Offer Before Viewing

[Aardee]

Hi All,

I'm currently trying to sell Aardee via a broker - She's a great little boat but far from expensive.

The broker called me last week to say he'd received a cash offer close enough to the asking price, subject to the boat being as represented and the motor running OK (their words, as relayed by the broker). They came to see Aardee on Saturday and it was a very strange viewing...They asked no questions about her and pointedly ignored both mine and the brokers attempts to engage with them (I had to be present as Aardee is moored at the bottom of my garden).

They spent about 30 minutes viewing, shook my hand and went back to the brokers office. The broker called me later to say they had withdrawn the offer with no explanation - No great surprise as the whole deal just felt a little odd from the beginning. The main thing which has annoyed me is that the broker stopped advertising the boat while "under offer" so that's 4 days wasted.

Purely hypothetically, was their offer in any way legally binding?

 

[jac]

A verbal contract is worth the paper it's written on.

If it is just an offer, give it up. If push comes to shove they will maintain that it wasn't as represented hence the offer being withdrawn.

If they have signed a contract and paid a deposit then you're on safer ground to at least retain the deposit

 

[Aardee]

Thanks Jac - I've no intention of pursuing it, I was just curious.

 

[jonic]

I have learnt from years of experience that an "offer" without a viewing is rarely serious.

Sometimes they can be money laundering scams. Be especially wary of "representatives" coming to see the boat on behalf of a purchaser overseas or offers to wire transfer holding deposits.

 

[jwilson]

As Jonic says, offers without prior viewings by the buyer are almost (but not always) trouble.

We ( https://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/ ) do not regard or mark a boat as "under offer" or allow a survey to start until a Sale & Purchase Agreement is signed and a deposit is lodged in our Clients Account. Your broker may have been premature in saying it was under offer, though technically it was, as a verbal offer is still legal (if in practice irrelevant).

We have sold several boats totally sight unseen, based on really good photos and a detailed inventory, and phone conversations and/or emails where I told the buyer everything I knew might be wrong with the boat, as well as the good bits. Boats sold this way have ranged from a newish Beneteau to an elderly half-tonner racer. With the Beneteau the buyers said "I know the model and want one of these, the survey will pick up anything wrong". It surveyed well and the sale went through quickly. With the half-tonner there was no survey and buyer saw the boat for the first time the day he set off for France in it. There have been others, but not that many.

Overall though, sight unseen offers, as Jonic says, usually fall through in the end.

 

[Robin]

We sold our last boat at full asking price,in USA sight unseen subject to viewing the following weekend. They had a full survey refused all my efforts to take the helm during a sea trial but went ahead anyway. Boat was in truly superb nick, very well equipped and fair priced Later the buyer turned out to be a true plonker and a serious pita for months later, even threatened to sue for his monrey back plus damsage' because the windlass was corroded and stopped working 18 months later. I would have much preferred a more conventional sale