30-day notice. WWYD?

[pluvinel]

@OverandOnward

Don’t worry about them. Just take care of yourself and your horse and let the chips fall. There aren’t very many chips here to fall, anyway. Any maybe-chips are as dry and light as three-year-old range droppings.

Totally agree…the people who bad-mouth you will be shooting themselves in the foot.

@Horsegirl_s_Mom

Oral contracts are enforceable in California. And assent can be manifested through conduct. Verbal Contracts - Enforceable? | Stimmel Law

The issue here is that the boarder said she was giving 30-day notice, which seems to indicate agreement to the FB’s 30-day notice requirement.

So pay up for the 30 days verbal commitment, but leave YESTERDAY.

[findeight]

Move the horse ASAP and get your stuff out immediately. Then you can dicker over the bill. I vote #1 or 2 and be done with it. But get that horse and your stuff out now. Today. Hell hath no fury like an inexperienced BO with a King complex.

[Annie10]

@findeight

Move the horse ASAP and get your stuff out immediately. Then you can dicker over the bill. I vote #1 or 2 and be done with it. But get that horse and your stuff out now. Today. Hell hath no fury like an inexperienced BO with a King complex.

Exactly what I was going to post. You already gave 30days right? Just eat the rest and get out now

[enjoytheride]

When a boarding barn I was at was imploding a lot of people left without giving notice or paying for the notice. The barn had been taking board money for months but hadn’t been riding horses, cleaning stalls, turning horses out, or feeding them. Tje people felt since the barn violated their end they were good. I gave notice and paid and they quit feeding my horse immediately so I left a few days later.

[mmeqcenter]

@trubandloki

I also feel like 30 days notice is not actually 30 days from when you decide to say something, but it works like rent, and it 30 contract days so if you pay your board on the first of the month, your 30 days is an actual payment period, so in this case your notice would be about 45 days.

This has not been my experience at all. When I rented, and when I boarded, 30 days notice always meant 30 days. If you give notice on November 15, you owe a prorated amount through December 15.
Unless otherwise specified in the contract, of course.

Assuming OP orally agreed to give 30 days notice when new BO asked, and gave actual 30 days notice, I would say the right thing to do is pay the prorated amount through the 30 days, no matter when the horses is moved.

[OverandOnward]

@trubandloki

I also feel like 30 days notice is not actually 30 days from when you decide to say something, but it works like rent, and it 30 contract days so if you pay your board on the first of the month, your 30 days is an actual payment period, so in this case your notice would be about 45 days.

It depends on how the contract is written.

Rent contracts (human habitation) are written that way because the entire rental market needs a standard moving day for tenants to be out of one place and directly into the next.

Mid-month moves are done, of course, frequently, when a tenant can line up their move. But how hard would it be for everyone to have to select the next place based on moving day, so you have a place for your furniture and stuff at the new place, as soon as you move out of the old one. Without renting storage and moving twice – out of the old place and into storage, and out of storage into the new place.

Horse boarding usually has more flexibility, because horses don’t have furniture. (It just seems to us owners as if they do.) Most barns can work out a space somewhere when the availability of the next stall doesn’t line up on dates.

Some board barns are less concerned about having a vacant period for a stall. They may be ok to have a boarder leave with little or no notice.

[jvanrens]

@OverandOnward

It depends on how the contract is written.

But the OP doesn’t have an actual signed contract.

[OverandOnward]

@jvanrens

@OverandOnward

It depends on how the contract is written.

But the OP doesn’t have an actual signed contract.

I was answering a theoretical situation, not directly pertaining to OP’s situation. An area in which I have management experience.

I explained why rent contracts are written the way they are written, and how that differs from horse boarding.

Question quoted …

@trubandloki

I also feel like 30 days notice is not actually 30 days from when you decide to say something, but it works like rent, and it 30 contract days so if you pay your board on the first of the month, your 30 days is an actual payment period, so in this case your notice would be about 45 days.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@Horsegirl_s_Mom

Oral contracts are enforceable in California. And assent can be manifested through conduct. Verbal Contracts - Enforceable? | Stimmel Law

The issue here is that the boarder said she was giving 30-day notice, which seems to indicate agreement to the FB’s 30-day notice requirement.

