NSW Unfit Hose After Purchase - Contact Office of Fair Trading?

[nose]

I purchased a horse from a well-known NSW breeder in April 2016 paying by bank cheque for the purchase. No written contract of sale, purchase made from the Horsezone ad and the seller just happened to be the mother of our local vet.

After 2 weeks from purchase date, the horse began with severe head tossing and we have tried several remedies and riders to alleviate the problem. No luck. The horse has become un-rideable and we had to send him to a very experienced rider who took him to another vet to get medicated for nasal discomfort believed to be causing the symptom of head tossing, rides him with a nose band, and together with the drugs seems to be able to ride him to some extent.

He was sold as an educated horse to introductory level with videos and pictures to prove. The current rider says he is green, unsuitable for my daughter's level and only worth about $5000 of the $12500 I paid for him last year, if I can sell him at all as head tosser syndrome is not very saleable.

I have been in contact with the previous owner since April 2016 advising of his ongoing issues, I asked her for help in getting him right again and she refuses as she has no time and has family issues. Given his last assessment, as he is not fit for purpose, I have now asked her to refund and take him back under purchase's guarantee. She refuses saying that he was fine when she sold him to me.

What rights do I have under purchaser's guarantee? I have a receipt from her with her ABN on it, her business is a partnership entity with her husband and they are run mixed primary production with horse breeding included.

Should I start a claim with Office of Fair Trading?

 

[Lance]

Hi,

You should call Fair Trading and get their input. I'm not any kind of expert when it comes to horses, but is head tossing something that just comes on like that, or is it something that could have been hidden from you at purchase?

I'm not suggesting this is the case but with a child who is a vet, it might be something that could have been masked. Something to think about. I'm pretty sure you have the same guarantees as with any purchase, I'm just not sure if that extends to head tossing.

To qualify that, if you bought a horse and later found that it had cancer, the previous owner couldn't be expected to know the horse had cancer. So I'm just not 100%. It was a very short period of time before the head tossing was identified and ACL guarantees would say that the animal should suitable (reliable / healthy) for a reasonable amount of time. I would definitely talk to fair trading.

If you don't have any success you could try to recover through small claims.

 

[nose]

Hi,

You should call Fair Trading and get their input. I'm not any kind of expert when it comes to horses, but is head tossing something that just comes on like that, or is it something that could have been hidden from you at purchase?

I'm not suggesting this is the case but with a child who is a vet, it might be something that could have been masked. Something to think about. I'm pretty sure you have the same guarantees as with any purchase, I'm just not sure if that extends to head tossing.

To qualify that, if you bought a horse and later found that it had cancer, the previous owner couldn't be expected to know the horse had cancer. So I'm just not 100%. It was a very short period of time before the head tossing was identified and ACL guarantees would say that the animal should suitable (reliable / healthy) for a reasonable amount of time. I would definitely talk to fair trading.

If you don't have any success you could try to recover through small claims.

Thanks Lance.

I have contacted Fair Trading and they have said Consumer Law applies providing the horse was purchased from a "business". In my case the purchase was made from a person running her horse ventures under a partnership with her husband which has an ABN.

I am hoping that is enough to qualify them as a business as I suspect they run as primary producers with horse breeding as part of their farming business. In the ABN check up I can only see their names in the partnership but doesn't say what they do.

I have also found horselaw in SA who are being very helpful online in helping me assess if the horse's condition is something that may have been undisclosed but should have been disclosed, as it would have been there prior to my purchase although not necessarily evident at the time of the purchase. At this stage Consumer Law guarantee could apply as I should have been able to expect the horse to be fit for purpose long beyond the 2 weeks that it was.

The challenge is going to be that the seller claims the head tossing wasn't there before sale, and I will have to come up with proof that it was but it wasn't disclosed. Head tossing is not something that develops overnight, but it is symptomatic, which means it may not show up all the time, but set off by triggers, e.g. change of environment .

Vets are pretty useless at diagnosing a horse as a head tosser because they concentrate on treating the symptoms when they show up , and as far as I know there isnt a diagnosis for it , just that it happens when something triggers it.