There’s really only one person laying blame at the feet of the barn owner. But boarding is difficult enough without that kind of BS that I don’t blame you.
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This is what I’ve known a couple other barn owners to do when the client can’t pay.
I am still surprised at how the general opinion in this thread is that the vet should not have involved the barn owner regarding the unpaid bill. The last time a thread about a vet contacting the barn owner about an unpaid bill the general opinion was that it was a perfectly normal and reasonable thing to do. It was reported by the boarder that time, and they had trouble getting the vet to talk to them after the message was passed on by the BO.
Early in my horse ownership experience I was at a barn where the BO arranged for the annual vaccination appointment, and had the whole barn on one bill under their name. We were told what our share was and we paid the BO. The first problem with this being that I couldn’t access my horse’s vet records as they weren’t under my name, though I didn’t realize that at the time. We boarders realized the second problem the following year when the vet refused to come out to the farm to do vaccinations. The BO hadn’t paid the vet bill. We were lucky no one had needed emergency care.
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In your boarding scenario, the BO was responsible for paying the vet, and that was understood by the boarders, the BO, and the vet. The OP’s situation is completely different, and I’m surprised you don’t recognize that.
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I personally do think it is fine for the vet to have contacted the BO; it isn’t something I’d be fine with in a different industry, but makes sense for this one. Horses are a constant, living expense where many service providers are constantly requires (vet, chiro, farrier, feed store, etc.). These bills rack up fast and are often not recoverable if the client flat out refuses to pay. The community is small so knowing Sally Sue isn’t paying their bills is important to the community.
But, I don’t think the BO personally needs to run after payment for the vet. Owner is a grown adult who knows they have a bill. BO has asked them to pay that bill, which is all they can realistically do. I do think boarder needs to be moved along as a client for several reasons.
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I’m in the camp that this is not the responsibility of the BO to chase down, and certainly not to pay themselves.
How to proceed really depends on the BO’s current relationship with the service provider, and what they want to relationship to look like moving forward. Obviously, for the service provider to have contacted the BO, they feel the BO is in some way responsible. Which I can understand a bit, given that the BO set up the appointment and seemingly held the horse for the appointment. Without those two pieces, though, I personally consider it incredibly inappropriate for a service provider to contact the BO for non-payment of a customer. If the customer set up the appointment, customer was there for the appointment, the BO doesn’t have jack to do with the service.
I have another question though. Has the dentist reached out to the boarder regarding their outstanding bill since that first week? I do not think it is safe to assume they have.
I once had a vet visit, and the vet’s office had my credit card on file. So, vet came and went, told me the total and they’d charge the card on file. Told me this in person, as I was there for the appointment. A few months go by, I didn’t notice they never charged my card. Never got an email or phone call about an outstanding bill, until the bill was four months past due and they sent me a nastygram email about paying my outstanding bill or they won’t provide any future service. So I called to see what was going on -
Vet said you’d charge my card on file. Why didn’t you do that?
“Oh, we forgot you had a card on file.”
Why did you not send me the bill by email, right after the appointment per your standard procedure when billing clients? Or, at least after the first 30 days late?
…crickets…
If the dentist never reached out to this boarder after the week-later discussion with the BO, and has been thinking this whole time that the BO would take care of it, I’m wondering if the boarder could have maybe forgot. Obviously, they should have paid it initially upon receiving the bill. But, ish happens.
All of OverandOnward’s post is spot-on. Lots of misses here, an unfortunate situation that could have been easily prevented with better communication.
If it were me, I’d prefer to keep a good relationship with the dentist, so I’d discuss the outstanding bill with the boarder and attempt to mediate between the two parties. Any outcome other than payment by the boarder (either in full or in payments) would result in me giving them notice to leave.
In the future, I’d make sure to implement a policy that, for any service appointments boarders want me to set up and hold for, they have to have a card on file with the service provider or leave a check or cash before the appointment. Without that, I would not allow the service to proceed.
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Just my opinion - the way I read the OP, the horse owner really had no content with the dentist. The barn owner told the dentist who to do when they were there. The barn owner asked this boarder about having teeth done and then told the dentist to do them.
For this reason, it makes sense to me that the dentist is reaching out to the barn owner to get paid. Their contract for work was with the barn owner.
Do not take this wrong, I think it is very wrong of this horse owner to just not pay their bill and ignore that this bill is due. If they are having financial issues they were not expecting, they should reach out to the dentist and discuss a payment plan.
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I think you have misread the situation.
If the contract had been with the BO, there would have been no reason for the dentist’s wife to be trying to contact the boarder for payment. If the contract had been with the BO, the dentist’s wife might not have even known the boarder’s name.
This is entirely on the boarder. It’s not the BO’s responsibility at all.
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I did not missread.
It really is a very common situation.
Barn owner asks everyone if they want to use some service provider they are having in. Everyone says to the barn owner they will use them.
When the service provider shows up, their only contact is with the barn owner. The barn owner tells them what horses to do.
