Livery termination. Help.

[ycbm]

It’ll cost them more to claim than it’s worth.

It won't, small claims court is really cheap, but I still don't think they'll do it and if they do it will be worth the annoyance it will cause them to make them go to the small claims court.
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[Lois Lame]

Tinkertoes, just talk to them. Ask. I don't think they expect liveries to pay from 1st April to the 5th if those liveries won't be there.

I think a mountain has been made out of a molehill through lack of communication.

 

[Dave's Mam]

It's got to be worth asking the question.

 

[chaps89]

I agree with this.

The way I understand the question of the livery yard is: 'Do you want to stay on from 1st to the 5th of April? If so, we need that money up front.'

So, you don't owe them any money as you have paid for all of this month and you are leaving on 21st of this month.

Tinkertoes, just talk to them. Ask. I don't think they expect liveries to pay from 1st April to the 5th if those liveries won't be there.

I think a mountain has been made out of a molehill through lack of communication.

This and this.
I took it as, do we need to be invoicing you if you’ll be staying after 1st April (when you’ve paid up until) it could just be a simple mis-communication. Especially as it sounds like you’ve not yet given them your leaving date so they might not be sure when you’re off.

It may not of course and legally you should probably pay the first week of April.
If it was situations reversed and you handed your months notice in on 5th March, you’d need to pay until 5th April, regardless of whether you choose to go earlier and/or pay livery on a different date, as that’s your months notice.
Morally given as they’re closing, they should probably not enforce any extra payments for anyone leaving before 1st April.
The horsey world is a small one though so id want to be pretty sure it wasn’t going to come back to bite me on the bum if they were expecting you to pay until 5th but you didn’t.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Keep your head down…be smiley and don’t put anything in writing. Lead your current to believe you will pay til the 5th. Verbally you could say…drop the invoice to me…but leave on 21st on good terms..then ignore request for money. To quash rumour you say the truth..you were given notice to leave and you did. It sounds like they chose the dates to fit in with financial year…new one starts on April 6th

 

[Smoky 2022]

technically speaking they broke the contract . I wouldn’t pay.

 

[Ambers Echo]

We have found another yard and intend to leave on the 21st March, we then got asked the other day if we want 1st-5th April invoicing, we stated we won’t be there at that time.

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I also read this to mean they are simply asking you if you plan to stay beyond 31st - so they would then invoice you for those 5 days up front. You were askked if you WANTED 1-5th invoicing. Not told you owed for 1-5th. How did they respond when you said you would have left by then?

 

[Leandy]

technically speaking they broke the contract . I wouldn’t pay.

How so? They have complied with the contract by terminating on a month's notice, which they are entitled to do.

 

[Surbie]

I understood it as them asking whether you would be around 1-5 April too, rather than saying they would invoice you.

I really sympathise. I was on a fabulous happy yard, and the owners (a riding school) gave notice totally out of the blue in late November that it was closing and we all had to be gone by 31st December. It's a horrible, stressful thing to go through. Well done on finding somewhere so fast.

 

[Rowreach]

I think it sounds like a miscommunication too.

Slightly off topic, but I've sold two livery yards in my time (both after many years of trading, I'm not some fly-by-night) and it is a pretty sh1tty situation for a YO too. I felt absolutely awful, most of my liveries had been with me for years, but I gave them several months' notice, was totally flexible, and only charged them to the day and hour they left the yard. Some left straight away, others stayed to the end (I even moved their horses to their new yards for them).

Honourable behaviour on both sides shouldn't be so difficult.

 

[MagicMelon]

If they have asked you "if you want invoicing" for that period then presumably they're asking you and you can simply say no? I wouldnt pay that week, they're closing it and gave you notice.