buying used in france

[psud]

Does anyone out there have any experience buying or selling a used boat through a dealer in France?
What are the local norms wrt surveys, deposits, financing etc etc? Are the local surveyors thorough enough?
What about delivery/shipping costs from the Med? Cheaper, easier than local storage until the summer?
Are French financial services any good, and are they available to foreigners?
Anything else you know that I might like to know before heading south?
Thanks for any input you might have
Pat Mahon

 

[jacksaid]

We bought a used boat in France
Process similar to UK
10% deposit to broker takes the boat off the market you complete purchase when you take delivery.
I had to make a SWIFT transfer for the final payment. Your bank can organise this. The payment can take upto 5 days but with France my one took just 12hours. But be prepared that unless. My broker would not accept the French version of a bankers draft or indeed cash.

You may also want to look at taking a forward contact on Euros. This can be arranged by your bank's international department. It is a contract to buy nthousand Euros at an agreed price at a date sometime in the future - normally 4 to 6 weeks. This avoids the problem of currency fluctuations. Alternatively you can buy the Euros immediately and keep them in a Euro account.
You need documented evidence of VAT payment otherwise you will be required to pay this on import of the boat back in the UK

The boat has to be degregistered in FRance ,but the broker should handle this

We hired a skipper to bring boat back from Sthn Brittany. It cost £600

No experience of French Surveyors

Email me if you want more details

 

[EME]

There are UK-qualified surveyors in South of France.
French 'leasing' is nonsense,,,..costs more than UK schemes
You do not have to 'reflag' boats unless Finace House rquire you to !!

Shipped back if you like..depends what ..

<font color=blue>I am WHAT I say I am</font color=blue>

 

[colvic]

Depends where in France. If in southern France, close to the Spanish border there is a brilliant English surveyor living there who can give you all sorts of help and advice and a full survey is charged at 56 Euro's an hour.
He seems to know a lot of trades people as well.

Finance could well be cheaper through your bank etc. here, and you can set up a bank account over there for about 15 for a certificate of non residency and a charge of upto 25 for an electronic transfer of upto 50,000.

Transport from France can be expensive if arranged as a one off so it would be worth asking the firms in PBO etc. to contact you when they know they'll have an empty wagon passing close by.

We found berthing much cheaper over there, and transport for an 8mtr. boat quoted last week on specialised boat transport was 2800 which is unrealistic in my book.

Check everything out first or you could spend a lot of money getting her back here.


Phil

 

[flyfisher]

please post contact information for the surveyor you mention. Thank you.

 

[colvic]

You can contact him by e-mail at:

dabney@terra.es


Phil