Expert: Ray A Miller - 10/26/2010

Question
For the 2008 and 2009 year I kept my horses at a friend’s house. When the said friend offered to let me keep the horses on their pasture I asked how much hay would cost. They said don’t worry about it we have plenty. I offered to babysit their kids or clean their house as some form of payment and they again said to not worry about it. My husband and I both worked for the company our friends owned at the time. I moved my horses off their property in the winter of 2009 and had a falling out with the company. My husband recently got laid off from the company due to lack of work and disagreement with the owners. They sent me a bill today from their company for the 2 years I kept my horses at their house. On the bill was a note that if not paid by November 1, 2010 it will be turned over to collections. Can they send me to collections? We never had a written contract of payment for horse boarding so I’m not really sure how they came up with the monthly amount they would be charging me. Not to mention my horses have now been off their property for ten months. Can the company legally send me to collections over a personal matter I had with the owners?

Answer
I believe you are going to need and attorney's help with this one.  I believe that before they can put something like this on your credit, they will have to take you to small claims court.  

Again, I would seed the advise of an attorney on this.  This is a little out side of my area of knowledge.  Thank you.