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Hello and thank you for your question. I will be very pleased to assist you. I'm a practicing lawyer in England with over 10 years experience.
How often is livery paid at the present yard please? e.g. weekly, monthly etc?
monthly
thank you. In the absence of a written agreement detailing the period of notice that is required to be given, then English common law rules apply in relation to the notice period that is inferred by law. Common law provides that where there is no written agreement, the period of notice will be equivalent to the length of periodic payment under the contract - in other words how often you pay fees or rents or whatever the payment under a contract happens to be.
if you habitually are charged livery on a monthly basis then delivery yard owner can technically require you to give one months notice as they claim.
having said that, if there is no written contract and ambiguity as when you gave notice, whether it would be worth the livery yard owner taking the matter to court to try to claim an extra two months livery is another question altogether
it may be potentially quite a lot of effort on his part without an absolute guarantee of success to try to claim an additional two weeks delivery if you refuse to pay however if you feel sufficiently strongly about it, under the above common law rules he may be successful if you were to issue proceedings in the County Court against you
if you have not yet formally agreed a start date at the new livery yard by signing agreeing to terms you could consider ascertaining if you can delay your arrival date by two weeks in order to settle the matter. alternatively even if you have signed terms with the new livery yard all agreed terms, potentially you could consider asking if they would mind if you delayed arrival for a couple of weeks. They may be prepared to agree this in order to foster a good client relationship with you.
Is there anything above I can clarify for you?
Thank you that is very helpful - if I did decide to move her next Friday and they prevented me from doing so - can they lawfully do this.
They cannot prevent you from taking your horse off the yard as it is your property.
A pleasure. Is there anything else I can help you with?
No thanks that's great - thank you for your help
A pleasure. If I can assist any further as the situation develops please do not hesitate to revert to me
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