Buying a boat from France, does this sound ok to proceed?

[mctaggart]

Hello

I am buying a French registered boat with intention to bring back to the UK, a 2002 Princess 40, I now have the headache of paperwork and want to ensure I have everything correct before I send my deposit over. Can someone check this who is in the know, its going through a broker but I want to make sure!

I have confirmed that that the owner has the current

Acte de Francisation, which proves title, ownership history. (I have been advised to get a notarised colour copy of this before he sends it off, as I cant get a copy later on)
Radiation de Pavillion will be sent to me to deregister the boat once the sale has gone through, again this will state specifically the VAT has been paid.

The boat is missing the builders certificate and CE certificate (CE is stamped on boat so it has been done), I have chased this up with Princess and I can get copies for a minor fee.

I am trying to get the original purchase invoice from the customs officials where the boat is registered as I believe they hold this document from when its first registered.

I guess my main concern is if an official French piece of paperwork stating vat has been paid is valid in the UK, I don't see why not as its officially endorsed by the govt.

Anyway let me know if I am missing anything here and would I be ok to proceed.

 

[mcanderson]

Hello

I am buying a French registered boat with intention to bring back to the UK, a 2002 Princess 40, I now have the headache of paperwork and want to ensure I have everything correct before I send my deposit over. Can someone check this who is in the know, its going through a broker but I want to make sure!

I have confirmed that that the owner has the current

Acte de Francisation, which proves title, ownership history. (I have been advised to get a notarised colour copy of this before he sends it off, as I cant get a copy later on)
Radiation de Pavillion will be sent to me to deregister the boat once the sale has gone through, again this will state specifically the VAT has been paid.

The boat is missing the builders certificate and CE certificate (CE is stamped on boat so it has been done), I have chased this up with Princess and I can get copies for a minor fee.

I am trying to get the original purchase invoice from the customs officials where the boat is registered as I believe they hold this document from when its first registered.

I guess my main concern is if an official French piece of paperwork stating vat has been paid is valid in the UK, I don't see why not as its officially endorsed by the govt.

Anyway let me know if I am missing anything here and would I be ok to proceed.

Hello McTaggart,

When we purchased our boat in France we followed the same process, but as we were keeping her in France and changing to a UK flag there may be some differences.

In short get the selling broker to do the work. he should be sorting our the deregistration and not you as he can go to the douanes and submit the paperwork. The broker we dealt with did this for us. The French have a very different approach to VAT/TVA proof as the registration process takes care of the 'proof of payment'. By the sounds of things you should be safe to proceed.

At the end of the day the broker is getting 10% of the sale price as his commission so make him work for this. Tell him it is a deal breaker and that will make him jump. We bought our boat about the same time three years ago and were told by the broker who sold our previous boat that at this time of the year the French will not be looking for a boat for this season as it is too late for them. So we were in a strong position to push for the deal we wanted. Happy to talk by phone if you want to pm me.

 

[markc]

I did the same about 4 years ago, but to keep the boat in France. I concur with everything mcanderson says above. i also used these chaps to do all the legal bits & pieces following a recommendation from Whitelighter, another forumite - Superyacht Consultancy | Ward & McKenzie (Yacht Consultants) Limited. I think their bill was iro £1.5k

 

[mctaggart]

Hello McTaggart,

When we purchased our boat in France we followed the same process, but as we were keeping her in France and changing to a UK flag there may be some differences.

In short get the selling broker to do the work. he should be sorting our the deregistration and not you as he can go to the douanes and submit the paperwork. The broker we dealt with did this for us. The French have a very different approach to VAT/TVA proof as the registration process takes care of the 'proof of payment'. By the sounds of things you should be safe to proceed.

At the end of the day the broker is getting 10% of the sale price as his commission so make him work for this. Tell him it is a deal breaker and that will make him jump. We bought our boat about the same time three years ago and were told by the broker who sold our previous boat that at this time of the year the French will not be looking for a boat for this season as it is too late for them. So we were in a strong position to push for the deal we wanted. Happy to talk by phone if you want to pm me.

Hello yes could I get your number so I could have a quick chat, that would be of great help.

 

[SeaAndSea]

We bought last year from France and shipped back the the UK. We couldn't get hold of a bill or invoice proving VAT had been paid, but this is a check the French authorities make as part of their boat registration process so we knew it VAT had been oaid.. HMRC (boat division) told me that for this to be usable in the UK as proof of VAT status, any document would need to show the sum of VAT paid. Our boat is 30 ish years old and the helpfull man at HMRC said the docs we had would probably be fine. Not the cast iron assurance I was looking for, so was a bit of a risk.