Chasing For Unpaid Livery

I do know of a chap who had trouble with a livery who sounds exactly like yours. He decided that rather than spend his time and money paying for the horse whilst also paying solicitors to write letters telling her to leave/recoup money owed etc, he loaded up the horse and drove it to her house. unloaded the poor horse in the street and put it in her front garden and rang her doorbell ! 😬
Have to say I was left open mouthed when he told me but he said he'd been stung a few time before and had to get tough and had warned her he would do it. Bet she never expected to see ned at her front door tho 😳

Not how I would handle things and not suggesting how you should op eeek!

Hope things get resolved for you.
 
Typical hubby just pointed out her next due date is 28th September so the £220 she owes is for this months rent if we ask her to move out this sat then we will owe her 1 week livery! Nightmare!
 
Den83 said:
Typical hubby just pointed out her next due date is 28th September so the £220 she owes is for this months rent if we ask her to move out this sat then we will owe her 1 week livery! Nightmare!
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Are you charging your liveries in arrears? You need to change that! Always, always charge in advance, then if things go pear shaped, you have half a chance of not being out of pocket.
 
No we do charge in advance the £220 she owes is for her livery up until 28th September. If she leaves 21st sept that's a week early so surely we can't charge the full months livery? We would have to refund her a week?
 
Hi, I don't think I'd worry too much. If she does pay up, then you can give her back that extra week, really, you just want shot of her. By the way, I don't understand why you'd put yourself through the hassle of having other people and their animals on your property if you aren't trying to make a profit, whatever's in it for you?
 
I'd not tolerate people paying me late if I owned a livery yard, at the end of the day they get their wages on time and you need yours, I think far to many people have horses who can't actually afford them. A horse is a luxery , if you can't afford it dont have it. Get a flipping gold fish.

My yard makes you pay in advance , which I think is correct, no payment on time - I would show them the door.


There is no excuse in my eyes. If you got no money sell the horse.
 
The OP's letter requesting payment.

We require the outstanding amount of £220 to be paid immediately in cash. This month’s expenses and an additional £80 for the eight days that we were looking after Mojo is to be paid in Cash and in full on leaving the yard. Failure to do so will leave us no alternative but to pursue the money through the small claims court. This is a last resort and we hope we can resolve the matter without taking this course of action.

This is not a profit making venture for us and we cannot afford any late payments otherwise we are subsidising your ponies costs ourselves.

We look forward to receiving full payment from you ASAP.[/QUOTE]
 
Den83 said:
No we do charge in advance the £220 she owes is for her livery up until 28th September. If she leaves 21st sept that's a week early so surely we can't charge the full months livery? We would have to refund her a week?
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Ah, sorry, I got the wrong end of the stick there :)
You can take off the weeks livery when she pays you all the rest - that would mean never ;)
If I give a livery a months notice, as per their contract, I still expect them to pay the bill for that month, they can leave at any time in that period and I would not refund them, though.
 
Does she keep tack at your place? If so, hold it under lock and key until you are paid. You are allowed to seize assets up to the value of the money owed.

Not good to seize horse as you have to maintain it!
 
Hi everyone, well I still have not heard a thing and no sign of her last night to sort the poor pony out!

The letter sent to her home address has been taken back to the depot as they could not get access to the property!! The letter going to her work address is out for delivery now! I bet I wont get a call or anything!
 
Wagtail said:
She sounds like a right card. Poor pony having an owner like her.
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Just what I was thinking, having and still doing accounts for a livery yard, you all would be so surprised (or maybe not) about how many people either do not pay bills, or pay very slowly. I may be wrong but if you decide to keep pony in payment of bill You need to get a legal notice known as a "lien" Good luck, and I am sure the legal experts on here will correct me if wrong.
 
My husband popped to her previous yard an apparently it took them 6 months to get the money out of her and she was paying them considerably less than we charge!! Its not looking good so far!
 
As she isn't coming to yard, & not now asking you to care for pony, you might have to consider reporting it as abandoned. If rent not paid & pony shifted by deadline in letter definately have to do so.
 
I would seek legal advice about how you proceed.

Ie how much notice you need to give regards to having pony sent to sales or selling private to recoup some of your losses.

lots of horses and ponies are being dumped on yards.
 
OP I'm so sorry, this is so awful for you, and something we all dread happening if we're a YO. Everyone's worst nightmare.

Ditto the legal advice route: have never used the BHS helpline but this may be your first point of call?

What you really need is a good solicitor with equine experience, which unfortunately won't come cheap (ouch!); but IF you're in the situation where she's "abandoned" the pony and you have to go the route of selling it to re-coup your losses, you'll very likely need to.

Do you know this woman's home address?? Because............ and I throw this out for consideration and you can chuck it out if you please...... but there ARE such things as Debt Collectors. I've no idea how much it costs to engage one and how one goes about it, but like I say am just throwing this in the pot!!!

I'm also a landlord and a few years ago a tenant defaulted with a large bill; I wished we'd gone this route as basically they got away with owing us a considerable sum of money (hundreds). The solicitors were as useless as a nun in a punch-up and did FA but people have said since we should have got Debt Collectors to sort it.

Good luck anyway. This is awful. What TF is wrong with people?
 
If she is not visiting and ignoring your calls pin an abandonment notice up. http://www.redwings.org.uk/welfare-horse-care-advice-abandonment.php
If you have served her notice you have started the legal process if she turns up so you have got her both ways. Unless you have a contract that includes the sale of the horse to cover any bills I would take her to the small claims court for any expenses you are accruing, the main thing is to be persistent and keep records/diary so if it goes to court you have account of what you have done and what it has cost you.
I wouldn't be surprised if she is not laying low while she finds somewhere else to dump her horse and will come and collect it when you least expect it. I had one of these last year and its not very nice.
 
The use of a debt collecting agency is actually not a bad one. Often they will send a very stern & official letter. This letter is very clear & spells out future implication on credit scores/impact on future lending if the debt is not dealt with. An agency will often do this for a fraction of the cost of solicitors etc.
my only experience of a bad debtor paid up within 24 hours of receiving a debt collecting letter!
 
glamourpuss said:
The use of a debt collecting agency is actually not a bad one. Often they will send a very stern & official letter. This letter is very clear & spells out future implication on credit scores/impact on future lending if the debt is not dealt with. An agency will often do this for a fraction of the cost of solicitors etc.
my only experience of a bad debtor paid up within 24 hours of receiving a debt collecting letter!
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This works well, one lodger I had snuck off without paying bills he owed, I sent a text advising that unless paid by Friday I would be sending the amount owing to debt collection.... He paid up like a shot, I also knew he was planning to buy a house and if he had a history with debt collectors would affect his getting a mortgage.
 
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