Berthing Fees Query???

calamitys38

calamitys38

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Sold my boat last Friday, but have paid for the berth until the end of the month. The boat will then go to the new owners berth at another marina.

Apparently the Marina Owner is now stating that the new owner must now sign a new deal for the last week or so that the boat will be on the berth I have already paid for.

The marina owner requires three months notice - hence why I gave notice on 2 Feb and the berth is paid for up until 2 April.

The new owner will collect the boat on/around 26 Mar. Surely, the new owner does not have to sign a new contract and give three months notice for the week that the boat will be in his ownership before leaving the berth I paid for?

Any advice?
 
calamitys38 said:
Sold my boat last Friday, but have paid for the berth until the end of the month. The boat will then go to the new owners berth at another marina.

Apparently the Marina Owner is now stating that the new owner must now sign a new deal for the last week or so that the boat will be on the berth I have already paid for.

The marina owner requires three months notice - hence why I gave notice on 2 Feb and the berth is paid for up until 2 April.

The new owner will collect the boat on/around 26 Mar. Surely, the new owner does not have to sign a new contract and give three months notice for the week that the boat will be in his ownership before leaving the berth I paid for?

Any advice?
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Ooooh! this could be fun............ put back the change over date for a week and then move the boat out of the marina.....everybody will be happy apart from the marina manager that wont be able to stiff the new owner. Unacceptable behaviour in MHO.

Your contract will end on a certain day that's the day he takes delivery...... simples !;)

Tom
 
Book in to Mercury/Port Hamble for a week as a visitor. £100? I'd do that rather than bother with the grief.
 
calamitys38 said:
Sold my boat last Friday, but have paid for the berth until the end of the month. The boat will then go to the new owners berth at another marina.

Apparently the Marina Owner is now stating that the new owner must now sign a new deal for the last week or so that the boat will be on the berth I have already paid for.

The marina owner requires three months notice - hence why I gave notice on 2 Feb and the berth is paid for up until 2 April.

The new owner will collect the boat on/around 26 Mar. Surely, the new owner does not have to sign a new contract and give three months notice for the week that the boat will be in his ownership before leaving the berth I paid for?


Any advice?
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Feb - April is only 2 months, what about the last month of the 3 month notice period? I'd just delay the official handover date, how's the marina to know.
 
Are you planning to stay in the same marina afterwards? If not, just don't tell the marina it's sold, and if they find out afterwards, tell 'em to get stuffed. When they put unfair terms in the contract there is a moral justification in breaking them. I've had exactly the same issue myself in a big south coast marina, and I just refused to give them the new owners details.

If you plan to have a new boat in the same marina then that's a different matter, but the new owner of your current boat can surely just pay visitor rates for the week?
 
Nick_H said:
Are you planning to stay in the same marina afterwards? If not, just don't tell the marina it's sold, and if they find out afterwards, tell 'em to get stuffed. When they put unfair terms in the contract there is a moral justification in breaking them. I've had exactly the same issue myself in a big south coast marina, and I just refused to give them the new owners details.

If you plan to have a new boat in the same marina then that's a different matter, but the new owner of your current boat can surely just pay visitor rates for the week?
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I'd agree. This is more about tactics than the precise legals

That said, I suspect (though I haven't read it) your berthing contract is personal to you and gives YOU the right to park a boat there. I bet it doesn't require you to OWN the boat. In which case, if the marina picks a fight and they know you've sold the boat, tell them that you have custody/posession/guardianship of the boat and YOU are parking it there till the chap you've sold it to comes to collect. That is pretty much the truth. The marina can't prove otherwise if you and the buyer both adopt this position, which you're free to do.

It should only take you a 5min read of the berthing contract to establish that you are not required the OWN the boat that you park there
 
calamitys38 said:
The marina owner requires three months notice - hence why I gave notice on 2 Feb and the berth is paid for up until 2 April.
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Well, maybe the marina owner is just unhappy about your maths...? ;)

PS: whoops, I didn't see that LJS already spotted that!
 
