Moral dilema....

Crazy-Diamond

Crazy-Diamond

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What would you do if, seeing a boat for sale with incorrect information? Would you tell the broker, or keep quiet?

I have seen a boat listed with a well known national broker. I walked away from the sale of this boat three years ago after the surveyor had done his inspection. He rang me to discuss the significant problem he found, and we agreed not to complete the survey and save some of his fee. We walked away from the sale because of this fault. This was 2016. The boat is for sale again now, with the same owner as it was then. It is described as having been surveyed in 2015 with all recommendations attended to.

I'm not sure exactly what the broker could do even if I did contact them. It isn't really any of my business, but I am considering a future purchaser. Mind you, they should get a survey. The owner may well have fixed the issue (which was going to cost £5k or thereabouts) and if so does not want to tell anyone that this problem has existed, but been fixed. The asking price is about £5k more than a few years ago....

Probably best to do nothing, but something is niggling........
 
4 years have passed, all sorts of work could have been done on the boat in that time. If the significant fault is still there, another surveyor will find it soon enough...
 
Crazy-Diamond said:
What would you do if, seeing a boat for sale with incorrect information? Would you tell the broker, or keep quiet?

I have seen a boat listed with a well known national broker. I walked away from the sale of this boat three years ago after the surveyor had done his inspection. He rang me to discuss the significant problem he found, and we agreed not to complete the survey and save some of his fee. We walked away from the sale because of this fault. This was 2016. The boat is for sale again now, with the same owner as it was then. It is described as having been surveyed in 2015 with all recommendations attended to.

I'm not sure exactly what the broker could do even if I did contact them. It isn't really any of my business, but I am considering a future purchaser. Mind you, they should get a survey. The owner may well have fixed the issue (which was going to cost £5k or thereabouts) and if so does not want to tell anyone that this problem has existed, but been fixed. The asking price is about £5k more than a few years ago....

Probably best to do nothing, but something is niggling........
Click to expand...
Most broker adverts seem to have an exclusion/denial clause, you buy from the owner.
 
If its not too far away why not go and have a look. If it has been fixed then you have no dilemma, moral or otherwise. If its not been fixed start worrying again.

Currently you don't know if you need to worry, at all.

Jonathan
 
Crazy-Diamond said:
What would you do if, seeing a boat for sale with incorrect information? Would you tell the broker, or keep quiet?.....

…..I'm not sure exactly what the broker could do even if I did contact them. It isn't really any of my business, but I am considering a future purchaser. Mind you, they should get a survey.....
Click to expand...

You've answered your own question.
 
Crazy-Diamond said:
What would you do if, seeing a boat for sale with incorrect information? Would you tell the broker, or keep quiet?
Click to expand...

If it is a safety issue I'd ring the broker. If not safety and only about money then I wouldn't. It may not make any difference... but it might and it's only a few minutes of time.
 
But would opinion change if the OP was a sorry tale of having bought a boat with an undisclosed £5K fault and someone posted that they'd spotted this five years ago and recognised the boat was again for sale but had chosen to say nowt? I for one would feel rather aggrieved at that.

Caveat emptor is all very well and we all know we should get a survey done but even so - try sueing a surveyor who missed something. It's going to cost a fortune and you can bet they're insured against that sort of thing...

I think there is a sound case for, as penberth said, 'considering a future purchaser'.
 
Old Bumbulum said:
But would opinion change if the OP was a sorry tale of having bought a boat with an undisclosed £5K fault and someone posted that they'd spotted this five years ago and recognised the boat was again for sale but had chosen to say nowt? I for one would feel rather aggrieved at that.

Caveat emptor is all very well and we all know we should get a survey done but even so - try sueing a surveyor who missed something. It's going to cost a fortune and you can bet they're insured against that sort of thing...

I think there is a sound case for, as penberth said, 'considering a future purchaser'.
Click to expand...

I wasn't considering a future purchaser, I was suggesting the OP has no need to get involved.
 
I assume its a different broker or they would already know the score. If it is worrying you why not email the broker with your concerns thus leaving evidence. If something went horribly wrong in future your conscience is clear.
 
Surely if it’s described as having been surveyed in 2015 with all recommendations attended to, then a significant fault was identified by another surveyor in 2016, the owner would have had a legitimate complaint (IMO) against the 2015 surveyor? Possibly (probably?) the owner has had the significant problem fixed - whether he paid for it himself or not? If he has, then no need to mention it now? But as others have said, a buyer should have their own survey before purchase so the fault should be identified at that point, I wouldn’t get involved frankly.
 
Not nearly enough information to take a view, but I understand your dilemma.

What was the issue? How much is £5k in relation to the cost of the vessel? Was the issue truly safety critical or one person's opinion that something needs fixing? If the £5k was made up of a lot of labour charges, maybe the owner has been chipping away at it since you walked away.

Having now disclosed your moral compass to this forum I think that you need to follow through. Is the vessel far away? Usually best to start a face to face conversation with the broker. No reason that it shouldn't be a sincere, friendly, helpful and informative two-way discussion.
 
The boat has survived since 2015 without sinking? Has it been in use over that time?
Maybe the 2015 surveyor was over-sensitive to the issue? Maybe even plain wrong? Maybe it was fixed?
There are plenty of £5k defects (at boatyard prices) which an amateur can put right for £500 over a winter.
I'm struggling to see what not-very-hidden defect a surveyor finds in the early stages of a survey which won't be apparent to a reasonably savvy buyer, let alone a full survey, 5 years later.
 
Lots could have been done in 3 years, and the vendor says all the Surveyors recommendations have been attended to. If you can actually SEE that the fault still exists, then so can others, and you could legitimately draw the brokers attention to it, as an interested party. If the fault is not visible externally then how do you know it has not been dealt with? Falsely challenging the claim its been fixed could land you in hot water yourself, without clear proof.
 
I think I would contact the broker and let him know what your survey found, it could well have been corrected.
If not doesn't the broker have some sort of duty regarding misrepresentation, having been told of an issue?
Was it with the same broker when you looked at it and did you tell the broker at the time what was found?
 
It was on sale for 15k in 2016. Now asking 20K.
I saw it afloat on a mooring last summer, not at the same place we viewed it.
It is a different broker.
 
It is 1.5hrs drive from home. Will my moral compass will be happy using up three hours driving, plus time there pretending to be interested in the boat!
 
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