Covid Marina Fees - reduced?

P

pauldowrick

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 Dec 2020
Messages
88
Visit site
Hi

I am having a bit of a spat with my distant marina.

I have been trapped there for 11 weeks due to covid.

Even though most marina facilities were closed / reduced in service and I could not attend my boat they are insisting on charging me the full visitors rates for 11 weeks = about £1500

I should also point out that the marina was far from full, and they lost no regular business as a consequence of my presence.

Does this sound reasonable ?

Has anyone else had a fees reduction?

Paul
 
Sorry to say it Paul but this reminds me of a recent thread regarding a boat purchase where the buyer paid the seller 90% of the purchase price of the boat but didn’t insist on going to the office first to make sure any storage debts were cleared.

In your case it reads as though you left your boat in a marina mid-crisis without checking the costs first

Did you know anything about the contract you were entering or did you just hope it would all turn out well in the end?
 
pauldowrick said:
Even though most marina facilities were closed / reduced in service and I could not attend my boat they are insisting on charging me the full visitors rates for 11 weeks = about £1500
Click to expand...
If you could not visit then the fact that facilities were reduced is irrelevant because you did not want to use them anyway.!!!
Did you not give them a call & discuss when you realised that you were going to be stuck? Surely one would realise a big bill was coming. £ 19-00 per night is a fairly cheap visitors rate, so you are not being overcharged on a simple day rate.
My marina is charging me circa £ 8-25 per day for a 1 year contract & many marinas charge much more.
Some marinas offer term discounts & one would have considered asking first.
Do you have an existing berthing arrangement? Are you paying that as well? If not then perhaps staying there for a bit longer may enable negotiating a cheaper long term rate & eventually offseting charges against wherever you might have been going
 
Last edited:
I would say it depends what actions the marina has actually taken. we've covered this in previous threads.

You are/were bound by the law to do / not do whatever local laws apply in terms of not travelling, not gathering, etc. Whatever. None of the marina's business. If your observance of those laws prevented you using your boat, so be it. Not the marina's problem either.

The marina is bound only to (1) under Covid laws, provide for social distancing both for customers and employees, which is not difficult with the possible exception of loos and showers (2) under existing laws, avoid placing employees at risk, which isn't difficult either.

If the marina has taken the law into its own hands e.g., by declaring premises, yachts and pontoons closed to customers, then I would say they have breached their T/Cs with you, unless they can show there were specific laws requiring them to close (as, for example, applied to B&B accommodation in the first lockdown). In that case, it's reasonable for you to expect at least a discount. They didn't have to keep you out, they chose to.
 
Daydream believer said:
£ 19-00 per night is a fairly cheap visitors rate, so you are not being overcharged on a simple day rate.
Click to expand...
£19.00 is VERY cheap!

I'm off on a wee trip soon and have not renewed my annual contract. When discussing what I might do on completion of said wee trip I learned that the visitor rate will well over double £19.00 per night. I might call in just to say hello, but will be getting the boat on the hard as soon as I can readly for next years not so wee, wee trip.

Does the OP not know there is a pandemic on at the moment and that it could cause all sorts of travel issues? Those travel issues need to be considered before doing anything.

We had all this out last year during Lockdown I, it is a simple matter of contract law. A contract has been signed, simples.
 
I'm curious where this marina is that's charging pounds yet has not been accessible for the previous 11 weeks. I thought all of Britain had ended lockdown months ago?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RJJ
Sandy said:
.......Does the OP not know there is a pandemic on at the moment and that it could cause all sorts of travel issues? Those travel issues need to be considered before doing anything.

We had all this out last year during Lockdown I, it is a simple matter of contract law. A contract has been signed, simples.
Click to expand...

Yes, and I assume the boat is still occupying its space. Also discussed last year.
 
pauldowrick said:
I have been trapped there for 11 weeks due to covid.

Even though most marina facilities were closed / reduced in service and I could not attend my boat they are insisting on charging me the full visitors rates for 11 weeks = about £1500
Click to expand...

