robbed

[plastic1972]

hello i am very new to this ,in fact this is my first posting . i have been reading mb momthly for some years now on an off but have been out of action for a while due to a back injury three years ago. ok what i am writing about is can anybody help me in my situation i bought a boat in 1997 its name is happy hands and it is a 33 ft corniche express it was one of the last boats built by collin chapman of lotus before the boat company he had went bust and the boat disapeared from the receavers and was not rediscovered till i maniged to get my hands on it buying it for cash from a boat company in stockport as the boat companny owners wife was devorcing him so he sold the boat to me cheap so she couldnt get her hands on the assets lol .but anyway i had the boat in storage for some years with a man who stores caravans and after my injury i was very ill for some time and could not pay the storage fee,s so the man who was storing the boat decided to sell the boat to someone else for a measly 11 hundred qwid i owed for rent . i explained my situation to him and as we are under no contract i thought the law was he had to turf my boat out onto the street and then sue me for my rent ,not be able to sell my boat . i think i know where the boat has gone as i know the man who was after my boat and i think they both got together and decided that it was an easy way of swindleing me out of my boat .can anyone help me in knowing if i have anyway of getting my boat back ,i am due some compensation for my back injury soon and will have monny to pay the back rent . also i teliphoned mb monthly editors up some years ago and spoke to them they said my boat could be worth a lot of monny to a collector and i should not let it go.many thanks ,,,stuart.

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[Talbot]

Check with a solicitor, it may be that you would be able to go to the police and report that it has been stolen!

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[jhr]

Phew; I'd get some expert advice on this.

In my opinion, the legal position is going to depend very much on what was said, by whom, to whom and when. For instance; did the guy give you any kind of formal notice of what he was going to do? Was there any kind of written agreement about the terms of storage between you and him?

If I were you, I'd try to assemble as much evidence (copies of any correspondence, a time line of what happened, any other relevant details including documents relating to your original purchase of the boat) and take them to a lawyer for his/her opinion. In the first instance, you may be able to get some cheap advice from the in house solicitor at your local Citizen's Advice Bureau, though they will not be an expert on the subject of boat ownership. The RYA have a legal team, and you may be able to turn to them if you are a member, although I don't suppose they will be wild about helping you if you join up just to get access to their lawyers.

I'm not a solicitor, by the way, so you should treat my advice as being worth what you paid for it /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

The Corniche is a beautiful boat (many say one of the most beautiful powerboats ever made) and much admired. I'm not sure it's going to be worth much more than any other boat of its age, for all that, but the guys at MBM are better informed than I.

Good luck; I hope you're able to resolve this. It sounds like you got a bum deal.

<hr width=100% size=1>Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho

 

[tcm]

not a hope, i think.

The manner in which you acquired ownership of the boat sounds murky, so i would not be at all sure that you acquired good title in the first place. Secondly, leaving the boat in storage for ages without paying sounds as though the storage owner reasonably believed that you abandoned it.

It will cost tons of legal fees, and in line with the general rule of paying 10% legals of the likely value returned against a boat worth 20k (say) 2 grand won't get anywhere, and not worth it. Forget it, and start again.

Finally, bearing in mind your iffy track record of not paying, a siolictior will need significant money up front. No deal, eh?

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[moodycruiser]

although I sympathize with you, would you not be better placed in putting this in another forum rather than the "live-aboards"??

<hr width=100% size=1>Tony

 

[DogStar]

I know that at South Dock marina, the Harbourmaster, Gary, is entitled to sell any boat whose owner is more than 3 years (I think) in arrears. He doesn't, but he can. Now, I think this is actually written into the small print of the forms you sign when you take on a berth. I'm no legal expert (as you can probably gather), but I believe that if you can prove ownership, the guy whom you owed money to had no right to sell your property unless it was specifically agreed as a penalty for non payment.

If I were you I'd get proper legal advice, rather than just let the boat go.

<hr width=100% size=1>I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!