Buying a horse which turns out to have a vice

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Rommer

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My friend and I have just bought a young colt with the intention of producing him to sell. Within 24hrs of getting him home we discovered he is a chronic windsucker! The seller is refusing to refund us the money saying that now he is with us it is not their problem.
Has anyone else had any experience of this? I am aware that there have been cases where the buyer has got the money back in similar cases by going through the small claims court.
Any advice/information would be gratefully recieved.
 
Did you ask if he was a windsucker???? Or had any vices at all..... or assume, as I probably would have done, that as he was so young that he would be viceless
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Did you ask if he was a windsucker???? Or had any vices at all..... or assume, as I probably would have done, that as he was so young that he would be viceless
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My understanding is that a vice has to be 'declared'.

Small claims court, OP. Was the seller a dealer or private??
 
The seller was a stud farm, I was also under the impression that vices have to be declared. I did ask if he was vice free and were told he chews wood occasionally, which alot of young horses do. Big difference between that and windsucking!!
 
sounds like they dont want him anymore than you do, id keep on at them and tell them you are going to see a solicitor, shame for the horse, no one wants him poor thing, dont let them get away with it if they have done this to you deliberately some people just want the money and thats that,
 
as far as i know with dealers/ people in business have to declare vices and private sales just have to tell truth if directly asked- either way you did ask so there should be some comeback. seek legal advice straight away through the CAB
 
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The seller was a stud farm, I was also under the impression that vices have to be declared. I did ask if he was vice free and were told he chews wood occasionally, which alot of young horses do. Big difference between that and windsucking!!

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Trade sale then. Excellent. Get them on mis-selling. Do you have the advert?? Go to Trading Standards I believe.
 
Do you have a written ad saying he is vise free? This would help alot with your claim!
Do you have witnesses who heard the "dealer" say he was vise free?
Get legal advice ASAP! Is it a Dealer or someone selling off stock they don't want? If they are a known dealer then I would think there would be a claim against wrongful description!!
 
Years ago I bought an ex-racer from a very very well known showing producer who is also a dealer. I asked at the viewing whether he had any vices and she said no. When I got him home he instantly started cribbing and wind sucking. I contacted her and she just swore blind he didnt do it before I got him
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. He was so bad that he would even windsuck out on a hack!!
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I had a vet look at him and he wrote a declaration that the horses front teeth were worn down by the amount of cribbing he did.

I got legal advise and sent a '7 day letter'. Nothing
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. Sent another. Nothing
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. To cut a long story short she just ignored it and in the end, on the advise of my solicitor, I gave up. My solicitor thought that if it went to court it would be hard to prove. I was a lot younger then and very broke. The legal bills were mounting and I had just spent a lot on a new horsey - now I would have sued her arse off
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So I am not saying you should give up, or that the same thing will happen, but thats what happened to me

NB he was also sold to me as a quiet hack - oh really? And good to load - well if you think taking 4 hours to get into a lorry is good then maybe ha ha
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My understanding is that a vice has to be 'declared'.

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That's so hard to prove though - the seller could probably say that he did tell the buyers, as its normally said, its not on paper as proof.
 
I have just taken a dealer to court for not honouring a written warranty. I tried to return pony 8 days onto a 2 week warranty. The judge found in my favour but the dealer has not complied with the details of the order so at the moment i do not have my money back. I went through the small claims court which was relatively cheap and painless. However, winnning a case isn't neccesarily the end of it! I did read during the course of my research that under the sale of goods act a trader/ dealer is liable even if there is a fault which they were unaware of at the time of sale. Can't find the quote at the moment but it was to do with the sale of goods act so try googling it.

Good luck!
 
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