Selling boat to foreigh buyer?

[Poignard]

This caused me, and the buyer, some anxiety when I sold my British-registered Twister to a Frenchman, but it turned out alright because the boat had been built before a certain cut-off date (in 1999 I think it was) when the recreational craft directive came into effect.

Fortunately, I had all the paperwork necessary to prove this.

 

[Momac]

Are you sure that applies for boats entering the EU as opposed to coming into the UK?

It's effectively the same thing except for boats sold in the UK the law is now called the Recreational Craft Regulations since 2017.
The regulations do not appear to say anything about the age of the boat so the current regulations will be applied to an old boat which may not succeed in practice,
VAT may be applied and possibly also customs duty.

If the example given earlier of a boat already in France and remaining in France and sold to a French person it is not being exported/imported so none of this applies assuming the boat was legitimately in France in the first place (eg in France before the date when the UK left the EU).

I thought the idea of importing of used boats had been killed off following the UK leaving the EU by all of the above regulations and VAT etc,

 

[Cariadco]

Should be ok, so long as the money transfer's not from Russia or any letters like 'RU' in any of the references, as then the Bank will hold it as 'Suspicious' or 'Fraudulent'..
Speaking from experience.

 

[Rappey]

A friend recently bought a french built boat in Holland and sailed it back. Boat is 1992, 10 metres. I asked him about importing. He said he has 18 months to pay the vat and import duty and that's it !

 

[st599]

A friend recently bought a french built boat in Holland and sailed it back. Boat is 1992, 10 metres. I asked him about importing. He said he has 18 months to pay the vat and import duty and that's it !

If he's a UK resident and sailed it to the UK, he doesn't have 18 months, he needs to pay VAT and prove compliance on import.

 

[Tranona]

Yes. The UK rules are a copy and paste of the EU rules.

That does not answer my question which was about a boat being sold in the UK to an EU buyer for use in the EU. As I understand it they have not removed the exemption for EU built boats of any age and there have been reports here from people who have found this is the case. It is only the RCD standards that are cut and paste, not the eligibility.

 

[Graham376]

Although not my problem I would feel bad to let a buyer travel a long way to see a boat thinking VAT paid in EU/EEC when as I understand it a boat in the UK on the Brexit effective date starts again from scratch and VAT is payable on entry into the EU. Is this correct?

As you say, not your problem I would just ask the purchaser if he realised VAT would apply on importation and maybe RCD. However, these can usually be avoided by Polish registration, which just requires the fee being paid without any proof of status. As far as payment is concerned, I've always used Wise for international transfers, bank occasionally asks what the funds were for but never any questions from HMRC.

 

[Rappey]

If he's a UK resident and sailed it to the UK, he doesn't have 18 months, he needs to pay VAT and prove compliance on import

I see a visitors boat gets 18 months . Ive not come across anything that says it has to pass rcd (rcr). The boat is pre rcd (june 1998) so rcd does not apply ? This site is a customs import agent and has information but not quite enough to state whether it does or does not need a rcd for import/export .

Sailing a pleasure craft into UK waters?

 

[Glisferox]

I sold a boat to an American through Boatfolk Hamble.

On the money side the funds came to me through the broker, so the payment side of it was easy. Moreover the foreign transfer was to the broker account meaning I was not flagged as accepting a foreign transfer. A broker just makes this easier.

On the RCD side. The boat was effectively did not have an RCD having been a self completion/build using a production hull. Initially I thought the date that mattered was the launch date in 2000, but apparently the hull manufacture date (1996) was the start point, so the boat was exempt from the RCD.

From the point of an EU buyer, it is their job to sort out the EU RCD, which I believe, has to be done for all imported boats.

The broker also insisted that any buyer had a survey done to manage liability. Essentially the boat was sold in a known state to the buyer so they could not come back to either the broker or myself.

Another point on RCD in this country (not the EU), the guidance has been relaxed for older self-builds, since there are many perfectly safe non RCD compliant boats around and, I suspect, it was starting to cause a problem.