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jfm said:
I'd agree. This is more about tactics than the precise legals

That said, I suspect (though I haven't read it) your berthing contract is personal to you and gives YOU the right to park a boat there. I bet it doesn't require you to OWN the boat. In which case, if the marina picks a fight and they know you've sold the boat, tell them that you have custody/posession/guardianship of the boat and YOU are parking it there till the chap you've sold it to comes to collect. That is pretty much the truth. The marina can't prove otherwise if you and the buyer both adopt this position, which you're free to do.

It should only take you a 5min read of the berthing contract to establish that you are not required the OWN the boat that you park there
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After my last post about this yard I wasnt going to say anymore, however I will now say that after that said post, and remember this is a public forum I got a phone call from the said marina owner, and I can tell you all it was not very pleasant.

To say the least I was his client too, im actually looking at calamity as im typing, she is still here, but this is my last night here when my wife arrives tomorrow night were off from here.

My berth too is paid up till the end of the month, so if anyones short on space come on down and have my space for a week!!.

After my long conversation with the said person, I decided to make a few points to him about things, it seems its had little effect, I have also been out on seatrial today with a couple of other forum members and the yard was discussed, by an ex berth holder.

The same comments were made.

Enough said............................ just waiting for the phone to ring!
 
It never amazes me how bad we are treated in this industry, there cant be many like this, these marinas never seem to be flexible, I have horses I have friends who bring a horse down and put it in an empty stable over night and is not charged, we dont pay the stable owner when the vet comes down. yet boat owners pay through the nose my marina you can come down and stay the day park your car in the car park take dogs for a walk and stay all day no charge, If I launch my tender and leave the empty trailer in the car park I have to pay £10.

It makes you think twice before spending money with the marina and its that bad feeling that stops you from telling your friends how good your marina is and they wont move there.
 
PaulGooch said:
I believe the 2nd word you are looking for, if he calls, is "off".
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No not at all, I could have "offed " him last time but I didnt, he was paying for the call you see! I was going to email him my thoughts bit it was the ideal time to air my views.

Im a great believer in "never burning my bridges", just imagine 2 months time and we dont like our new berth, if we had left on good terms we could come back if we were welcome and there was space.

When ive gone, and calamity there will be enough space for a small boatshow on this pontoon.

Calamity was also quite happy to come back here in a year or so when he buys again, though im not sure what taste is in guys mouth now?..... over to you mate.

Both buying and selling a boat is a very stressful time, the least thing people need is hassle off the marinas when the berth is already paid for months in advance that have had nothing to do with the sale, other than the lift in and out for survey which isnt free! and things are still said, how much do they really want out of the job.

Can you imagine being paid for servicing a boat 3, 6 , 12 months in advance, would be great!
 
In total contrast, and off topic somewhat, when we moved to our current marina, out old one credited us with the remaining 2 or 3 months of our annual mooring. They offset that against a lift out and back in we'd just had for antifoul and service. It left us owing them about £40, which they said, "we'll waive that, call it square".

The new marina had us booked for a Winter package, starting 1st Nov. We arrived five weeks early and rather than charge us the Summer rate for the extra time, they charged us the reduced Winter rate. Our Winter package expires at the end of this month and we'll be staying put. It's a great marina that treats in annual berth holders extremely fairly and we consider ourselves lucky to have found a space their. Pre recession we enquired about one and the had a waiting list of years.

What goes around..................
 
PaulGooch said:
In total contrast, and off topic somewhat, when we moved to our current marina, out old one credited us with the remaining 2 or 3 months of our annual mooring. They offset that against a lift out and back in we'd just had for antifoul and service. It left us owing them about £40, which they said, "we'll waive that, call it square".

The new marina had us booked for a Winter package, starting 1st Nov. We arrived five weeks early and rather than charge us the Summer rate for the extra time, they charged us the reduced Winter rate. Our Winter package expires at the end of this month and we'll be staying put. It's a great marina that treats in annual berth holders extremely fairly and we consider ourselves lucky to have found a space their. Pre recession we enquired about one and the had a waiting list of years.

