these things, if the purchaser has a receipt that states * £XXX paid in full for the purchase of HORSE, owned by Mrs Smith of XXX*, etc, etc, etc, and the owner has a sales livery contract with the dealer, then what I said stands - the horse HAS been sold correctly and the original owner has to go after the dealer for the money.

The dealer has fulfilled his part of the contract with the original owner, i.e., he has sold the horse, the original owner agreed to this when the horse went on sales livery. The dispute is that the original owner has not had their funds, that is between them and the dealer and not the new owner.
 
Weezy said:
It is very true that you have no come back if the sale is *on behalf of the owner*

However, and believe me I have been finding out about these things, if the purchaser has a receipt that states * £XXX paid in full for the purchase of HORSE, owned by Mrs Smith of XXX*, etc, etc, etc, and the owner has a sales livery contract with the dealer, then what I said stands - the horse HAS been sold correctly and the original owner has to go after the dealer for the money.

The dealer has fulfilled his part of the contract with the original owner, i.e., he has sold the horse, the original owner agreed to this when the horse went on sales livery. The dispute is that the original owner has not had their funds, that is between them and the dealer and not the new owner.
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id say that is correct weezy. the dealer is the one in the wrong and the person that bought the horse has ended up being piggy in the middle. I would think there may be a tiny amount of a possibility of a dispute of ownership though.
 
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