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Drafting Their Own Boarding Contracts and Liability
Releases
When it
comes to drafting contracts and liability releases,
boarding facilities seem to think they can do a fine
job by borrowing someone else's or cobbling together
their own from pieces they find on the Internet. The
problem is that unlike, say, do-it-yourself electrical
wiring, the consequences of do-it-yourself legal work
are not always immediately apparent. Instead,
contracts are like life rafts - you don't realize they
have holes until you really need to use them, and
then, it's way too late! The boarding facility who
drafted its own contracts won't realize that its
liability release is woefully inadequate until it gets
sued. Or a boarder owes the stable $3,000 in back
board on a worthless horse and the stable discovers to
its extreme dismay that its contract doesn't allow it
to sell the horse or give it away, so it has to rely
on the
time-consuming and expensive state lien foreclosure
process.
Other
reasons why drafting your own contract is a bad idea.
Why not get a
boarding
contract forms package from Equine Legal Solutions instead?
For less than $150, you can rest easy knowing your
contract is enforceable, and you can benefit from
other people's experiences without having to make your
own costly mistakes. You also don't have to
worry about whether your contract is up to date - ELS
automatically sends you the updates, and for free!
Being Too Nice
As a
group, horse people are really nice, trusting folks.
So, when a boarder gets behind on board payments,
breaks the barn rules or is just downright irritating,
they tend to give that boarder second chances. And
third chances. And fourth chances. The longer a
boarding stable waits to evict a problem boarder, the
bigger the problem will become, and the harder it will
be to get rid of them.
Letting Late Payments Get Out of Control
We
hear from a LOT of boarding stables who want to know
what to do with a boarder who is past due. Often
times, the boarder owes thousands of dollars. Why wait
months to evict a boarder who isn't paying? Every day
a boarder doesn't pay is a day when the boarding
stable feeds someone else's horse for free AND loses
the opportunity to fill that horse's stall with a
paying boarder.
Being Uninsured or Underinsured
Insurance is
not just for pessimists! Boarding facilities of all
sizes need commercial liability insurance and
care, custody and control insurance. They also need to
insure their buildings and property against fire and
other damage, and they need to insure their vehicles.
For more information, see Equine Legal Solutions'
equine
insurance buying guide.
Letting Boarders Work Off
Board
With
(very) rare exceptions, allowing boarders to work off
their board just flat-out doesn't work. Most of the
time, the boarder doesn't take their obligations
seriously, isn't reliable and/or doesn't do the job to
the facility's standards. If the boarder is a
teenager, double the probability that it won't work.
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