Buying a boat when VAT proof receipt has been lost.

The awkward case for brokers is when the vendor is colourblind. He insists his sofas are beige leather and his Westerly Pembroke is therefore worth $1million, yet you can see the peach velour with your own eyes. He is in denial. In that type of case, I can see that you might well choose to decline to list the boat becuase you know he will misrepresent it to any buyers and you'll look like his accomplice. You gotta maintain your reputation and goodwill

That's exactly it. For me the future of yacht broking is about this professional side. They days of taking some pictures from the owner, and sticking an ad up then handing someone the keys to have a look at the boat are long gone. (And so they should be)

You ought to get into power boats too jonic. Many folks on here can see that you're good at this stuff. Whaddya reckon?? (scuse the thread drift)

I'm seriously considering it and am probably going to take some courses in the summer.
 
JFM

Would I be right in thinking then, that in your opinion lack of VAT papers (perhaps depending on the age and value of the boat) is a potential problem and a price reduction is appropriate.

A Bill of Sale between two UK private individuals (in certain circumstances) can not automatically be relied on to direct away the attention of a foreign customs official.
 
You ought to get into power boats too jonic. Many folks on here can see that you're good at this stuff. Whaddya reckon?? (scuse the thread drift)

+1 :)

And; in case you missed it I do have a tendency not to be over trusting towards some Yacht Brokers.
 
I'm seriously considering it and am probably going to take some courses in the summer.
Courses man? You are better than 90% of mobo brokers already! And if you want to know what a 30 odd litre MTU V12 connected to an Arneson drive looks like, or where the passerelle breaker on a Mangusta 108 is, just ask on here :-)
 
Courses man? You are better than 90% of mobo brokers already! And if you want to know what a 30 odd litre MTU V12 connected to an Arneson drive looks like, or where the passerelle breaker on a Mangusta 108 is, just ask on here :-)

Ok, where is it and what's it look like? :D
 
Would I be right in thinking then, that in your opinion lack of VAT papers (perhaps depending on the age and value of the boat) is a potential problem and a price reduction is appropriate.

There are many levels in that question. No I do not think (in many cases - it's hard to generalise) there is a problem or potential problem with a taxing authority. Whether i think a price reduction is "appropriate" is neither here nor there because markets do not function on my view of appropriateness. I do agree that lack of VAT papers on a valuable boat is like peach sofas that cost 15-20% of the boat value to get recovered. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with them but there IS less demand for them and the price at which transactions occur is therefore going to be lower. I'm kinda agreeing with you, but being precise

A Bill of Sale between two UK private individuals (in certain circumstances) can not automatically be relied on to direct away the attention of a foreign customs official.
It definitely cannot be automatically relied upon. It is unlikely to be hugely convincing on its own if the customs officer concerned has any nous at all. By definition, a smuggler is prone to breaking rules, so he can easily download BoS from the website and make any BoSs he wants. So a sensible Customs officer will look for other indications (of which there might be plenty on an ordinary family crusing boat) as to whether he ought to let the boat go on its way or enquire further. If I had a reason to think there was a high chance of a boat being inspected for VAT I would tell the owner if asked that the above mentioned BoS is unlikely to be convincing to a smart customs officer.

I realise that in saying this I'm directly disagreeing with the VAT officer who gave the RYA their Q+A advice on this point. (I'm recalling the RYA's Q+A from memory, but I think that's what it said...)
 
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Ok that's another endorsement of note. I will venture in, in a few months time. I want to do a crossover course in power boat handling first.

So a question to the forum. Which course should I do?

Have 20,000 miles plus offshore in a sailboat. RYA Day skipper, Yachtmaster Theory, Short and Long Range Radio, Sea Survival etc.

But what happens if I start enjoying driving them :eek: Do I cease to be an alien if so?
 
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With your exp, you might as well do YM power becuase you already know 80% of the material from sailboat work. BUT, you might need qualifying mileage in a power boat, I'm not sure baout that, let's see if some of the YM instructurs on here can chip in.

If you are not able to do YM due to miles, I reckon do dayskipper. Good course with wide syllabus. The nav will be dead easy for you so show your tickets and ask the intstructor to spend more time on mobo handling
 
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