Made offer on Yacht, but heard nothing yet.

Alistairr

Alistairr

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Dec 2002
Messages
11,584
Location
North Ayrshire/ Glencoe
Visit site
Made an offer on a yacht on Brokerage last Wednesday. So far broker has been unable to make contact with the seller and they haven’t replied to his emails yet.

What are the chances of Santa delivering the good news tomorrow??;)

Actually, hopefully we’ll hear later in the week and hopefully it’s good news.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Alistairr.
 
Owner may well of gone off on his Xmas Hols but seems a bit queer that a text or message has not seeped through.
Would have thought an offer at this time of year is a pretty rare thing ?
 
Maybe the owner is too embarrassed to tell the broker that he mentally took the boat off the market in November but failed to communicate this fact to the broker at the time. This happened to me and I was the seller, fortunately by the time an offer arrived my yacht was notionally back on the market.

I suggest the OP hangs in there for 2 weeks before moving on, the seller might be mid Atlantic on a P&O cruise ship.
 
In view of the lack of response I would withdraw the obligatory element of your offer. This leaves your offer open for the vendor to consider, but now as a notional offer only, and leaves you free to consider any alternatives.

I would put this in writing.
 
superheat6k said:
In view of the lack of response I would withdraw the obligatory element of your offer. This leaves your offer open for the vendor to consider, but now as a notional offer only, and leaves you free to consider any alternatives.

I would put this in writing.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say is in any obligation any way while his offer on the table, he can still look else's where and as some do make offers on other boats,
It's hard to comment on the OP , as we don't know the asking price and what the offer was,
One offer I got for my last boat was so ridiculous, I didn't reply to any of his emails,
My opinion was if he wanted to take the P, go ahead but I wasn't wasting my time communication of him.
That's not to say this is the same in this situation.
The other side of the story has the brokers passed the offer on, I know they suppose to pass all offers on .
 
Last edited:
sailaboutvic said:
I wouldn't say is in any obligation any way while his offer on the table, he can still look else's where and as some do make offers on other boats,
It's hard to comment on the OP , as we don't know the asking price and what the offer was,
One offer I got for my last boat was so ridiculous, I didn't reply to any of his emails,
My opinion was if he wanted to take the P, go ahead but I wasn't wasting my time communication of him.
That's not to say this is the same in this situation.
The other side of the story has the brokers passed the offer on, I know they suppose to pass all offers on .
Click to expand...
Whereas what you suggest might be common practice, my view of an 'offer' made in good faith is that this is legally binding upon the offerer, pending a reasonable period for the vendor to respond, so he may decline the offer or he may accept it, and in the case of the latter a (legally binding) deal is done.

For the offerer to then withdraw is, in my view, at the very least ungentlemanly conduct, and for this reason of gentlemanly decency if nothing else, and in view that the 'reasonable ness' has in this specific case been exceeded, he should withdraw the obligatory nature of his offer.

Without commitment to an 'offer' then all such offers just become touts, in which case that is what the offer should be couched as in the first place, a tout to buy with nil commitment should the vendor then say 'yes'.

Having said this, my own preference when searching for a boat is to offer a tout in clearly couched terms that it is just such.

"I would consider an offer of £X,000, based upon x, y, & z, which I appreciate may not factor in regard to the asking price"

"Well thank you for that suggestion, but that is unlikely to secure a sale" (which could be written in far simpler / coarser words of course !)

OR

"Well actually if that were placed as an offer I am sure we may have, or at least be close to, a deal"

This provides a clear option to sound out a potential agreement of value, whilst not placing any form of commitment between parties, which is perfectly fair, but never should this be confused with a proper offer. Following a tout that is agreed to there can then follow a proper offer and acceptance, arriving at the same place of a deal being done.

This approach where the AP is no where close to the likely sale value can be very useful. Many brokers do not like it, but then many brokers are very good at over valuing craft on their listings.
 
Last edited:
I think any offer made should at least receive a polite thank you. As for binding, well I received an offer by a boat dealer via a broker for a boat I have for sale. it was 50% less but on the basis as seen and collect next week. I accepted via the broker, and he dealer changed his mind on completion day. so not sure if anything is binding now.

