With regards to New-be Boat buyer Jane Hawkins errors in purchasing 60ft boat built by the Liverpool Boat Company from a private seller in trying avoided dealer fees. writes Kelvin Alexander-Duggan.
The Liverpool Boat Company effectively stopped trading around 2008, coinciding with the financial crash of 2008. The business did not go officially 'bust' or enter formal liquidation at that time, but rather ceased building new boats and scaled down operations. The company had been trading since the early 1980's having built thousands of boats including hulls, sail aways and fully fitted. The company also supplied hulls and sail-aways to a number of boat fitters. The company's owners transferred all new orders to a sister company, Collingwood Boat Builders, which operated from the same premises building more up-market boats and are still trading today.
The boats may have been built for the lower end of the market, these boats may have been built for a price. If quality was as poor as Jane Hawkins claims, these boats would have never have sold in the numbers they did or would sail-aways and hulls be brought by boat-fitters. As a owner of a Liverpool sail away that is still in good condition after 28 years since I brought it new.
Jane Hawkins new boat would have been at least 18 years old and would have passed 3 or 4 BSC tests in that time and if it was a fully fitted build it would have Recreational Craft Directive (RCD) Declaration of Conformity. The certificate is often found in the owner's manual. The vessel will also have a CE mark on a plaque, and a Hull Identification Number (HIN) that matches the documentation. What it proves: The boat has been built to comply with specific ISO standards for safety and environmental protection.
As for the condition of the hull, this is down to the person who owned it before, And very much depends on how often the hull was re-blacked if ever. A newly blacked hull can hide a number of problems to the naked eye, but not to a Ultrasonic Thickness Gauge or needle gun. If the steel work is not protected from corrosion it will fail in the end.
It is unlikely that the interior cabin is the same as the day it was sold, there may have been many changes in the layout of the cabin Changes to cabin layouts and equipment necessitate re-routing or replacing associated piping, cables, and wiring. Any major changes on a boat like the installing of gas or electrics, require that the boat be re-examine within the four year period. A few boat owners' don't do this and have sold on boats with dangerous electrics or gas systems after passing the BSC before these were installed.
Jane Hawkins advice is if you are buying make sure the boat safety certificate was very recent, then you can rest in peace. This is foolhardily advice to anyone buying a second-hand boat.
Anyone who follows this advice and just relies on the Boat Safety Certificate (BSC). This can be a major mistake if the BSC is more than a few weeks old, for the BSC is like the MOT only valid record of compliance for the date of the exam, dispute the misprint on certificate (Date of Expiry rather than Date of next Exam). Furthermore does not cover the condition of the hull or stern gear.
So the moral of this is simply, take someone with you when you go to view a boat, who knows what to look for and then if they are happy, than make an offer.
But to be on the safe side, have the boat fully surveyed including the hull and stern gear after making the offer. And include in the sales contract even if it is a private sale that the 'sale is subject to a satisfactory survey'. This means the buyer has the contractual right to review the survey and raise objections or potentially back out of the deal if the survey reveals unsatisfactory issues that are not resolved by the seller.
If an unsatisfactory issues is found in the survey report, the buyer has three options:
Negotiate: The buyer can negotiate with the seller to fix the problem, offer a credit, or reduce the price .
Terminate: If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the buyer may have the right to terminate the contract and recover their earnest money deposit.
Waive: The buyer may choose to waive the objection and proceed with the purchase anyway.
In essence, this wording protects the buyer from unknowingly purchasing a boat with significant, potentially expensive, legal or physical problems related to the boat condition and legal description.
For it is better to layout a £1,000 for a full survey and dry docking than to have brought a pup without a sales contract. And if you don't know what you are doing then use a dealer as they will be able to do checks to see if a bank loan is secured on the boat. If this is not done, and there is a loan secured on the boat, you risked have the boat repossessed and sold, typically at auction, to recoup the outstanding debt, including any added fees and legal costs.
As in law, the lender holds a lien or security interest in the vessel. The borrower usually cannot legally transfer clear title to a buyer without satisfying the debt and getting the lender to release the lien. Any attempt to sell it without paying the debt would leave the new owner subject to the lender's lien, meaning the lender could still potentially repossess the boat from the new owner.
On a final note: When it comes to choice of boat surveyor don't use one recommended by the boat yard, seller or dealer. Ask other boat owners who they use.
Kelvin Alexander-Duggan B.Sc M.Sc P.Sc MBCS MBGA