Hi all, would like your opinions /advice
Our horse we are selling recently failed a level 2 pre purchase vet check that a potential buyers vet did on her . We are very surprised and upset and have a specialist vet coming to do further diagnostics ie X-Rays etc .
However this lady has now come back at us threatening legal action as she wants us to pay for her costs of coming to see our horse with 2 others including their trainer and the vet check totalling over 1000 as she stayed in a flash hotel for the night and went out for meals plus her diesel etc
I have never heard of this , she’s saying we lied and knew our mare was lame (We never thought she was lame and has no history of lameness apart from 4 years ago where she was out for 6 weeks with a nasty abbesses )Which is ridiculous we sent her very recent ridden videos of the mare before she came to See her and they also rode her twice before asking to buy her and never once said she was lame !!!
Our mare is 11 passed all flexions but was uneven on a 10m circle on concrete the vet marked it as 2/5 lameness
My question is does she have a right to claim this ?
Doesn’t sound like she has a legitimate claim from your side of the story. One can’t predict a PPE failure of a sound horse.
what if she had come and hated the horse?
Cost of doing business…
It’s just ridiculous to us as if they had thought the horse wasn’t sound why come back for 2nd ride and agree to buy her subject to vet check
That’s not how it works unless there was some contract to the contrary.
The PPE is always on the potential buyer. Isn’t it? I’ve NEVER heard of a buyer being reimbursed for their costs of looking at/evaluating a horse.
Let 'em go for it. They rode the horse once based on your last post, correct? They had no indication of a problem either. Come on.
The other thing is they tried a horse in our area weeks before that they didn’t like however never went after that seller for reimbursement
Never heard of that.
PPE is last step in buying a horse.
Customary is buyer agrees if the horse passes PPE, the horse is theirs at the agreed previously price and the horse is the buyer’s horse from that moment on, the money in the hands of the seller as per contract.
The PPE and any cost the buyer incurs are buyer’s expenses.
All the seller has to do is present the horse for the PPE.
Having bought and sold horses that all passed their PPE, I don’t know what would happen if one didn’t, but I think it is clear that the seller doesn’t has to pay any buyer’s cost, unless previously determined by some kind of odd contract.
They rode our horse once then stayed over night rode her again the next day 1 hour before vet check
[QUOTE=Bronson77;8234222]
They rode our horse once then stayed over night rode her again the next day 1 hour before vet check[/QUOTE]
Very out there to demand you cover their cost of looking at horses, cheeky, really.
There was no contract . We had no idea there was a problem as they were lovely to us as they left and wanted to know how diagnostics went. it wasn’t till I received a nasty phone call four days later from her when she said she wanted full reimbursement of her costs for coming to look at our horse and the ppe
I have also sold and bought horses before this is unfortunately the 1st time iv had one I’m selling fail a pre purchase check hence the reason I’m asking for opinions as this is all very strange to me
No, that’s ridiculous (unless there was some agreement otherwise). Horses “fail” vet checks all the time. Further, horses can be sound one day and sore the next without anything nefarious having happened (abcess, anyone)?
If she wants to allege fraud, tell her you’ll see her in court.
Nah, no way, no how. Remain polite but firm – PPE expenses, including secondary expenses like fuel, motel, meals – are on the potential buyer. Standard practice. Don’t let her make you even question yourself, which is what she is trying to do. Don’t get drawn into defending yourself on a standard business practice.
Hope the specialist figures out what’s going on with your mare and that it is nothing serious.
Oh, and what’s a “level 2” PPE? I’ve never heard that term before (though have vetted a bunch of horses).
Remember to say the least you can in answering, in case they are crazy enough to want to go to court for this.
A very, very short response, no excuses necessary, just stating the facts, should suffice.
I also would get a second opinion from another vet, see how those compare.
I would not mention any more you may do or not to those buyers.
Since the sale to them is off and their demands on the crazy side, the less you involve them now, the better.
It’s was a level 1 and 2 vet check so flexions and lunging on a circle no X-rays or rigorous testing etc
Your potential buyers could pursue this in court but unless they have irrefutable proof that you intended to commit fraud, I’d say they are out of luck… I would not cave (pay for anything). It’s the cost associated with finding a suitable mount. Stand your ground!
Also, how do you know it failed? Because she told you? Don’t ask her for it, but realize she will have to produce a vet report for court. If she DID sue you, it would be available for you and your attorney to look at. You don’t know, the vet may have seen something which wasn’t so very terrible but they didn’t like it. Who knows. You don’t, they aren’t interested in your horse any more, so don’t divulge anything to them at all.
I would basically just say what Rallycairn said “Nah, no way, no how. Remain polite but firm – PPE expenses, including secondary expenses like fuel, motel, meals – are on the potential buyer. Standard practice. Don’t let her make you even question yourself, which is what she is trying to do. Don’t get drawn into defending yourself on a standard business practice.”
We have vet report as she emailed it to us as she says it proves our horse was lame at the vet check the only bad thing is says is on degree of lameness the mare was 2/5 lame on circle on hard ground and that it could be an ongoing issue … However that vet has no knowledge of us or our horses history and did not do any X-rays etc .
A flexion test is, IMHO and the opinion of may vets I’ve used in the past, a poor representation of a horse’s overall soundness. It may be an indicator of a potential problem but when there is no problem in work and nothing on rads, a flexion is thrown out the window.