Steveeasy i
 
Last edited:
lpdsn said:
I guess it was always a case that you had to sue so no more or less binding than in the past.
Click to expand...

In this case not bothered but yes I appreciate that the seller would need to sue. Thinking more on this, still not sure how successful anyone would be as although an offer might be binding, really what loss does the seller really have. it does not really make sense.

steveeasy
 
superheat6k said:
Whereas what you suggest might be common practice, my view of an 'offer' made in good faith is that this is legally binding upon the offerer, pending a reasonable period for the vendor to respond, so he may decline the offer or he may accept it, and in the case of the latter a (legally binding) deal is done.

For the offerer to then withdraw is, in my view, at the very least ungentlemanly conduct, and for this reason of gentlemanly decency if nothing else, and in view that the 'reasonable ness' has in this specific case been exceeded, he should withdraw the obligatory nature of his offer.

Without commitment to an 'offer' then all such offers just become touts, in which case that is what the offer should be couched as in the first place, a tout to buy with nil commitment should the vendor then say 'yes'.

Having said this, my own preference when searching for a boat is to offer a tout in clearly couched terms that it is just such.

"I would consider an offer of £X,000, based upon x, y, & z, which I appreciate may not factor in regard to the asking price"

"Well thank you for that suggestion, but that is unlikely to secure a sale" (which could be written in far simpler / coarser words of course !)

OR

"Well actually if that were placed as an offer I am sure we may have, or at least be close to, a deal"

This provides a clear option to sound out a potential agreement of value, whilst not placing any form of commitment between parties, which is perfectly fair, but never should this be confused with a proper offer. Following a tout that is agreed to there can then follow a proper offer and acceptance, arriving at the same place of a deal being done.

This approach where the AP is no where close to the likely sale value can be very useful. Many brokers do not like it, but then many brokers are very good at over valuing craft on their listings.
Click to expand...

An offer is just that. There is no obligation implied at all - it only becomes binding if it is accepted. Even your conditional offer has no obligation attached to it. All you are doing is entering into the negotiation stage. A binding contract requires both parties to agree.

By all means put a time limit on the offer, but that does not change its nature, only makes it clear that you would like a response by a certain time.

Until a contract is made, all offers are just expressions of interest.

Nothing "ungentlemanly" about withdrawing of changing an offer. It is a business transaction.
 
steveeasy said:
In this case not bothered but yes I appreciate that the seller would need to sue. Thinking more on this, still not sure how successful anyone would be as although an offer might be binding, really what loss does the seller really have. it does not really make sense.

steveeasy
Click to expand...

The loss is the sale of the boat. In theory you could make him go ahead with purchasing your boat.

The amount of hassle involved though...
 
lpdsn said:
The loss is the sale of the boat. In theory you could make him go ahead with purchasing your boat.

The amount of hassle involved though...
Click to expand...

I understand the rational, but cant see it being successful. I very much doubt if anyone has pursued such a claim. Back to the original post. Very odd not to get a response from the seller.

Steveeasy
 
To be fair to the seller we don't know the offer in relationship to the asking price, if the op was too ambitious with his haggling his offer might have just got a 'delete'.
 
steveeasy said:
I understand the rational, but cant see it being successful. I very much doubt if anyone has pursued such a claim. Back to the original post. Very odd not to get a response from the seller.

Steveeasy
Click to expand...

Presuming you had evidence of your arrangement with the dealer you could hardly fail as it is a clear breach of contract for which countless thousands of plaintiffs have successfully sued. For the tort of contract, unlike for negligence, there is no need to demonstrate loss.
 
Quiddle said:
Presuming you had evidence of your arrangement with the dealer you could hardly fail as it is a clear breach of contract for which countless thousands of plaintiffs have successfully sued. For the tort of
contract, unlike for negligence, there is no need to demonstrate loss.
Click to expand...
It would be an offer subject to survey, nothing more, nothing legally binding. No final cost set
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top