Horse Half-Lease Agreement: Fill & Download for Free

It can work very well if the terms are clearly laid out in the beginning.Some of the happiest horses I have known were half-leased by people who lavished love, care, attention and lots of riding on them. Some of the happiest people I have known have been those half-leasing a horse when they had not the resources to own one.There are some good sample half-lease agreements on line. They include such important details as the days the lease covers; who pays what percentage of board, vet (including serious episodes like colic or long-term lameness), farrier and other care; who pays for feed, hay, etc. Tack use should be clarified -- I have seen one disaster when an inexperienced half-lessor used a badly fitting saddle on the horse and laid him up for months.Training goals should also be discussed, and perhaps contractualized. It usually is preferable if all lessors/owners use the same trainer. Mutually agreed activities -- shows, trail rides, competitions -- should be discussed and agreed upon.Communication and clarity are the key elements. I would start with a short-term lease and extend/alter it at its end. Don't let disagreements fester, and for heaven's sake stay away from barn gossip! There are few things more damaging.Gosh, as I write this I am seeing the happy faces of the people and horses whose relationship was created through a half-lease. I encourage you to find the right horse, the right owner and go for it.

For some it is because they are comfortable where they are and it would be difficult for them to find new living arrangements.I’ve seen some comments about people feeling like they should be able to own the place after paying a certain amount over the years— I can sort of get that mindset, but ultimately, they are not the ones paying property tax & the deed is not in their name.I have personal experience with tenants-from-hell who felt entitled to my family’s home & property. I think it comes down to them just being selfish scumbags. I suspect they thought my family was rich because my father risked his life in Vietnam to be able to get an education & busted his ass to get a good job and worked overtime without even getting paid for it.Our lease agreement stated that we were going to move back in to the house when we were transferred back from overseas and that they could live there in the meantime— paying a pittance (less than $70/month) plus utilities— while they built a house on their own property half a mile away. We ended up stuck overseas longer than we’d planned and the govt would not let us transfer back for many years. The tenants only paid rent for the first couple of years but they failed to uphold most of their end of the bargain.We later found out they were using our house and property for growing & selling drugs, dogfights, & other illegal activities. They did over $60k worth of damage to the place & we never saw a dime of it. It was bad enough that they screwed us over like that- thinking we were just going to give them our house & land (we were still paying the mortgage and paying property tax & insurance the whole time). One of them actually told me she thought we were going to let them keep it. I don’t know in what world they thought that we would let them when that wasn’t the agreement.It was bad enough that they were such slimeballs to wreck the place, but they amped up the scumbag factor by retaliating after we moved back. They made copies of our keys so they could enter the house, go through our stuff, steal stuff, and do who knows what so I changed the locks. They then kicked the door in (breaking the doorframe), cut our phone jacks, & stole more stuff. They peppered our driveway with nails & screws to pop our tires. We suspect they killed our horse and poisoned our dogs but could never prove it. They continued to come back for YEARS to steal from us and bother us.I think the key is “entitled”. Some people feel that they are owed things. Like there are people who are wealthy/powerful who think that because of their status, they should be able to do whatever they want or get whatever they want. Or people who have low income who think that people with higher income (not necessarily rich people) somehow owe them & should give them things or that it’s ok to steal from them.

