Forget billing the Uncle…give him the horse back and tell him “good luck”.
If Uncle is pushing for 50% of the sales price, have your boyfriend sell the horse to you for a very low amount, give him 50% of that and then make up the difference to boyfriend by paying some of his bills for a while or whatever.
I’d not buy the horse without a clear “title” from the uncle, period. That there are people here saying that the papers don’t matter and to just sell the horse and say “screw you” to the uncle is a little disturbing. Sure, the papers don’t really matter, but the lack of a legal transfer of ownership from the uncle to the boyfriend DOES.
Figure out what the uncle needs to be happy signing a bill of sale and/or transferring the papers and go from there. And good lord, get the same for the rest of the horses he gave to your boyfriend. $2000 for actual transfers of ownership on all of them and no family discord would probably be worth it!
Or, seriously, just get creative with it. Pay your boyfriend $1000 for the horse on the bill of sale and “gift” him another $3k.
[QUOTE=Simkie;7578900]
I’d not buy the horse without a clear “title” from the uncle, period. That there are people here saying that the papers don’t matter and to just sell the horse and say “screw you” to the uncle is a little disturbing. Sure, the papers don’t really matter, but the lack of a legal transfer of ownership from the uncle to the boyfriend DOES.
Figure out what the uncle needs to be happy signing a bill of sale and/or transferring the papers and go from there. And good lord, get the same for the rest of the horses he gave to your boyfriend. $2000 for actual transfers of ownership on all of them and no family discord would probably be worth it!
Or, seriously, just get creative with it. Pay your boyfriend $1000 for the horse on the bill of sale and “gift” him another $3k.[/QUOTE]
The papers don’t matter in the sense they don’t prove who owns the horse and as they don’t intend to race her or breed her for racing babies, they’re pretty much irrelevant (she can’t show in some TB classes, but oh, well.) The lack of any written proof that the uncle gave the horse away is the sticking point. And now she says the BF told the uncle he’d give him money because he felt sorry and now the uncle’s “taking advantage”? Whoops. They have a verbal contract. The uncle would be a fool to back down now.
I would NOT try any cutesy stunt like selling for pennies or a fraction of what a third-party appraiser would consider her fair market value, or hiding money as a “gift.” That’s fraud. If he sues, that will not go well for the BF and OP. The cost of training isn’t relevant if the uncle is arguing that he gave the horse to the BF to train to sell and they’d split the money, especially since now we hear that the BF said he’d give the uncle money. Pay him half the (real) purchase price and consider it a life lesson about vague verbal contracts.
You are buying this horse for a reasonable price.–AND that fact should not be out here. Give the Uncle his half, get the papers,and get into no more similar situations.
[QUOTE=danceronice;7579254]
The papers don’t matter in the sense they don’t prove who owns the horse and as they don’t intend to race her or breed her for racing babies, they’re pretty much irrelevant (she can’t show in some TB classes, but oh, well.) The lack of any written proof that the uncle gave the horse away is the sticking point. And now she says the BF told the uncle he’d give him money because he felt sorry and now the uncle’s “taking advantage”? Whoops. They have a verbal contract. The uncle would be a fool to back down now.
I would NOT try any cutesy stunt like selling for pennies or a fraction of what a third-party appraiser would consider her fair market value, or hiding money as a “gift.” That’s fraud. If he sues, that will not go well for the BF and OP. The cost of training isn’t relevant if the uncle is arguing that he gave the horse to the BF to train to sell and they’d split the money, especially since now we hear that the BF said he’d give the uncle money. Pay him half the (real) purchase price and consider it a life lesson about vague verbal contracts.[/QUOTE]
ALL you need to show TB classes is a TIP number. You can get that from the jockey club if you know her registered name, no problem.
Most WB registries will accept a registered name and pedigree, they MIGHT require DNA to prove that the horse is who you say she is, but they wont’ require the actual papers (at least the Old. NA, RPSI, BWP etc).
I’ve shown horses at the TB shows that I don’t have papers on, and one with no papers that wasn’t tattoo’ed. As long as you have that TIP paper from the jockeyclub then you are fine.
OP said that her boyfriend agreed to give uncle some $ because he needed it. Then BF should live up to what he said he would do for uncle. Make sure you exchange papers, bill of sale and money all at the same time or nothing exchanges hands. next time your bf gets a 'free" horse have something stated in writing.
The vet bill and farrier bill and feed bills are all you need to “prove” the horse was yours these past 5 years, plus the OP’s testimony. I agree that the uncle can be invoiced for the costs if he wants to retain ownership. If the uncle thinks he owned the horse this past 5 years and the nephew was training him, then the nephew can send him a trainer’s fee, a well.
If I was the nephew, I would invoice the uncle for costs including my training of the horse. If Uncle wants to trade it off for the papers, so be it. Otherwise, nephew is taking the monies owed him out of the sale of the horse. The end.
Oh, not The End. Make sure Uncle signs the papers over to the new owner, or he’ll be pulling this fast one on the next owner too.
Okay, read the last few posts. Give uncle half of the amount the horse was purchased for and get a receipt if you can. Your cancelled check once he deposits it should suffice. Lesson learned.