The service provider never talked to the horse owner.
Then the barn owner gives the service provider the contact information for the horse owner so the service provider can try to get paid.
It works 98% of the time. The horse owner pays the bill and all is great.
In this case the horse owner did not pay the bill, sent to them by the dentist that they had no previous discussions with.
Again, I do think this horse owner does owe this dentist this money, and it should not be the barn owner’s responsibility to make them a responsible person. But the reason the barn owner is in the middle is because the barn owner is who made the agreement with the dentist.
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So by your reasoning, when a fellow boarder sends a message that the vet is coming for Spring shots on a particular day and to let her (the boarder) know if you want to be included and she will let the vet know whose horses will be involved, it is now that border’s responsibility to pay the vet for everyone’s Spring shots? Yeah, I don’t think so.
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Sigh.
Did you miss the last paragraph or ignore it on purpose?
This boarder had no previous connection with this dentist.
Which is different than scheduling the vet for a barn of people who are clients with the vet.
And again:
I do think this horse owner does owe this dentist this money, and it should not be the barn owner’s responsibility to make them a responsible person. But the reason the barn owner is in the middle is because the barn owner is who made the agreement with the dentist.
Edit to add - The vets around here ask new boarders to reach out to the vets office and establish themselves as a client, prior to those spring shot sign up list appointments.
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A lot of barns I’ve been at the BO would cut a check before letting a professional go unpaid but it was also expected that if the owner wasn’t present for an appointment that a signed blank check was left (oh the trust in retrospect!). Now, most professionals take digital payment and it’s expected in a timely manner.
I understand why the pro went back through the BO but I don’t think the BO is liable. However, getting labeled as a bad barn could create service issues down the road.
Without a clear contract it’s moot but one I was at had a policy that not paying for a professional service that occurred in property also resulted in a penalty fee added in to board and after it hit a certain amount you were ask to leave. The BO valued their care team and wasn’t having a boarder damage relationships.
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I’ve been that person for a few different groups and a couple of different vets. Thankfully, the vets were smarter than the dentist in question. “We got your list, thank you. X, Y, and Z are new clients. Please have them contact us with a credit card we can keep on file so that we’re set to work on their horses on the scheduled day.”
This ALL comes back to the dentist not doing their due diligence ahead of time. The BO should not feel obligated to collect, but could maybe (gently, with a non-stick as opposed to cast iron frying pan) remind them that it is their responsibility to collect unpaid accounts, to do their best to prevent unpaid accounts, and that BO is in no way, shape, or form their collection agency.
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The barn manager very clearly told the boarder that she needed to reach out to the vet and ask them how much a dental would run if she had questions/concerns after the boarder said she wanted her horse done.
I think the whole who schedules the appointment varies by barn.
In some barns you sign up for vet care and the barn then notifies the vet of all the horses that need done.
In some barns they tell you when the vet will be out, and you need to call the vet to set things up yourself.
In some you’re on your own for calling the vet.
Option one is often easiest and preferred by a vet because they don’t have to get a phone call and time from each and every boarder. Unless they hear from someone with a special question they just do what’s on the list.
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My description of what happened to me was a comment on another comment made in this thread, and not a comment on the OP’s situation. I apologize for being so obscure that you couldn’t recognize that.
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Clarity in writing is important. Without clarity, writing becomes obscure.
However, you were clear about this:
So I’m not at all sure what your point in writing this was, if not to bolster your opinion that the BO should have some responsibility.
But, I’m not interested in going back and forth about it any more. You know what you meant to say, and I know what you wrote. They apparently are different.
Lol.
IANAL but I think you could argue that the verbal contract is between the BO and the dentist because the BO is the one who arranged the service and told the dentist to do the work on the horse. I can see why the dentist would then want the BO to facilitate payment. The BO acted as an agent in that situation and so the dentist is asking them to act as agent again in finishing the transaction.
If the BO doesn’t want to end up on this situation they should require that each border directly arrange service OR be present with payment in hand for service arranged by BO to be rendered. Or BO needs to be willing to track down a deadbeat and/or pay it herself to protect her own reputation.
In this situation I’d give the border a week to make payment and then give her notice to leave, probably whether or not she makes the payment.
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I hope you can soon find some peace with whatever is really causing your recent antagonistic posts.
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Bolding is mine. This is exactly what I would do. My parents always keep a boarder or 2 at their personal property. I do not know where OP lives but it can be difficult to get care providers to come out for smaller barns, so it is in our (I say our bc one of my horses lives there) best interest to keep the providers happy. My family would never keep a boarder on who stiffs a provider.
A different situation, but my other horse is in a full care h/j program. My trainer (who is also the BO) would 100% step in if I didn’t pay my vet/dentist/farrier bills promptly.
I’m pretty surprised about the number of people who say it’s not the BO’s business. I would absolutely consider it my business if I chose to continue to do business with a boarder who I know hasn’t paid the dentist.
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