She threatened to sue me.A little background information—I was in my first year of grad school, having graduated in May. I had lived in the dorms for my entire undergraduate time, as I did not have a car so being on campus and having access to the dorm cafeterias was vital. I did NOT want to be the only grad student in the dorm, however, and was desperate to find a roommate for an apartment to reduce the cost, as having an apartment to myself was a little beyond my budget.I was initially going to share an apartment with a girl that I knew, and we had signed the lease together in the spring, for a one-year lease term to begin with the summer session. Then suddenly, a few weeks before the end of the semester, the other girl told me that she wouldn’t be able to share the apartment with me because she was getting married. She added that the manager of the apartment complex had agreed to let her out of the lease, and that they would release me from it as well if I wished.The problem was, I was already registered for the summer session, I had to live somewhere, I didn’t want to live in the dorm, and it might have even been too late to secure a dorm room. I had to advertise for a roommate and hope for the best.I got one answer to the ad. I met the girl, (whom I shall hereafter refer to as RM rather than typing “my roommate” over and over) she seemed OK, and I agreed to have her as a roommate, with a couple of conditions. RM had a car, so she was supposed to provide me transportation from time to time. Not on demand, you understand, but take me along when she was going to the grocery store, shopping mall, etc. The apartment was adjacent to the campus, so walking to class was not a problem, but the nearest grocery store was a mile away, which is quite a long way to walk carrying heavy grocery sacks. I was expecting to get a ride somewhere perhaps twice a week—once to the grocery store and once somewhere else. The nearest shopping mall, and most other things worth going to, were several miles away. In return, she would get to use my kitchen ware (dishes, utensils, pots and pans, etc.) and the TV in the living room, since she did not have any of these things. I thought it was a reasonable trade-off, and she seemed agreeable to it. She was to move in in the fall, so I had the apartment to myself that summer.Well, once RM moved in, she forgot all about her half of the agreement. I think she drove me to the grocery maybe twice in four months, and to the shopping mall once. The rest of the time, I had to walk to the store and carry everything back. I had to limit my purchases to just what I could carry, so I had to go every two or three days. On several occasions, she walked right past me as I was in the living room watching TV, without saying a word, then came back a while later with groceries. When I would ask why she didn’t offer to take me, she would say she didn’t know I needed to go to the store, and that I didn’t ask to go. Well, I didn’t ask because I didn’t know she was going to the store. She might have been going to a class or to her boyfriend’s place. She, however, had no problem with using my dishes and then leaving them dirty in the sink. She never washed anything, and so I had to wash her mess so I could use my own stuff. She would leave pans half full of oatmeal to dry up and get gummy. She would take dishes and silverware and cookware to her boyfriend’s apartment and “forget” to bring them back. She would kick me off the TV when there was a show she wanted to watch. She never could seem to pay her bills on time. Everything (electricity, water, cable, telephone) was in my name, since I had moved in first. I would ask her to pay her half to me so I would have enough money to pay the whole bill, but she was nearly always late. I would always have to pay the whole bill myself, since I didn’t want to have services cut off or be hit with a late fee, and then wait for RM to pay me for her half, sometimes for a week or more. She claimed she didn’t have enough money when the bills were actually due, which was pretty ironic considering she was always bragging about how wealthy her family was. It must have been at least somewhat true, too, as she had brought her horse with her to college. Yes, RM had a thoroughbred riding horse that was kept at a stable nearby, and she competed in equestrian events. The only bill that wasn’t a problem was the rent. The arrangement was that each of us would pay half the monthly rent in the office at the beginning of the month, so if she was late with that, the management knew exactly who was prompt in paying and who was not. I never could figure how she had enough money to pay to board a horse, but couldn’t pay her bills on time, or, for that matter, just have an apartment of her own.Well, about the end of the fall semester, I had decided to transfer to a different school so I needed to move out and I informed RM of my decision. Her reply was “you have to find someone to take over your half of the lease or I’ll sue you!” I advertised for a replacement, and got a reply. I met the girl, she seemed nice, so I tried to arrange for her to meet RM and see the apartment. I day and time was set, and on the appointed date RM took off shortly before the other girl was supposed to come by (an “emergency”, according to RM). The girl liked the apartment, but naturally she wanted to meet the person she would be rooming with if she took it. A second time was set, and a second “emergency” arose causing RM to once again ditch shortly before the appointed time. Meanwhile, RM is still threatening to sue me for not finding a replacement for me. Finally, I set a third time, for a time when I figured RM would probably be home, and didn’t tell RM about it. The girl came by, RM was indeed home at the time, and so she was unable to get out of meeting the new potential roommate. I could tell RM was ticked off about it. No doubt she was hoping to have the apartment to herself (or have her boyfriend move in) and only pay half the rent.Well, RM agreed to the new roommate, probably because the other girl mentioned that she had a TV and other things that RM didn’t have, and I moved out after the end of the semester. I had to ask several times for all my dishes and silverware and cookware back. I got most of it back, but was still short several pieces of flatware. It had been an intact set of flatware to start with—eight of everything—so I knew exactly what was missing. When I left, I took every single thing that I had brought—dishes, flatware, cookware, the TV, the telephones (this was 1986), the shower curtain, the bathroom rug. I was not going to leave one bit of anything for her that she had not provided herself.