Buying NL or German?

[Blue Sunray]

I have seen a fair amount on here about buying from France and transferring from there to the UK. However we are currently looking at options that include Netherlands or German registered vessels. I would be grateful for any advice and/or experience with respect to the paperwork that we should expect to see before parting with cash and and oddities in the processes for bring vessels to the UK from these countries/registries.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I have bought boats in both Germany and Holland. The good news is that I found the boats I looked at for sale in these countries to be generally very well presented. The bad news is that like most European countries, paperwork can be patchy so if you have any intention of registering your new purchase under the British Registry Part 1, make absolutely sure that you have physical sight of all title, VAT and CE certification documents before you complete the sale. Do not accept any statement from the broker or seller that they will provide the documentation after completion and don't settle for photocopies. I made both those mistakes when I bought a German boat and it ended up costing me several thousand pounds to get a lawyor to travel to Germany to notarise photocopies in order for them to be acceptable to the UK Registry

Btw even if you don't intend to Part 1 register the boat, the next owner of the boat might so its still worth getting all of the correct documents

 

[Al Dickson]

We bought our Nimbus through a German Broker this year and it all went very smoothly - they provided us with a sales contract, original Invoice with sellers address (VAT proof) CE certificate and a certificate of de-registration.
In Germany they appear to have what they call a Big Ships Register (above 15m) and a small ships register.
We then re registered ours in the UK no problem

We also made sure we had the full service history & service book dealer stamped to validate any outstanding warranties
German / Dutch MMSI are different so you need new UK MMSI & Call sign - VHF and AIS need reprogammed

If you're bringing the boat by road bear in mind it can take at least 4 weeks for the German Authorities to issue a permit for road transport - we were advised to wrap it up to protect from road chips & discourage stowaways !

 

[Blue Sunray]

Thank you that is really useful. We're likely to go for SSR but I get Deleted User's point about future sales.