Please help me with fair livery charges!

[jocesar]

I'm horseless at the moment- have 2 young kids instead! I'm lucky enough to have stables at home plus 4 acres and a ménage. Someone has approached me to keep their horses here- using the stables, a tack room, the fields and the arena just occasionally. I know this person and he's genuine.
He has offered £25 per horse per week for the stables and grazing and he will pay for anything that his horses damage. He will also poo pick and remove the muck heap. Is this a fair fee to charge? He's probably going to have 3 horses. Stables are excellent and 3 smallish paddocks are sheltered and flat.

What do you think? Any other advice?
TIA

We pay 65 pounds a week (actually we pay 850 a quarter) for 4 stables and 7 1/2 acres. We get electricity and water for this plus they put nitrogen on the fields each Spring and the hedges are cut. They also sort out the muck heap.

Really depends where you are in the country. I'm in Surrey where stabling is fairly expensive and DIY for one stable ranges from about £25pw up to around £40pw on the best yards. I'd say its a fair enough price if you know the person, know they won't get on your nerves and will look after your property. Only thing you might consider is water and electricity costs?

I was planning on including water and electricity in the cost- is that too generous?

no, think it all sounds quite reasonable

I think it depends where in the country you are, in my neck of the woods, that would be cheap. Also it seems one pays a premium to be free of livery yard politics etc.

How is he going to keep the horses, that's quite tight on the stocking density. Might be fine now, but could be awful in winter. Who will be responsible for field maintenance, and would he actually do it/organise it being done?

Of course, if you know him and are confident he's genuine, then that's a different matter. However I think most of us have been caught out at some stage in our lives by so called friends who turned out to be anything but...

You may want to check whether you will need planning permission for change of use, as far as I understand it you will have to pay business rates on the stables and may have to pay tax on the rental income all of which may make it an enormous hassle.