Previous owner wont release passport

[Pete2086]

Hi there, about 10 days ago my Partner bought a horse, the seller mentioned that he had the passport and would send it down with the horse, however when the horse came there was no passport for him, my partner called him up and he said he would post it down to us, a week went by and still nothing. Now he does not appear to be picking up calls from either of our phones so naturally we are suspicious that he does not in fact have a passport for the horse he has sold us. What can we do to get the passport from the seller, if it does turn out that he has sold us a horse and lied about having paperwork for the animal in question what legal action can we take.

Many thanks

Pete

 

[Penny Less]

You can always apply for a new passport, but I can see this wouldn't put your mind at rest if you thought there was something dodgy.

 

[Theocat]

Did you get a vetting? And a receipt for the sale?

 

[ester]

Did you view the horse? did you view the passport at the time of viewing? have you googled the seller?

 

[Pete2086]

No we did not view the passport at the time of purchase and the only recipt we have is a record of the bank transfer, we did view the horse and I have tried to conact the seller, he is still trading on Facebook.

Thanks

Pete

 

[Auslander]

No we did not view the passport at the time of purchase and the only recipt we have is a record of the bank transfer, we did view the horse and I have tried to conact the seller, he is still trading on Facebook.

Thanks

Pete

His name isn't Ricky, is it?

 

[Pete2086]

No This one is called 'Fenicio'

 

[ester]

I wondered if it was Ricky, it's a very him thing to do but plenty of others too.

Hmm so you don't know whether the guy even has a passport to send you, let alone a matching one. Trading standards like to know re. sold without documentation but that won't really help you. If you are a BHS gold member their legal line is often a good starting place.

 

[Goldenstar]

Never buy a horse without seeing the passport .
I would screenshot everything you can find on Facebook and call trading standards if he’s a dealer selling without passports they will probably help you out .

 

[HeyMich]

There are a couple of Facebook groups for Dodgy Dealers etc. Might be worth searching for the guy on there, or asking around to see if anyone else has had a similar experience with him.

Either way, I would contact BHS for some legal advice.

Good luck! Hope you get it all sorted soon x

 

[honetpot]

I think the first thing is to get a vet out to scan for the microchip and check if it already been issued with a passport. If it has no chip the vet can start the paperwork and you can get a basic generic passport. I would also ask the vet to give you a written report as if the horse you have bought is not as described, to have a start to go to the small claims court for the return of your money.
Losing passports is a bit like clocking cars used to be. Lose the passport and you have no tangible evidence of how old it is.
I am sorry to say that I think you should assume until proved otherwise that you have been duped. A 2 stage vetting would have cost about £150.

 

[ester]

I've had a quick search of a name with that spelling on the groups I'm on but nothing comes up.

 

[Ruby's Mum]

Report him to trading standards, it is illegal to sell a horse without a passport (it isn't not illegal to buy one without just a huge mistake but one you can fix). If you are happy with the horse, then apply for a new passport, assume what you've been told about the horse (I.e vaccinations) is not true and get the vet out to at least do Tetanus (I witnessed a recently bought horse a few years back get tetanus and was PTS leaving the new owner devastated as the dealer had promised he was vaccinated but he had misplaced the passport and she had believed him).

 

[neddy man]

Ring him on Tom, Dicks, or Harry's phone, a number he does not know and see if he answers.

 

[Cecile]

It says if the seller doesn't hand over a passport contact Trading Standards

https://www.gov.uk/horse-passport

You may have to work your way up the food chain within TS to get them to act but it would be worth the effort
to get them to be involved just to stop you running around in circles trying to get some sort of response from the seller

 

[Shay]

Replacing the passport isn't too much of an issue - it happens all the time. The problem is far more whether this is the horse that was advertised or the horse you actually viewed, whether it has been stolen or whether it has a loss of use claim against it.

The first thing to do is get the vet out and check for a chip. Not all horses have to be chipped at the moment of course; but anything imported or born after 2009 should. The chip - if there is one - will lead you back to the original PIO. (If you had a vetting done the vet will have seen the passport and recorded the number on the report. I'm assuming you didn't - but if you did then there is your passport details.)

In the meantime re-start the vaccinations because you have no way to know when this was last done. If the horse wasn't vetted before you might want to do so now to identify any serious problems -or at the very least to verify age! Report the dealer to Trading Standards - it won't get you the passport but it might help stop others falling for the same thing.

If you can trace the original passport and through that the last owner you might want some history for him. Otherwise just re-start the passport process. The paperwork is much easier than buying a horse of unknown history!