I think a small claims court would require her to pay through the 30 days. On the other hand, FB might not bother to pursue it.

This. An oral agreement can be enforceable.

Other than that… what everyone else said. Move the horse, and pay whatever OP needs to pay to satisfy 30 days of board, from the date on which OP actually gave notice.

And that’s the end of it. This stuff happens with horses, unfortunately . If you can afford to pay out for 30 days… just do it. Horse world is small, and it’s the best way to leave a place. Even a crummy one, who doesn’t deserve the courtesy involved because they violated their side of the boarding agreement.

[dotneko]

When I was in MA, my contract stated board was 1st of month. I even stated that notice given any day but the 1st - say the 15 th, meant that 6 weeks notice was given. I had one boarder try to leave prior to their time with no notice. I called the local police department and had them come to the farm while I held a copy of the boarding agreement.
In MA, boarding horses is equivalent to having a mechanics lien on your car (its even in the MA general laws). Just like you cannot come to an auto body shop with a spare set of keys and drive off without paying, you cannot just leave with your horse. A bailment for hire.
The police told her she could not leave without paying. Her recourse would be to later take me to small claims court. She paid and did not pursue it.
Always read your contract

[Aussie_2020]

Whoa, that’s…

[tabula_rashah]

I would just leave. FB sounds like a bully with a chip on their shoulder about dressage riders. If your original agreement was with the owner and not FB, the owner and FB can work it out between them

[outerbanks77]

@dotneko

Just like you cannot come to an auto body shop with a spare set of keys and drive off without paying, you cannot just leave with your horse. A bailment for hire.

How does that work with taking the horse to shows or the vet?

OP, I agree with leaving ASAP. I was just going to add that you should get pics of your stall, any tack storage space, etc. when you vacate. With all the charges, I could see them trying to bill you for cleaning or damages as well.

[trubandloki]

@outerbanks77

How does that work with taking the horse to shows or the vet?

I would assume that most people taking the time to take their horse to a show or a vet are up to date on their board bill.

[outerbanks77]

That is what I would assume, but the way it was written made it sound like the horse has a lien against it due to being boarded. It doesn’t help enforce the 30-day notice, especially if it doesn’t coincide with the monthly board due date. If I give 30 days notice in the middle of the month, I’m within my rights to take horse off property for the rest of the month. Property owner wouldn’t know if I was ghosting on the balance due for the 30 days (half board for the following month).

Have also known people who show a lot and are in collections, not paying bills, getting utilities turned off, etc. So I wouldn’t count on showing as an indicator of someone who pays their bills.

[SillyHorse]

@Horsegirl_s_Mom

Oral contracts are enforceable in California.

My understanding is that if there is a signed written contract, that’s it. Nothing verbal beyond that is enforceable.

[SpicyPRE]

@dotneko

In MA, boarding horses is equivalent to having a mechanics lien on your car (its even in the MA general laws). Just like you cannot come to an auto body shop with a spare set of keys and drive off without paying, you cannot just leave with your horse. A bailment for hire.
The police told her she could not leave without paying. Her recourse would be to later take me to small claims court. She paid and did not pursue it.
Always read your contract

And that is state dependent. In my state a horse can not be held if an owner wants to move it, regardless of whether $$ is owed or not. That becomes a civil matter.

[tabula_rashah]

I would 100% NEVER sign a boarding contract that gave a BO power like this

[axl]

@tabula_rashah aren’t you in MD? Because (at least 20 years ago) that didn’t have to be in the contract. It’s a law.

[enjoytheride]

The barn I mentioned tried padlocking horses in stalls, padlocking all the gates, and dropping trailers in front of the driveway. The police were there SEVERAL TIMES allowing boarders to remove their horses. DO NOT ASSUME That what works in Dotneko’s state works everywhere. I gave my notice and we weren’t able to get trailers in the property so I rode my horse off the property. Returned to a mostly naked and very drunk BO cussing me out. It was super.

I do not even understand why someone couldn’t leave “before their time” Frankly, situations like this are why people go to “lessons” and never come back then drop a check in the mail.