Chichester Harbour boat sale

benjenbav

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Had a look at the forthcoming lots from the Chichester Harbour impounded boat sale.

Looks like they cleared their waters of a whole load of junk!

Boat Auction 2024 - Chichester Harbour Conservancy
Mostly abandoned tenders, as one might expect.

There are a few yachts on moorings, though. Whilst these look in a sorry state and almost certainly have been abandoned, I wonder what steps the Conservancy feels it has to take before putting these vessels into auction (the law on this broadly requires all reasonable efforts to identify the former owner).

But, given that the moorings are contracted with the Conservancy, it must have had counterparty details at one time.

Does the Conservancy leave it for one year, two years, six months of getting no reply and no payment from the mooring’s occupier or what does it do?
 

westernman

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Mostly abandoned tenders, as one might expect.

There are a few yachts on moorings, though. Whilst these look in a sorry state and almost certainly have been abandoned, I wonder what steps the Conservancy feels it has to take before putting these vessels into auction (the law on this broadly requires all reasonable efforts to identify the former owner).

But, given that the moorings are contracted with the Conservancy, it must have had counterparty details at one time.

Does the Conservancy leave it for one year, two years, six months of getting no reply and no payment from the mooring’s occupier or what does it do?
I would guess it is something like that, and I would take a guess that it is at least one year, and several attempts (e.g. 3) to contact through all the last known contact details from the mooring contract.

The mooring contract will almost certainly contain a clause about informing them if you change address or other contact details so it would mean they do not have to search beyond those last contract details.
 

bedouin

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Mostly abandoned tenders, as one might expect.

There are a few yachts on moorings, though. Whilst these look in a sorry state and almost certainly have been abandoned, I wonder what steps the Conservancy feels it has to take before putting these vessels into auction (the law on this broadly requires all reasonable efforts to identify the former owner).

But, given that the moorings are contracted with the Conservancy, it must have had counterparty details at one time.

Does the Conservancy leave it for one year, two years, six months of getting no reply and no payment from the mooring’s occupier or what does it do?
Reasonable efforts to identify the owner of a boat with a value of a few hundred probably doesn't amount to much. A few unanswered letters to the last known address is probably enough
 

benjenbav

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Reasonable efforts to identify the owner of a boat with a value of a few hundred probably doesn't amount to much. A few unanswered letters to the last known address is probably enough
As an involuntary bailee (that is to say, the person or organisation that gets left with the unwanted goods on their hands and nobody prepared to remove them) you do want to be quite careful.

It's not unknown for claimants to emerge later on with stories of having been abroad and having left their collection of Van Goghs in what appeared to be a decrepit shed. Often these claims are nonsense, of course, but it can be time-consuming and costly arguing about it.
 

xyachtdave

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As an involuntary bailee (that is to say, the person or organisation that gets left with the unwanted goods on their hands and nobody prepared to remove them) you do want to be quite careful.

It's not unknown for claimants to emerge later on with stories of having been abroad and having left their collection of Van Goghs in what appeared to be a decrepit shed. Often these claims are nonsense, of course, but it can be time-consuming and costly arguing about it.

Yes, we had the task of shifting abandoned tenders and dinghies from the YC. Most had unpaid storage for ten plus years at £90 a year, there was a worry the owners would reappear after we binned them, our take on it was the back dated invoice for fees due would be enough to stop the nonsense.
 
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