Med boat buying again (sorry)

andy59

andy59

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I have seen a boat on my wish list but am struggling to find the confidence to dive in and have a stab at it based on the fact that it is an Italian registered boat in a French marina and has "coincidentaly" been taken in part ex by the broker the day after my email landed . They cant seem to give me any maintenance info either , am I smelling a rat that's not there ? . Any advise or opinion gratefully received .
 
Who is the broker?

Are they a long established business with Internet history?

If the answer is no then consider boats.com offer to deal with the purchase.

If yes then go for it
 
I wouldn't necessarily smell a rat. Has the broker taken the px, or maybe one of his sellers and he is trying to sell it on their behalf. Either way, particularly at this stage in the season, you'd want to get the px on the market ASAP because most people who planned to change for this summer already have. In that case, it could be sensible to market the boat before taking delivery, or between contract and completion, and that may also explain why the broker doesn't have all the servicing info yet.

Where in France is the boat, if there's a forumite in the marina they may be able to have a quick look see for you, to see if it's worth a trip.
 
Boat and broker are in Beaulieu-sur-mer . I am aiming to go down in the next couple of weeks but work is a bit hectic at the moment .
 
Possibly the boat has been offered for sale through various brokers and the part exchange 'coincidence' is a ruse by the broker you have contacted to try to trick you into dealing just with him rather than any of the other brokers. With regard to maintenance info, I wouldn't expect the broker to have that kind of info to hand but he should be willing to contact the owner to answer any questions you have.

These are questions to ask if you are interested in the boat. One question you should definitely ask is whether the boat is subject to a leasing because many Italian boats are. If you do proceed further then you need to get a settlement figure and divert a proportion of the price you pay directly to the leasing company to pay off the lease rather than rely on the seller to do it. If it isn't subject to a lease then you need to ask whether the boat is VAT paid and, if it is, insist that you get original documentation to confirm that. If you want to re-register the boat in the UK you're going to need at least 5 yrs of original title documentation to do that so ask to see it. Alternatively, you could simply SSR register it. De-registering from the Italian registry shouldn't be an issue.

Ask the broker whether the boat has been chartered and if so, how hard. You should see this anyway in the engine hours and condition of the boat but a boat thats been heavily chartered should fetch less money
 
Thanks for all the info guys , I am trying to keep my eyes wide open . BTW is € 1500 a month about right for a 14 m berth ?
 
andy59 said:
Thanks for all the info guys , I am trying to keep my eyes wide open . BTW is € 1500 a month about right for a 14 m berth ?
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Depends on where you are!! I suppose it sounds about right for SoF but there are much cheaper berths around the Med. For example, I will pay about €8500 to park my 63 footer in Sardinia for the whole year this year
 
jrudge said:
Deleted User at that price I suspect I will be following another of your marina recommendations. Where? ....
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I spent the winter here http://www.marinadicapitana.it where they charged me about €4000 for 6 months and I'm going to spend the summer here http://www.marinesifredi.it where they're going to charge me just over €4000 for 5 1/2 months. The latter marina is where Mapism of this parish currently moors and where there'll be a few other forumites coming and going this year

The south of Sardinia is different from Majorca, less developed, less crowded but your teenage children won't like it!

PS the Marina Sifredi link is down at the moment but it was working earlier today
 
jrudge said:
Deleted User at that price I suspect I will be following another of your marina recommendations. Where? ....
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At risk of sounding boring, Sant Carles has some great value prices for berthing and only 100 miles from Mallorca etc.
Having said that, we are one of the forum boats heading to Marina Sifredi in Sardinia this summer.
Maybe thats another benefit of Sant Carles - even Sardinia isn't that far away (190 miles from Menorca).
 
I don't think it's good advice to "insist that you get the original documentation" to confirm VAT. As has been discussed on here many times, this isn't always possible to obtain proof even in the UK and C&E will definitely not help track any down. All endeavors should be made of course, but sometimes it's just not possible even with a British built boat which has never left the UK.

Good advice on lease status.
 
An interesting point to consider if buying a Spanish boat.

They don't seem to worry about VAT because the Spanish yacht register keeps a full accountable record of the boat's history (including IVA/VAT)
In fact, I was once in a meeting where the Spanish vendor was completely baffled when we asked for proof of tax status.
It seems that once a boat is on the Spanish register as a private (tax paid) boat, it can be sold several times (in Spain) without the need to check.

Just a point worth noting.
I'd probably still ask the questions though.
 
andy59 said:
Nail on head Capsco , do you have an interest ?
Old git on another thread has posted this link as well http://www.theyachtmarket.com/boats_for_sale/1112368/ , also good value on the face of it .
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The P42 was of interest to me, but there seemed to be something not quite right about it, I had a Frenchman look into it for me and he was also a little concerned, so I decided to pass on it, at least for now!
 
Corky said:
I don't think it's good advice to "insist that you get the original documentation" to confirm VAT. As has been discussed on here many times, this isn't always possible to obtain proof even in the UK and C&E will definitely not help track any down. All endeavors should be made of course, but sometimes it's just not possible even with a British built boat which has never left the UK.

Good advice on lease status.
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Agreed, sometimes its not possible to get VAT documentation in which case the only sensible course of action is for the buyer to assume that VAT hasn't been paid on it and value it accordingly. I agree that that it is very unlikely that you will be asked to prove VAT status of your boat anywhere in the UK or the Med, although I was asked in Holland many years ago on a MBM cruise, but you never know whats going to happen in the future. With so many boats for sale in the Med, why pay top dollar for a boat without VAT documentation when the next one may well have it

I bought my last 2 boats in Italy and they definitely know the difference between VAT paid and ex VAT there
 
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