Completing on the purchase of a Yacht in UK

It seems that the Vendor only has to deliver the documents to the broker for completion. No where in the standard contract do I have the ability to inspect them for myself! I appear to have to rely on the broker!

In this case the brokers seem to be competant - smacks of famous last words dunnit!
 
Jonic - just re read the words - it says the Vendor shall deliver to the brokers.... I therefore have no right of inspection before completion and have to rely on the brokers word or competance, and only effectively see the documents after completion.
 
Chris

Before I add anything to this thread I must stress I do not know what contract you have or the background to your situation, so am in no way offering legal advice. You or anyone reading this thread should seek appropriate advice.

However If you have the standard ABYA contract you have gone way beyond trust. You have a LEGALLY BINDING contract that now makes supply of these documents a CONDITION of the sale/contract.

As it states at the beginning:

This document is intended to create a legally binding contract. If you are unsure of any of the conditions you are advised to take appropriate legal advice.

You also have the following clause:

14 Jurisdiction
(a) This Agreement shall be construed according to and governed by the law of England (or of Scotland if the Vendor's address shall be in that Country) and the parties hereby submit to the jurisdiction of the Courts of the same countries.

And crucially you have clause 10 (b)

(b) If the Vendor shall default in the execution of his part of this Contract the Purchaser shall without prejudice to any other right he may have hereunder be entitled to the return of his part payment. Unless such default by the Vendor shall have arisen from events over which the Vendor has no control the Vendor shall pay interest upon the amount of the part payment for the period during which he has held it at the rate of 4% per annum above Finance House Base Rate, together with compensation for any loss which the Purchaser may have sustained as a result of the Vendor's default.

and clause 11

11 Arbitration
All disputes that cannot be resolved between the parties arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, shall be referred by either party for conciliation to the President or Chairman of such Federation or Association to which the Broker mentioned herein belongs and in the event of failure of such conciliation to Arbitration by a single arbitrator to be appointed in default of agreement by the President of the BMF or failing him the Chairman for the time being of the Royal Yachting Association and the provisions of the Arbitration Act 1996 or any amending legislation shall apply to any reference under this clause. Should any dispute be referred to a third party the Broker shall, when a part payment is held as Stakeholder, be empowered to pay same into a designated account until the determination of the dispute. All decisions concerning whether or not the dispute is to be resolved by Arbitration must be made in writing.


So you have a legally binding contract covered by English law that compels the supply of the documents, that the vessel is free of encumbrances, and provision for compensation to you in the event of a default.

The sale can only complete with the documents and you can be compensated for any losses if they are not provided.

Imagine if it really were being done on trust through a private sell or through an unregulated broker with no such contract.

Relax and look forward to your new boat.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If the boat is Part 1 registered then that will prove both ownership and the presence or otherwise of mortgages. If not then will your broker confirm to you in writing that you will obtain good and proveable title to the boat, clear of all mortgages and liens, and with proof of VAT payment? If not, then you do need to see the documents, and ensuring that the boat is free from liens is a particularly tricky issue. If it is at a marina or boatyard, confirmation from them that there are no outstanding bills is a good starting point.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to nitpick, but Part 1 does not "Prove" ownership, it's as "good as", but not 100% conclusive proof. For this reason the Registration Doc actually says it is NOT.

As a buyer the document I really want is a Bill of Sale stating that the vessel is free of all Liens - from the actual title holder / owner of the vessel. (It would be a good idea to check the actual Register, particularly for current mortgages, and not just the copy / original Registration document provided by the Vendor, as this will probably have been issued a few years before).

Back to Chris. On the VAT front I would want to firstly see the VAT invoice and then to check that it IS in fact a VAT Invoice (and not a delivery note or something!) and as far as possible verify that it is genuine (this is probably in practice fairly limited!).

I am sure you have been on these forums long enough to realise how little most of us actually KNOW about VAT, whereas quite a few of us THINK we do! It is not impossible that your vendor thinks he has a VAT invoice when he may not........even without anything "naughty" going on.

I can't recall exactly what you have said about the Contract, but I am sure it says that you are buying a vessel with VAT already paid and therefore they have to provide evidence to support this as part of the transaction.

I would just (politely) explain that the sooner you get to see the documents (in order to verify them) that the quicker the funds will later be released, as after all you not going to be paying over £XXX from only a 2 minute "once over" of documents you have never seen before.

If <u>you</u> are unable to be sure what you are looking at, you will need copies - the broker / vendor can simply do this all now or later.

However, no sensible vendor would let you <u>keep</u> the originals until your funds have cleared. and no sensible vendor would let ANY broker have important documents. or to trust them to the Post Office!............and this is probably the reason why the Broker does not have them, The owner does not trust him or the broker is trying to find them /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Not a lawyer, not my fault, blah blah blah /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Broker has now pulled finger out and contacted the vendor - which for some reason he would not do before. Vendor is bringing the docs to the boat when we do the survey on Tuesday, and will also go through other details - inventory checks etc which was another bugbear with the broker.

In reading the contract carefully - the vendor is required to deliver these docs to the broker, and the broker will check them - there is no provision inthe standard contract for me to check them! ie completion will take place the moment the broekr receives all the docs. I was not prepared to accept the broker checking the docs, and wanted to recheck them - this apparently was most unusual!

Anyway - all sorted out now.
 
Please look at this site and if not a member become one and obtain the further information available to members and buy the guide.
http://www.rya.org.uk/Activities/yachtcruising/buyingaboat.htm

You can also instruct a solicitor who understands yacht purchase.
There are so many pitfalls for the wary(when you read what the RYA advise members you will understand what I mean) that the unwary will be as chickens before a fox.

The legal costs of buying pale into insignificance compared with the effort and cost if it goes wrong chasing a defaulting seller/bankrupt broker etc.

If the yacht is registered have you searched Part 1...

All the best and fair winds in the future.

Gecko
 
When we traded our Dehler for a new Jeanneau, the dealer/broker would not sign our sales agreement until we had provided copies of sufficient documentation to prove ownership and VATstatus (which was fun as the Dehler had been imported to UK from Netherlands and all the paperwork was in Dutch!!)

They demanded this so that there was no question that title and VAT status could be proved to a potential purchaser....I would suggest the same thing applies to a brokered sale.

Nick
 
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