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Helping a neighbor or a member of the community feels good until it starts to feel like your kindness is taken as a weakness.

This homeowner found that out after agreeing to rent part of a barn to someone who needed space for two horses.

Before the horses ever arrived, they agreed the horse owner would build the stalls and take care of anything the animals needed. But the plan started falling apart almost immediately.

The horses showed up before the stalls were finished, and the homeowner soon discovered that parts of the property had been torn apart without permission.

And what’s worse is that even after several conversations, the repairs never seemed to get done.

Now the homeowner has to decide whether it’s finally time to ask the horses’ owner to leave.

Read on to see what you think she should do.

WIBTA for evicting horses from my barn?

I moved to Vermont about a year and a half ago. We bought some property so I can breed goats, and it came with more barn space than we needed.

Six months ago, someone came up asking if we had any space to keep two horses. He was keeping them on some family property, but they needed space for FFA projects. I thought it would be a good way to build community, so we agreed and charged $100 per horse to use the barn, our big pasture, and store his horse trailer.

The property isn’t fitted for horses, so he agreed that he would be responsible for building his stalls and anything they specifically need. Anything that we both use would be my responsibility. I made sure he was aware that I would be using the pen that was already built to house male goats I’d be getting that winter.

It all started when he moved the horses to the property unprepared.

The issues started when he moved the horses onto the property without having the stalls built.

He wouldn’t bring the horses in without stalls because they fight in small spaces, so they had to live with no shelter for a couple weeks in winter when we get a ton of snow and constant freezing temperatures.

I talked to him, and he said he didn’t have anywhere to stall them in the meantime, so this was the best he could do.

Once he started building the pens, he used a mini excavator to clear out the bedding to replace it with sand. The excavator didn’t fit through by the goat pen, so he tore it all down without telling me.

When she found out, she confronted him.

The only reason I found out was because I noticed the horses weren’t in the pasture, so I went to see if he finished the stalls. I reminded him I needed that pen, and he assured me he’d rebuild it ASAP.

I offered to be the one to rebuild it if he bought the lumber, but he refused. A few months went by, and I missed my window for breeding.

Then, I noticed what I thought was a snowbank was actually a big compost pile they started right where we’re supposed to plant this spring.

At this point, I was unable to make money from my goats this year since I couldn’t sell kids or the soap and was in danger of losing income from being able to make sunflower oil.

After the horses broke out, she had to set some boundaries.

Their horses broke out and were running down the highway one afternoon. I let him know where the fence needed to be fixed. He said he didn’t have time because he was going on vacation out of the country in a couple days and that the ratchet strap was good enough.

I put my foot down and told him he needed to get his horses secure before he left. I talked to him and sent him a text about what needed to be fixed by May 15th and that he’d need to leave or pay higher rent, and I would take care of managing and fixing everything if he couldn’t get it done.

He did half the work about a week or so after I had the talk with him but hasn’t made any progress since.

Yesterday he texted, inviting us to a horse pull this weekend, and said that because of it he can’t finish everything on time and would try to do it the next weekend. This is where my husband and I differ. For me, it’s disrespect. My husband feels like pushing it off another couple days isn’t a big deal.

WIBTA?

Yikes! It’s easy to see why she’s questioning this. That guy is a little out of line.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit think she should handle him and his horses.

Here’s someone who thinks she’s mistreating herself.

For this reader, both parties are at fault.

And get it in writing.

Great point.

She needs to have one more conversation with him and make sure they’re both on the same page.

Also, if these agreements aren’t already in writing, they should be. It will leave a lot less room for misunderstandings in the future.

At this point, the situation has already gone on long enough. She’s losing money, and the horses deserve better. So, if another conversation doesn’t solve the problem, then it’s probably time to hire an attorney and find out what her options are.

As for her husband, he may not think waiting another few days is a big deal, but those horses already escaped once. That’s a serious liability, and it only takes one accident for something like this to end very badly.