Disappearing pup buyer

[Baby Duck]

Never had this happen before.....

Pup was scheduled for delivery.
Made arrangements for meeting location
Buyer emails they have a funeral to attend can't meet at time location
I offer to drive pup additional 100 km for gas costs and drive to that location
Buyer a no show.....
Now a week later, multiple emails , pm on a couple sites. No contact...

Breeders out there. I've never in 25 years experienced this.
At what point would you say this pup is available again??
How long would you hold the pup for this guy ??
Would you work with this buyer in the future ??

As I said this is new grounds for me....

[dr_dog_guy]

Sounds like you need a new puppy buyer. A week with no contact is enough for me. Do you have a deposit? That might a small difference to me, but sometimes the older the puppy gets, the harder they are to place.

[WRL]

Never had this happen before.....

Pup was scheduled for delivery.
Made arrangements for meeting location
Buyer emails they have a funeral to attend can't meet at time location
I offer to drive pup additional 100 km for gas costs and drive to that location
Buyer a no show.....
Now a week later, multiple emails , pm on a couple sites. No contact...

Breeders out there. I've never in 25 years experienced this.
At what point would you say this pup is available again??
How long would you hold the pup for this guy ??
Would you work with this buyer in the future ??

As I said this is new grounds for me....

So let me get this straight.

Buyer cancelled original pickup.

Pickup was rescheduled. You went to pickup point and buyer never showed.

Its one week later and you have not heard anything"

If this is the case, pup is available and no refund for deposit.

Would I work with this person in the future? Depends on their eventual excuse when they come out of the woodwork. But probably not unless some emergency happened. It would have to be pretty big for me to consider dealing with them again.

WRL

[RookieTrainer]

This may be my inner attorney coming out, but do you have a contract with this buyer? If so, what does it say about the "events of default" and a puppy becoming available again? If there is no written agreement, what does state law say about it? Under the law in most states, a pup is a chattel, an item of personal property, and would be treated as such.

Yes, a written agreement is a PIA, and folks should do what they say. But a written agreement that said, for example, that pups would be available on X date, and any pup not picked up within Y days after that would be considered forfeited would have given you the mechanism to handle the problem?

[frontier]

This may be my inner attorney coming out, but do you have a contract with this buyer? If so, what does it say about the "events of default" and a puppy becoming available again? If there is no written agreement, what does state law say about it? Under the law in most states, a pup is a chattel, an item of personal property, and would be treated as such.

Yes, a written agreement is a PIA, and folks should do what they say. But a written agreement that said, for example, that pups would be available on X date, and any pup not picked up within Y days after that would be considered forfeited would have given you the mechanism to handle the problem?

I have a clause in my purchase contract which must be signed and sent back with the deposit which states, "Puppies will only be held past the date of nine weeks of age by prior arrangement. Seller may sell any puppy held past the age of nine weeks with Buyer forfeiting deposit and all claims to the puppy." I also have a clause that states, "Seller has the right to cancel this contract at any time before puppy pick-up (with return of buyer's deposit) if Seller deems circumstance is warranted."

These both give me the choice to return a deposit if it's a valid reason for buyer back-out and keep the deposit in circumstances like yours where the buyer just disappears and makes no effort to make contact.

[Eric Johnson]

I don't know anything about Canadian law. However, I'd bet that you'd be best served at this point if you sent them a letter detailing the events and showing that you'd gone the "extra mile" to effect the delivery. This should be an actual letter, not an email, and have some sort of proof of delivery with it. Once you're reasonably certain the letter got there, sell the puppy. All the letter does is put them on notice of your intent to sell the puppy after their failure to accept delivery in a timely fashion. If you want to really avoid any issue, refund any deposit they may have made.

[windycanyon]

I really like this. I've only had an issue come up once where someone suddenly asked me if I could hold the pup another 3+ wks due to a medical situation. We worked that out, but in the end, I wished I'd had something like this in my contract.

I have a clause in my purchase contract which must be signed and sent back with the deposit which states, "Puppies will only be held past the date of nine weeks of age by prior arrangement. Seller may sell any puppy held past the age of nine weeks with Buyer forfeiting deposit and all claims to the puppy." I also have a clause that states, "Seller has the right to cancel this contract at any time before puppy pick-up (with return of buyer's deposit) if Seller deems circumstance is warranted."

These both give me the choice to return a deposit if it's a valid reason for buyer back-out and keep the deposit in circumstances like yours where the buyer just disappears and makes no effort to make contact.

[RookieTrainer]

Good stuff here for sure.

Keep in mind that all these provisions do is put the breeder in control and allow him or her to make the decision in a case like this. Like Windy described below, you can always use your judgment not to forfeit the deposit and sell elsewhere if you think the circumstances warrant.

However, make sure you have a provision in the document that says you can waive one time and then enforce. For example, if Windy's buyer asks for three more weeks, Windy would like to be able to decide again and not be bound by the previous waiver. Also, you would want to have a provision in every contract that a waiver for Joe does not mean a waiver for Fred, even if the circumstances are similar.

Again, you want to retain as much control as possible as the breeder so you can exercise your judgment. Seek counsel to advise you on the appropriate provisions to include in such an agreement in your state/country.

I have a clause in my purchase contract which must be signed and sent back with the deposit which states, "Puppies will only be held past the date of nine weeks of age by prior arrangement. Seller may sell any puppy held past the age of nine weeks with Buyer forfeiting deposit and all claims to the puppy." I also have a clause that states, "Seller has the right to cancel this contract at any time before puppy pick-up (with return of buyer's deposit) if Seller deems circumstance is warranted."

These both give me the choice to return a deposit if it's a valid reason for buyer back-out and keep the deposit in circumstances like yours where the buyer just disappears and makes no effort to make contact.