Who is responsible for damage caused by horses?

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Frankie12345

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I don't know if anyone can help me out. Basically, i own a field and rent it to a girl who keeps some horses on it. She told me some time ago that the fencing at the rear was dodgy, and i had been intending to do something about it, but needed to save money to do it, so hadn't done it yet. Her horses managed to escape through the ropey fence and cause damage to the neighbouring golf course. She doesn't have a contract in place at the moment (it expired and i didn't renew it), although the original contact she had did say that she was responsible for damage caused by her horses, either on or off the field. Who is responsible to pay for the damage to the golf course? Me or her?
 
If theres no contract and youve admitted you needed to fix the fencing id say you were both responsible, as you both know it needed fixed .
Id say a 50/50 split on the damage which may cost quite a bit
 
I would say you. Your field therefore fencing really is your responsibility, especially as you have no contract with her and she informed you of the fencing problem. What a shame you didn't just put a bit of electric tape along it till you could afford a proper fix.
 
There was a case heard at Crown Court a while ago. Horses got out of a field and onto an A road causing fatal accident.

Court found against the land owner not the horses owner.

It is my understanding that the land owner is responsible for maintaining the fence line and to ensure no stock, regardless of whether the land owner owns the stock or not, can escape and cause damage/injury.

Google it and you will find the stated case. It was only 2 or 3 years ago.
 
I would also say you. If you had repaired the fencing chances are the horses wouldn't have escaped and caused the damage.
 
I'm not clued up on the legalities of it but I'd assume that you are responsible for it. Yes her horses did the damage but only because you did not maintain the fencing even when advised of the issue.
 
Sorry have to say I agree with the others. If she pays rent and it's your responsibility to maintain the fence and you didn't after she advised you of a problem then it's down to you to cover any damages.
 
I would say that you would be responsible given she had previously brought this problem to your attention, unless she is responsible in part or fully for the maintenance of the rented land. I am not sure that it could be deemed she ought to have acted further and removed her horses from the land until such time as the fencing was repaired. Difficulties with doing so may be regarded as unreasonable thus not an expected responsible move on the part of the owner even if she had foresight of a small risk of this event occuring.

Also if she has insurance then the company will not want to pay out and will instruct a legal team to prevent their client being held responsible, so you need some advice yourself.
 
At a guess you are. She informed you of the dodgy fencing, and you told her you would deal with it. You didn't, so I would assume that cost lies with you.
 
Get legal advice. I have a feeling that even if she is responsible for the damage to the golf course she can then in turn take you to court for her losses as she did inform you about the fence, so if I had to make a guess I'd say you'd end up paying either way. Even if your contract was still valid, it could be interpreted that it meant if her horses damage or jump the fence she is responsible.
 
I (just as horsey person not lawyer, so for what worth!) think in this case unfortunately it may be you. The contract if you keep taking the money is probably deemed to continue on the same terms even if expired, and you have acknowledged that the fencing was your responsibility and was not in acceptable condition.

The question arises, when you planned to mend the dodgy fencing, had you asked her/agreed with her that she would have to pay for that? If yes, it suggests that you thought the damage was down to the horses behaviour not wear and tear, and you might have more hope of enforcing the contract clause. If not, and you had been planning to do the repairs and pay for them, that would be evidence that the state of the fence was wear and tear related - and that isnt her horses/her responsibility, it's yours as the landowner.

Altho in general there isnt a common law duty to fence land, the situation is different if animals are kept there as a commercial arrangement. A landowner does have a duty to ensure that animals kept on their land do not stray, and a claim for damages may lie against a landowner where it can be shown that the escape was caused by their negligence. (i should add that the A road accident case in the earlier post established - for now at least - that there is definitely strict liability for the damage caused by the horses, it is just a question of apportionment here!)

That supposes the damage was caused by general wear and tear normal for horses. If on the other hand a horse went nuts and just crazy and crashed through well maintained good fencing then I would think your contract clause might come into play, and /or there would be a defence against negligence on your part and maybe you could try to get the livery to pay some/all; but this doesnt apply here as the escape wasnt caused by an unforseeable event where the damage and escape happened at the same time and the knowledge of the poor state of the fencing would negate a defence against negligence.

The question is, if she knew the fencing was dodgy but chose to stay, should she have taken some steps to secure it....well yes possibly it would have been sensible for her to stick some electric up in the interim as it would you, but thats not the same as her having to do so, whereas you shoud have. You might try to get her to contribute based on the contract term and the bald fact it is her horses that have caused the damage- but no guarantees.

But Im not a lawyer so if its a lot of £££ and you dont think you are /should be liable then you would need a lawyer to really advise you!
 
I dont know about the existing damage, but I am sure that if you cant afford to fix the fence you need to get her off your land quickly.

I dont know what notice you need to give without a contract but you should find out. If it happens again and causes an accident you will be in real trouble.

Ideally you need them out now, or as some one suggested earlier put some electric up until she goes.
 
In hindsight it would have been cheaper to fix the fence than repair the golf course. Glad no one or horses were hurt, hope you can maybe agree between you to split the cost of sorting the golf course.
 
I understand peoples comments that the OP is responsible for the damage but surely the owner of the horse has to take some responsibilty too? She was the one who continued to turn her horse out in a field with "dodgy" fencing. Surely if you turn your horse out knowing the fencing isnt adequate then you should foresee that an escape is inevitable?
 
Not a clear cut answer from me. YOU are responsible for the fencing but, if a horse escapes even from good and well maintained fields/hedgeing, the horse owner is responsible for any damage caused by the horse.

