Opinions please!

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Merrick

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This is a real life scenario....I am NOT the owner or the land owner!!!
owner (a) has 4 horses and rents grazing from a local farmer (b)...a falls behind with her rent of £25 a week for grazing and water. Eventually runs up a debt of over £1000.
land owner keeps asking for payment but is evaded, ignored and a used verbally. In desperation he removes the horses, putting them in a place of safety and begins to feed them hay, concerned that 2 of them are elderly ( one in his thirties and one in his twenties.)
It takes 8 days (yes, 8!) for the owners to even notice the horses are missing (despite them being fortunate enough to have grazing right next to their house!)
b keeps requesting payment, then calls in a welfare agency who tells him that he now has a duty of care to these horses and although they evidently haven't been wormed, feet trimmed etc in ages this doesn't constitute neglect.
b has had these horses for 12 weeks, feeding a large bale of hay a week. He has threatened to sell them including for slaughter and has sent letters and has tried to approach the owners to talk but they refuse to answer the door if he calls around and drive away if they see him in his car!
So does he have the right to sell them? ( not that they are worth anything in today's market and he doesn't have passports....although I doubt if 3 of them have ever had one anyway:/)
incidentally the owners (2) both have full time jobs so can't claim poverty!
opinions please!
 
Really? Have you seen how much they charge? The police say it's a " civil matter" and aren't interested! No legal aid either now.
 
Merrick said:
Really? Have you seen how much they charge? The police say it's a " civil matter" and aren't interested! No legal aid either now.
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Yes really , the farmer is running a business he has duty of care as the provider of the livery he has moved the horses and assumed responsibility for their care .
And do you think it's a good idea to ask on a forum if the farmer has a right to pts the horses .
Of course it's a civil matter the cost of dealing with non payment is a normal cost of a business not a job for the police the farmer needs legal advice from preferably from a solicitor with experience in equine matters .
 
I stand to be corrected but could the farmer not have his solicitor recover legal costs from the owners? It's likely to be a long drawn out process but I agree that legal aid should be sought before any action is taken just to cover himself/herself.
 
At no point did I ask if the farmer has the right to pts the horses! I said he had threatened to sell them this way (but didn't anyway and don't actually think he would)....incidentally I had a nosey at some websites re equine abandonment - unsure whether failing to resolve the situation constitutes abandonment, but if a notice is displayed for 14 days and there is no response the land owner has the right to dispose of the horses in whichever manner he/she sees fit.
Personally I can't imagine not noticing the horses were missing for 8 days, but then again I check mine at least once a day- and once we are living on site to build our house will be there all the time to keep an eye.
Incidentally discussing having horses pts is not in my opinion a bad thing. Many councils rely on a slaughter to dispose of abandoned equines. In my view a swift, humane end is preferable to the slow, lingering starvation and neglect that many horses and ponies seem to be condemned to.
Sorry if that upsets people but it is a fact.
 
At no point did I ask if the farmer has the right to pts the horses! I said he had threatened to sell them this way (but didn't anyway and don't actually think he would)....incidentally I had a nosey at some websites re equine abandonment - unsure whether failing to resolve the situation constitutes abandonment, but if a notice is displayed for 14 days and there is no response the land owner has the right to dispose of the horses in whichever manner he/she sees fit.
Personally I can't imagine not noticing the horses were missing for 8 days, but then again I check mine at least once a day- and once we are living on site to build our house will be there all the time to keep an eye.
Incidentally discussing having horses pts is not in my opinion a bad thing. Many councils rely on a slaughter to dispose of abandoned equines. In my view a swift, humane end is preferable to the slow, lingering starvation and neglect that many horses and ponies seem to be condemned to.
Sorry if that upsets people but it is a fact.
 
I think legal advice is the only way to go! but i dont think an abandonment notice will work in this situation (correct me if i am wrong) but the land owner has removed the horses without the owners agreement (?? Theft?) so they are not abandoned? if he had left them where they were with no hay feet un trimmed then an abandonment notice would be possible but not now also he has assumed resonsability for the welfare of these horses now.
Difficult situation he should have left the horses and gone to small claims court online to get costs back and then abandonment notice route. Now he is in a sticky situation! seek legal advice !
 
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