Do you have unauthorised horses grazing on your land? As specialist…

Horse Bailiffs

…we can help!

The fast, cost-effective nationwide solution from

Specialist and Equine Bailiffs Ltd

The Animal & Horse Bailiffs

Our Directors have over 40 years of experience as animal and horse bailiffs, dealing with the removal of fly grazing or abandoned animals from the land.

Our experienced team can deal with all the issues for you. Typically, where a client has an issue with abandoned animals the process starts with a request for a quote If an instruction is sent there will be a site visit by our horse bailiffs staff and together with our highly trained specialist team we will plan your operation,

The Legal position

We always recommend you should get legal advice from an experienced and qualified lawyer.  Specialist and Equine Bailiffs Ltd or its employees, are not qualified or insured to give legal advice and all clients should satisfy themselves of their own legal position before instructing us.

If you need a solicitor that specialises in this field please ask and we can recommend one from our panel of approved solicitors.  Our understanding of the legal position based on our experience and what we have been told is as follows.

When someone abandons horses on your land or fly grazes them without your permission the situation is the same as when someone leaves goods on your land you become what is known as an involuntary bailee and you become responsible for those animals until they are either reunited with their owner or the responsibility is passed to someone else.

The British Horse Society guides this subject if you want to do this yourself however it can become very complicated. If you go down this route will need to put the appropriate risk assessments in place, arrange for horse transport, arrange for insurance, arrange for a vet report, arrange for people to round the horses up, security, arrange any movement orders, have microchipped and passported and finally find a place to rehome the horse/s. Alternatively, you can use a professional equine bailiff company like The Horse Bailiffs who will manage the whole process for you legally and have rehoming arrangements in place, they also have experience in these matters.

On the British Horse Society web site, they explain YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

https://www.bhs.org.uk/advice-and-information/the-law/abandonment-and-fly-grazing

“You are responsible for any injury caused to the horse(s) whilst it is on your land. You are also responsible for providing adequate and appropriate food and water, shelter, and veterinary care under sections 4 and 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. However, you cannot be held liable for any injury or neglect caused to the horse(s) before it came to be on your land. It is advisable to call a vet when the horse first appears on your land so that the condition of the horse may be checked and recorded.”

If you have already served notice it will not be necessary to serve again, however, either way, a risk assessment visit is essential as well as a horse welfare assessment which must be done before any horse can be moved.

The best practice is that the notices and welfare of the horses are checked again after 2 days which you could do, or for a fee, we can do for you. Our bailiff can then if required provide and complete witness statement should it be required in any legal dispute.

The horse/s can be detained on or off-site immediately

We recommend that to lessen your liability they are moved ASAP, but we can serve a notice first and wait to see if they are moved by their owners if it is what you require.

If they are not moved or not claimed after being moved, then after 96 hours (not including Saturdays and Sundays) their ownership reverts to the landowner.

 We can then provide a disposal service the costs of which varies with what you require us to do with them, their sex, condition and the risk associated with the particular case. A full quote will be given and agreed upon before any further action is started.

The normal procedure would be as follows.

• Conduct a full Health & Safety risk assessment if required Serve the required 96-hour notices
• If you want the moving team to arrange for a horse welfare expert to check the horses are safe to transport 
• Detain the horses on or off-site depending upon instructions.
• Inform relevant authorities.
• Photograph horses and notices in place.
• We will then deal with any email enquires that come as a result of the notices.
• If horses have not been removed /claimed after the statutory time limit, the ownership of the horses reverts to the landowner.
• You may then instruct us further and we will arrange for the horses to be removed from the site or if already moved to be either moved to a new owner, livery storage, given to a horse charity, sold at public auction or in some cases, to be humanely destroyed.

1. Serve the required 96 hour notices.
2. Conduct a full Health & Safety risk assessment – check the horses have adequate food and water.
3. Detain the horses on site or, if instructed, remove to a safe location.
4. Inform relevant authorities.
5. Photograph horses and notices in place.
6. Our bailiffs will then deal with any telephone calls that come as a result of the notices.
7. If the horses have not been removed after the statutory time limit, the ownership of the horses reverts to the landowner.
8. The landlord may then instruct us further and we will arrange for the horses to be removed from site to either a new owner, livery storage, given to a horse charity or in some cases, to be humanely destroyed.