I would seek professional advice.
 
See I have to agree that the owner is legally responsible. This is why I have insurance and made sure that even my old girl has third party. I was told when I checked this, that legally, if my horses escape and cause damage, even if it was not my fault (eg fencing or someone let them out), then the fault would be mine. I have a funny feeling that it will transpire that your livery does not have insurance so would get legal advice. However I would be interested to know how this pans out - you knew there was an issue with the fencing, but then so did she...
 
Stinkbomb said:
I understand peoples comments that the OP is responsible for the damage but surely the owner of the horse has to take some responsibilty too? She was the one who continued to turn her horse out in a field with "dodgy" fencing. Surely if you turn your horse out knowing the fencing isnt adequate then you should foresee that an escape is inevitable?
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Totally agree but sadly common sense isn’t always all that common.

I suspect land owner is responsible as the fencing was not or became unfit for purpose. There was a contract in place presumably allowing the keeping of livestock and the expiration of this seems irrelevant. FWIW if I was horse owner I would be offering 50/50.
 
Stinkbomb said:
I understand peoples comments that the OP is responsible for the damage but surely the owner of the horse has to take some responsibilty too? She was the one who continued to turn her horse out in a field with "dodgy" fencing. Surely if you turn your horse out knowing the fencing isnt adequate then you should foresee that an escape is inevitable?
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I understand where you're coming from.

But, we don't know the period of time between informing the OP of the broken fencing and the horses breaking out - it may have been a short period of time, which wouldn't necessarily have given the horses owners enough time to make alternative arrangements.

Either way - there's a large bill coming in to someone - and I suspect it will be the OP.
 
This is a trickyone. Commercial leases put all the onus for maintanence onto the leasee, not the building owner. What did your original contract stipulate re fencing?
There was a case where a womans horses were let out of a field, and injured someone. Even though it wasn't her fault as someone had maliciously let them out, I think she had to pay up.
I personally rent land off a farmer, we have no contract, but the unspoken consensus is we are responsible for the fencing, although he will bang posts in for us if we get them.
I would seek legal advice.
 
Some posts have said legally the horse owner would be pursued by the golf course because of strict liability for horses actions under the animals act. That may be true ......BUT there would likely be then an immediate and probably successful counter claim for the whole amount of the damages from the horse owner to the landowner because the reason for the escape wasnt some vandal letting out the horses or a helicopter landing in the field: it was the failure to maintain the fence and repair it when advised that it was defective.

Having a clause re 'horse damage' in the contract would likely be held to apply to horse breaking a perfectly good fence, or smashing equipment ie the sort of thing that the landowner shouldnt be normally expecting to happen. Its unlikely that 'damage' would be held to have happened where a horse goes through a fence that was acknowledged not to be up the job of keeping in horses.

If there were a specific clause saying that all fence maintenance was the livery's responsibility and that they must keep it to an adequate standard to contain their horse at all times - that would be completely different and landowner would be off the hook. In the absence of that, it is the landowner's responsibility.

They could try arguing in court that damage clause does apply, that livery shouldnt have carried on keeping horse there as fencing wasnt ok, but the fact they have carried on taking the rent and also have said they will fix it and then didnt will undermine it.

I should add that at a former livery yard I wasnt happy with one side of the field's fencing (road next to it) and I did get my own fencing when the YO didnt agree it wasnt ok as it was - but that was me doing it to protect my horse, I didnt have a legal duty to do it, the fencing was YO responsibility. And that electric extra fencing came with me when we moved area and hence left the yard.
 
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I think the OP is liable, both legally and morally.
Just stop and consider being a livery or renting a paddock and your horse gets loose due to crap of broken fencing despite informing the land owner who then failed to fix it. If it were your horse you'd be livid.

A few have said owner should also be accountable as they turned out, well what if they lived out 24/7?
 
I am renting land out shortly and the contract will say that the owner of the horses is entirely responsible for the fencing and maintenance of the land.

My involvement is I am renting ' space'. What the renter of the land does with it is down to them and if its for livestock its up to them to repair and maintain any damaged fencing.

OP is at fault for not protecting themselves by way of insurance and contracts stipulating who is responsible for what.
 
The owner of the land is responsible. Anyone renting out fields for horses, should ideally have public liability insurance, just as a livery yard should. However, I think that it was very irresponsible for the owner to risk her horses in that field and maybe some liability should lie with her.
 
Welshie Squisher said:
I think the OP is liable, both legally and morally.
Just stop and consider being a livery or renting a paddock and your horse gets loose due to crap of broken fencing despite informing the land owner who then failed to fix it. If it were your horse you'd be livid.

A few have said owner should also be accountable as they turned out, well what if they lived out 24/7?
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My view is that if you have horses you shoud bear some responsibility for where you put them and if you chose to put them out in an unsuitable field thats down to you.

If within your livery contract it says the YO fixes and repairs the fencing then that is what you should expect but If they haven't done it I still wouldn't put my horse in a field with a gaping hole.
 
I'm confused about what is legal advice and what is opinion.
Op, I think you should consult your insurance company. I'm sure you have insurance covering you renting out your property.
 
Owner and OP should be happy it was a golf course the horse went to play on and not a motorway.

Seems highly irresponsible not to fix the fencing and slightly unwise not to bother renewing the contract.

That said, I am not a lawyer but instinct tells me the OP may be held accountable.
Wont be a small bill if the horse decided to destroy several greens. Dont envy you but would be thanking my lucky stars that this didnt involve any fatalities, human or equine.

Would be interested to hear the outcome.
 
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