What goes around..................
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Again slightly off topic, we left our marina 3 weeks ago after 2 years there. Went to the office on our last day to pay our lectic bill. The person in the office, who I've seen regularly over the 2 years, didn't exactly make me feel at all welcome; no sorry you're leaving us and it would be good to see you back. No, her parting words were "you've got a fob for the gate and we want it back before you leave." And that was it. Just that, no niceties. Made me feel as though they thought I was apotential thief, all over a poxy fob.

Still irritates me just thinking about it. Luckily met another marina staff guy on the pontoon later and he was somewhat friendlier, so not all bad.
 
jfm said:
The marina can't prove otherwise if you and the buyer both adopt this position, which you're free to do.
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The marina I referred to picked it up from the pt1 registry change at Swansea, or so they told me. I had a phone call to say that the new owner owed them 6 weeks mooring charges, even though I was already paid up for that period, and there was no refund. Can't say who it was, the company that owned the pontoon that I used to Berth on.

edit: I realise that's a different point to the one you were making, and I could still have argued I was the guardian of the boat during that period.
 
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PaulGooch said:
In total contrast, and off topic somewhat, when we moved to our current marina, out old one credited us with the remaining 2 or 3 months of our annual mooring. They offset that against a lift out and back in we'd just had for antifoul and service. It left us owing them about £40, which they said, "we'll waive that, call it square".

The new marina had us booked for a Winter package, starting 1st Nov. We arrived five weeks early and rather than charge us the Summer rate for the extra time, they charged us the reduced Winter rate. Our Winter package expires at the end of this month and we'll be staying put. It's a great marina that treats in annual berth holders extremely fairly and we consider ourselves lucky to have found a space their. Pre recession we enquired about one and the had a waiting list of years.

What goes around..................
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having bought our boat from the hamble area a few months ago I was suprised at the lack of interest from the support business down there. I could not get the boat back to Cardiff fast enough. I am suprised anybody puts up with it. The exception is Volvo Paul first class bloke was happy to give advice etc.

Boat is back in Cardiff now where I have people I trust todo work.

Right I will get my coat rant over.
 
I've found this, marinas seem to treat you fairly well. As long of course that you have everything paid up on the dot. But the minute you come to leave, they use every trick in the book to get there last ounce of flesh out of you.

Yacht Haven pulled a super stunt on me when I left. I owed them a bit for electric, but they owed me more for renting my berth out after I left, before the end of contract.

But it says in the small print, you have to pay immediately, but they only have to pay you a few months after. So they fined me for late payment.

Could not do much about it cos they knocked it off the bill they owed me, it was not worth taking them to court, but fining folk is elegal.
 
Round of applause for Premier

I would just like to offer a contrast with my experiences with Premier Marinas. The staff at both Chichester and Gosport have been excellent, and when we sold the boat there were no issues with the berth, and when we replae the boat in the next year or so I will have absolutely no hesitation in going straight back to Premier.

I always look at places like Eastlands due to the cost, but my time is money frankly, and Premier make it so easy Id rather pay the extra and get on with hapy and contented boating.
 
Nick_H said:
The marina I referred to picked it up from the pt1 registry change at Swansea, or so they told me. I had a phone call to say that the new owner owed them 6 weeks mooring charges, even though I was already paid up for that period, and there was no refund. Can't say who it was, the company that owned the pontoon that I used to Berth on.

edit: I realise that's a different point to the one you were making, and I could still have argued I was the guardian of the boat during that period.
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I used to Berth on a marina like that too. When we took the Ph42 to France, we had something like 4 months prepaid on the annual berth. They let us sublet it to a guy who we met by chance and needed to Berth on a berth over winter. The marina we Berthed on let the sublet happen, no objections.

Kinda wierd, cos back then there were wait lists to Berth on a marina in Lymington yet, whereas now most marinas including the one you/I Berthed on want more customers.
 
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