Nottingham Boat Sales go bust

THE seemingly never ending list of boating connected business to go into liquidation has been further increased with the long established Nottingham Boat Sales going bust.

Paul Lillie of Pillings Marina tells us that one of its clients who put his boat into the hands of Nottingham Boat Sales three weeks ago has been left owed £40,000, who will be just one of many.

Brokerage

It is not known if the company was operating as a brokerage, though it mentions this in its advertising, whereby the title remains with the owner, or if it bought and sold its boats, in which case any money owning to its clients will be seized by the liquidator to pay off debts, with the tax man at the top of the list.

It advertises itself as one of the UK's largest brokers of quality new and used narrowboats, canal boats and barges on the UK canal system, operating in excess of 25 years, then it states 'experienced at buying and selling narrowboats for 15 years'!

Joint action

Paul suggests that any boater in the same situation as one of his clients, should get in touch as his client is looking at legal options. Might be worth a joint action rather than separate ones.

Paul tells us he is attempting to help brokerage boats:

"I have had three moorers on the phone today. We are offering a deal for any moorer affected and will be offering to accommodate any brokerage boats with three months free moorings."

Highly irregular

He also tells us that he saw Nottingham Boat Sales contract which specified that it will pay clients funds to the vendor within 15 working days, that is highly irregular, adding:

"When I did my ABYA course we were told first and foremost to have a clients account and send money to vendors immediately. I am very concerned that this is how people in our industry are allowed to operate because it always results in the 'Little People' losing the most.  It obviously does nothing to improve the situation of attracting new clients onto the water. A real shame."