When exactly was this? In recent months, most marinas have been operating normally.
 
pauldowrick said:
Does this sound reasonable ?

Has anyone else had a fees reduction?
Click to expand...

Yes, it seems reasonable and in line with what other marinas do.

No, I've not heard of anyone who's had a substantial discount, but lots of marinas have offered smallish discounts on subsequent years berthing. (No-use to me, having my boat held hostage for weeks provided the impetus to move my boat somewhere without a lock gate!)
 
I have found French marinas incredibly reasonable when it comes to berthing - if you tell them on arrival that you don't know how long you plan to stay then they'll let you pay the weekly or monthly rate when you leave.

I can't speak for all British marinas, but Haven are stringent that you have to pay a month in advance if you want to get on the monthly rate. I bet that this policy is the result of past experience - people have asked for the monthly rate, and then tried to pay less after deciding to leave early.

In my opinion, @pauldowrick, the marina's attitude may be informed by the fact that you're "asking forgiveness, not permission". Had you called them at the end of the first month and said "let me settle my bill - how much do I owe you?" then the visitors' rates might've come to £550 for the first 4 weeks, but at least you'd have been in a position to ask them to move you onto longterm rates for the upcoming weeks.
 
Regardless of whatever the T&Cs might say, any contract must "meet the test of reasonableness", & that would be the legal starting point for your dispute. Were their actions reasonable. Something that would not be reasonable is continuing to rack up costs while there is an ongoing dispute about services.

I think you need to give us far more information to begin with, e.g.

When did this happen?​
Is it ongoing?​
Is it you or the boat (or both) that is trapped there?​
How & why did they "trap" you?​
How did you get in there to begin with? And​
How much is your boat worth?​

Firstly if it was to go legal, they'd have to be seen to negotiate/mediate first, so don't be afraid of that.

Secondly, I'd suspect that if it did end up going legal, a judge would agree that a reasonable solution was to compromise on transfering to normal costs on a pro rata basis.

Their legal position re withholding services is weak as most of the guidelines re Covid were just that, e.g. guidelines & not mandatory, & that boats & boat yards occupied an ambiguous position that wasn't really directly addressed.

I'd be putting on my poker visor & rolling up my sleeves. Write than a cheque for how much you think you should pay, e.g. pro rata on a normal rate minus a percentage for reduced access & services, & then politely tell them if they don't like it, to take you to court for the rest.
 
Oh, messages on moderation too now ... can't correct the typo. Last paragraph, "Write than a cheque". Should be "Write them a cheque".

I hope you allow it as I see people frightening the OP with mention of T&Cs but I don't see anyone mentioning the test of reasonableness.

The principles of "reasonableness" exist at common law but also in Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.
 
Morning all

It happened a few months ago. I pointed out that their TnC's say a visitor cannot stay more that 8 weeks, I was therefore not a visitor.

I proposed paying the pro rata annual fee plus a 10% uplift to reflect that I hadn't booked the year in advance.

They agreed and the bill has been reduced by £500. Very reasonable by them.

I would also like to point out that the static caravan industry has set a precedence on refunds for unusable services. In this case I was paying for storage and access to my boat. The later half was not provided. Also off site mechanics were not allowed to attend my boat to make it seaworthy.

Anyway, I am happy with the result.

Thank you all for your input.
 
Last edited:
pauldowrick said:
Morning all

It happened a few months ago. I pointed out that their TnC's say a visitor cannot stay more that 8 weeks, I was therefore not a visitor.

I proposed paying the pro rata annual fee plus a 10% uplift to reflect that I hadn't booked the year in advance.

They agreed and the bill has been reduced by £500. Very reasonable by them.

I would also like to point out that the static caravan industry has set a precedence on refunds for unusable services. In this case I was paying for storage and access to my boat. The later half was not provided. Also off site mechanics were not allowed to attend my boat to make it seaworthy.

Anyway, I am happy with the result.

Thank you all for you input.
Click to expand...

Result! Worth asking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top