Where do I stand?? Unpaid livery costs

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eventergirl87

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We'll call the Friend A and the horse B.

B was being given away "free to a good home" by friends of mine and A was looking for a young project. Because A hadn't got any stabling arranged, and B needed to be re homed as soon as possible. A not wanting to miss the opportunity, I offered to have B on full livery for an undecided period of time. B was kept on full livery with us for 5 weeks. This included turn out, poo picking, mucking out, feed, hay and the beginning of his education (B was not backed and had only ever done the very basics).

Once A had sorted out livery for B I drove B to the new yard which was quite some drive (having already picked up horse from old home to bring to mine). Naively the cost of us keeping him on full livery and delivery was all done verbally, with no written contract between us. It was meant to be an agreement amongst friends which has now gone wrong. I do however have email proof of some of the exchanges between us and agreements and other witnesses that can back up this arrangement. Including speaking to yard girls at the yard which I dropped him to.

Weeks after delivering B to A she has been un-forthcoming with any degree of contact. Whilst I've accepted she has had difficulties in communication it has now been a long period of time. We are still waiting to receive the money A owes us.

The verbal agreement was that if she couldn't find livery for B then I would keep him. Having originally wanted him anyway, but A getting in before me. Through some form of sleuthing I have now found out that A has sold B. A has discovered that I have been sleuthing and has made minor contact, insisting that she bank transferred the money she owed to us. She is unwilling to provide any proof of statements that the money has been transferred, merely claiming in an email that "is has left my account". She is also refusing to tell me where B has been sold too. Claiming she "forgot" to offer him to us before advertising and selling him.

So my question is, Where do I stand?? We are now £X out of pocket, and the horse we were attempting to track down and reclaim to recuperate costs has been sold to new owners. Is there an organisation or a body I can contact? Is this a small claims court or solicitors route? (Not a route I would like to go down for fear of the financial implications for myself) or do I have to glumly face that we've been duped, and cut our losses?

Moral of the story - always retain hold of the passport ..... or perhaps just never be trusting of "friends"
 
Seems like a straightforward Small Claims case -- don't think you'd be able to reclaim the horse as he was never yours, however you should be able to get livery monies owed.
 
Small claims is not expensive but then you do have the potential problem of enforcing any judgement. The threat of going to small claims may encourage
A to settle their bill.

From what you have said I do not think they were any obligation to offer to sell the horse to you and as you did not have a written contract it would be unlikely that you could claim a lien on the horse.

Send your friend a registered letter detailing your financial claims on her. I assume that you have agreed a weekly livery fee and delivery charge with her in advance that you will need to refer to.

Did you give her your bank details so that she could arrange the bank transfer? It is unlikely that this has gone astray if she really did set it up correctly.
 
Having learnt my lessons about unscrupulous liveries rather quickly this week....i would send her an invoice of all monies owed, and also send a 'terms of payment' e.g. if it isnt paid by this date then X% is added. This is what i have been advised to do and 'apparently' it works quite well in some cases. It is difficult if she's a friend though, however put your business head on and just think to yourself - would you do this to another person, probably not - so why the hell should they do it to you!!! Good luck.
 
Take her to the small claims court. If she fails to respond get a court judgment. If she fails to pay up by the judgment date then re-apply to the court for a Guarnishing Order. This means she will have to declare all her income, expenditure and assets in front of a judge and you can also ask the judge to ask her various questions. People hate guarnishing orders as their affairs become public including to the Inland Revenue!
 
If she claims that she has transferred the money, then she needs to check with her bank where the money has gone. If she is telling the truth, the bank has the authority to recover the money, whereupon she must re-transfer it to the correct account.

I was merrily direct-debiting money for a field I rented, years ago. After about 5 months, the owner accused me of not paying. When I checked my bank statements (in those days 3 monthly), money was paid into MY account using the owner's name. Turned out I'd been given one digit wrong on the sort code, my bank was transferring it out to Lloyds, who were putting it back in (without telling me!). Ended in a right argument, as the woman wouldn't accept that she'd given me the wrong details, so I left the field (and it happened to the tenants after me, too!).

So, it IS possible that she transferred it, but given the lack of contact, unlikely. I just thought I'd share my story so you could point out to her that mis-transferred money is still retrievable and even if it goes into a bona-fide account, the owner of that account is not entitled to the money.
 
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