starting to worry.

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rascal

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The horse we have on loan is going home very soon, we gave her owner the required one months notice at the start of October. The owner told my youngest she couldnt afford to have the horse back (thats the reason we were given for her being loaned to us) and has advertised her for sale/loan and said a couple of people are interested. She has also said she cant find anywhere to keep her. The notice period is up next week but we cant seem to get in touch with her, phone calls go unanswered a facebook message has been ignored and a text asking them to call us has also gone unanswered. What else can we do? The horse is supposed to be going back next week but how if she wont talk to us?? Ideas anyone?
 
Try writing a letter to say that as the loan expires from X date, you will be charging the owner livery at so much per week if she is unable to take the horse back. It's a very difficult situation to be in.
 
Do you have BHS Gold membership as they have a free legal helpline and could advise the best way forward. If not I would try the CAB.

Also I would write to the owner, keep a copy, and send it by recorded delivery so that they can't deny that you tried to contact them.

Hope it gets resolved as does sound worrying....
 
If you have their address, send a letter and state that you have arranged for the horse to be returned to their house and give a date and time.

If that doesn't get a reaction then nothing will.
 
A letter or different number is a good idea. Unfortunatly if we took her to the owners house that would leave her on the sea front in a welsh town!
I dont want to just be left with this horse as the contract says we cant sell/loan her, which is fair enough and what the contracts for our ponies out on loan say, but we wouldnt abandon ours. I really wish we had never met this person or the horse.
 
rascal said:
A letter or different number is a good idea. Unfortunatly if we took her to the owners house that would leave her on the sea front in a welsh town!
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But that would not be your problem!!

I wasn't actually suggesting you did that, but the owner wont know you dont mean it.
 
I had a similar problem earlier this year.The owner in our case had moved and wouldn't give us her new address and claimed she'd lost her grazing.Eventually after weeks of no progress I left a message saying that after xxx date I would cancel insurance and field rent,and if she wanted to contact my landlord and make her own arrangement with him,here was his number.I got a phone call within an hour giving me an address to return the horse to.

He was being advertised for sale whilst he was still with us,and my back up plan was to get one of my friends to ring to arrange to go and see the horse,hoping that the owner would have him back quickly in order to sell him,but thankfully I didn't have to resort to that.I know it sounds bad,but I was getting desperate and was worried that we'd have him for good and not legally actually be able to do anything with him.

Good luck.
 
I'm in a position where someone has left their horse in my field and I've told them they've got to move it. but they've been avoiding me. (Its a much longer story. Can be found on my post history if you're interested).

Anyway, I rang the BHS member legal line and the advice they gave was to write a letter to the owner stating that they have 48 hours notice to get in contact with you and if they don't you will put an Abandonment notice on the field (can be found at http://www.redwings.org.uk/documents/Abandonmen1_2_.pdf ).

After two weeks if the horse hasn't been moved and she hasn't contacted you, you have the right to sell, rehome or destroy the horse.

The letter might just shake her up, especially if you enclose a copy of the Abandonment notice in with it. You'll have to wait until the notice period is up though.

I'm sure the legal line would suggest a similar action for you.
 
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Oh dear i hope it doesnt come to that. Im not a bhs member but i do know omeone whos pretty hot on equine law, but i cant get in touch with them either at the moment, being the weekend.
 
scrunchie said:
I'm in a position where someone has left their horse in my field and I've told them they've got to move it. but they've been avoiding me. (Its a much longer story. Can be found on my post history if you're interested).

Anyway, I rang the BHS member legal line and the advice they gave was to write a letter to the owner stating that they have 48 hours notice to get in contact with you and if they don't you will put an Abandonment notice on the field (can be found at http://www.redwings.org.uk/documents/Abandonmen1_2_.pdf ).

After two weeks if the horse hasn't been moved and she hasn't contacted you, you have the right to sell, rehome or destroy the horse.

The letter might just shake her up, especially if you enclose a copy of the Abandonment notice in with it. You'll have to wait until the notice period is up though.

I'm sure the legal line would suggest a similar action for you.
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Sounds like this is the way to go, contact BHS and get advice on your situation. Document what you do, and this will put you in best possible position.
 
rascal said:
A letter or different number is a good idea. Unfortunatly if we took her to the owners house that would leave her on the sea front in a welsh town!
I dont want to just be left with this horse as the contract says we cant sell/loan her, which is fair enough and what the contracts for our ponies out on loan say, but we wouldnt abandon ours. I really wish we had never met this person or the horse.
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If you cannot get a reply from the horse owner I would be tempted to send a letter by recorded delivery to them (keeping a copy yourself). Assuming you still have somewhere for the horse yourself I would tell them that as from ? date, when the loan stops, that you will place the horse on livery & as owner they will be liable for paying all bills. Hopefully that will stir them into some kind of response. If not after a reasonable time, but not too long, you can inform them that the horse will be sold to cover the outstanding livery bill & if their is any money over it will be sent to them. Additionally if there is still money outstanding you will take action through the small claims court to recover all outstanding monies. Should you decide to take this action get a second opinion from either a solicitor or Citizens Advice Bureau regarding wording of letters & periods of time to allow for response etc.

Don't try bluffing then, tell them what you intend to do & carry it out.

Good Luck
 
It is a shame shes a lovely horse and would have had a home with us as long asshe wanted if she diddnt have soundness issues. Thats why shes going back. I dont think the owner gave us the full story with this horse.
 
That explains why they are not returning your calls etc. They were probably expecting you to get too attached so you wouldn't send her back. It seems to me they really don't want her back. Hope they do for your sake but not for the horse as I dread to think were she will end up.
 
The owner did fnally contact us but its not good news. Shes in trouble with money, and still has no where to keep the horse! She said she had been ill but people on facebook were thanking her for a good time???????????? Not sure what to do or what to believe.
 
With ll due respect, the owner being ill or not and being in money troubles or not is neither here nor there. Tht's not your problem.....you've given notice on the loan, if he's not willing or able to take the horse back she should have thought of that before she loaned her out. Yes, situations change but I get the distinct impression the owner has no intenton of taing the horse bck and never has, and she's hoping to guilt trip you into keeping the horse!
 
Loan agreements exist for a reason - to protect both parties. You have fulfilled your partof the contract, given the appropriate notice etc. It is worrying because of course this means the horse getting caught up in all of this. But anyone who puts a horse out on loan should also be prepared for the fact that peoples circumstances change and should always have provision for the horse to be returned.
 
we have three ponies out on loan ourselves and always make sure we have room for one more in our field, just in case one of them has to come back. On the other hand we checked where they were going before they went. The owner of the horse we have on loan hasnt seen her in over 10 months and diddnt check where she was going. We could be keeping her in the back garden!! Shes supposed to be going back this week but all we got "i cant afford to keep her" "i cant find anywhere to keep her" or "a friend knows someone local to you who might have her" what we want is a date and time to take her back, not excuses!
 
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