Boat Yard 1% sales commission

capetown

capetown

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These's a current tread about Marinas charging a sale commission.

What about boat yards?

Must admit I've only asked one yard how much they would charge and was told 1%.

Is it normal for boat yards to charge this?

Do we have to pay up?

Any way to circumvent this?
 
It's an old established charge, from the days when a broker might phone a geographically distant boatyard, and arrange for the yard to take a prospective buyer to a boat for a viewing. This might, of course, entail a fair bit of time and work (eg finding keys, removing covers, answering questions, rowing to a mooring etc).

In most cases today, that's not the way it's done, but the clause remains.

I would think boatyards are therefore in exactly the same situation as marinas, nowadays.

As Sailorman suggests, I'd have thought the RYA advice is just as relevant.
 
A couple of years ago I was going to sell my boat (29ft) from a yard on Ullswater. The owner wanted 8% with no sale involvement at all. He still has the 8% sale fee notice up in his yard. He maintained that prospective buyers 'used his land' to view the boat and so he wanted suitable recompense which he deemed to be 8% which in my case would have been over £2000. If I didn't like it I could move the boat. I did just that and had it transported to Windermere at a cost of nearly £1000 including crane, transportation and crane out at Windermere. I sold the boat almost immediately for a fair price via an agent on Windermere.
 
Croak said:
You should have sold the boat where it was, given him his 8% then taken him to court.
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But leaving aside whether the charge is legal or not, how come brokers etc try for 8% rather than the 1% or so that would be a reasonable fee for the work done. £8k on a £100k boat - what on earth is a broker going to do to accumulate costs even a tenth of that fee\?
 
wotayottie said:
But leaving aside whether the charge is legal or not, how come brokers etc try for 8% rather than the 1% or so that would be a reasonable fee for the work done. £8k on a £100k boat - what on earth is a broker going to do to accumulate costs even a tenth of that fee\?
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Not gonna argue about what percentage is reasonable - but it does seem illogical that they charge on a percentage basis at all. With possible exceptions at the very cheap and very expensive ends, the work of selling a boat seems about the same regardless of the expected selling price.

Visiting the boat, taking photos, writing up a profile, publishing it to the web, possibly publishing elsewhere, dealing with walk-in customers, doing some viewings, handling the sale paperwork - all much the same whether the boat sells for £25k or £150k. So why does one owner get to pay £2k for the service while the other has to pay £12k?

Pete
 
prv said:
So why does one owner get to pay £2k for the service while the other has to pay £12k?
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I suppose it is because it is what the market will stand.

Just as the guy with a 40ft boat will pay at least twice the amount for a lift out than the guy with a 25ft boat.

Why? Dunno, same travel lift, same amount of time taken, same driver/operator, same amount of fuel................

Ah, got it.....the big boat owner must be minted!
 
Croak said:
You should have sold the boat where it was, given him his 8% then taken him to court.
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Personally, I'd have smiled, seemed agreeable and indicated it wasn't reasonable to pay yard until after the funds had cleared. Then I'd have had a change of heart, refused to pay at all and let them take me to court. Same result but yard have all the grief to try to get money back.

;^))
 
Croak said:
I guess the yard wouldn't release the boat until they had the funds, if it is the one I suspect it is.
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Indeed, in the original story the OP had to pay up in order to get the boat sold and away, before suing them to reclaim the money.

Pete
 
wotayottie said:
But leaving aside whether the charge is legal or not, how come brokers etc try for 8% rather than the 1% or so that would be a reasonable fee for the work done. £8k on a £100k boat - what on earth is a broker going to do to accumulate costs even a tenth of that fee\?
Click to expand...

Expect jonic will be along soon to give you chapter and verse. Suggest brokers rarely actually achieve 8% - much as they would like to. If you think it is easy money then suggest you have a go at making a living from being a broker! Lots of ex-brokers around who can advise you.
 
Tranona said:
Suggest brokers rarely actually achieve 8% - much as they would like to.
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Hmmm, apart from those sitting in designer yachtie clothing and shoes in plush offices - like where Laurent Giles is based for example - who, IME, do the square root of FA to extract the maximum 'commission' - whatever that may be - from the unsuspecting, honest boat owner trying to dig himself out of a hole.

Bitter? You betcha.
 
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