SSR renewal

J

Joker

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The SSR for my boat is due to expire in May. I went to the MCGA website to renew the certificate online. I looked at all the various options available, and none of them seemed to have anything to do with a simple renewal. In despair, I sent off an e-mail to their help desk and got the following response:
"Dear Sir, We do not have a Renewal option, however we advise you to use option 2 which is for the re-registration of a vessel and in the additional notes mention you wish to renew."
I'm afraid to say this is completely barking. The certificate expires every five years. We therefore have to renew every five years. Not to have a renewal option on the website strikes me as incredibly unhelpful.
Indeed, I did try option two last night, and it started asking for the numbers of new owners,and since there weren't any new owners, I abandoned that option.
Is it just me, or are the people who design the website utterly and completely incompetent?
 
I think they write to your last known address with a renewal form a couple of months in advance. I agree seems a bit clunky in this day and age....
 
richardsn9 said:
I think they write to your last known address with a renewal form a couple of months in advance. I agree seems a bit clunky in this day and age....
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I've paid over the phone with a card before, explaining I was working overseas and would have difficulty sending a cheque in for renewal. Part of it may be to check that you are in fact a UK resident and living at that address.
 
macd said:
I think that's quite likely. They do seem to have toughened up on the residence requirement in recent years.
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Does the residence requirement apply to a renewal and what if you happen to be sailing in far off lands with no UK address when the SSR expires.
 
Rogershaw said:
Does the residence requirement apply to a renewal and what if you happen to be sailing in far off lands with no UK address when the SSR expires.
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If you don't have a UK address then I don't think you can argue about being eligible to have an SSR. I know someone got rumbled trying to pay with a foreign credit card.
 
Rogershaw said:
...and what if you happen to be sailing in far off lands with no UK address when the SSR expires.
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...then you might have a problem. This has been posted, and due cautions given, on several occasions since it became apparent that MCGA were tightening up on the residence qualification.

There's a case that the whole SSR edifice has been somewhat ambiguous since its inception (to mollify French officialdom). I've personally been told by a MCGA official that it was intended for "occasional trips overseas". Whether this was his view or his employer's, I've no idea. My understanding is that SSR registration does not meet international law inasmuch as it includes no port of registry. Yet the fact remains that the majority, probably the vast majority, of UK vessels overseas are on the SSR: so much so that Part 1 documents are occasionally greeted with unfamiliarity.
 
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The SSR is a wonderful simple system, invented in the face of increasing regulation that gives us a bit of paper to keep overseas folks happy for next to nothing. The downside is that some people have found it an easy way to circumvent national regulations about registering their boats (visit the Athens marinas sometime and see the number of SSR registered boats....). For this reason the MCA have slightly moved the goalposts from a fairly relaxed 'normally resident' to a 'must live in UK for more than 183 days a year'.
Part of catching out the folks who used the earlier definition is not allowing on line renewal, it has to be done by post. I don't have a problem with this, as it still costs peanuts and if it keeps the SSR up and running, it has my support. I'd prefer not to be pushed down the line of Part 1 registration, simply because of the relatively costly survey requirements.
 
duncan99210 said:
For this reason the MCA have slightly moved the goalposts from a fairly relaxed 'normally resident' to a 'must live in UK for more than 183 days a year'.
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The term they use is "ordinarily resident" which is notoriously ill-defined in statute. They go on to suggest that residence in the UK for 185 days per year would meet the test, although this is pretty arbitrary. Basically, nothing much has changed except their determination to enforce their own rules.
 
macd said:
The term they use is "ordinarily resident" which is notoriously ill-defined in statute. They go on to suggest that residence in the UK for 185 days per year would meet the test, although this is pretty arbitrary. Basically, nothing much has changed except their determination to enforce their own rules.
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The definition has changed. It used to use words to the effect that you were required to be normally resident to get on the register and then qualified it be saying if you were a UK tax payer, that'd do. They now specify the residency rule. No idea if it'd stand up to a legal challenge but it would seem that someone in Cardiff has decided to try and change things somewhat in terms of enforcement.
 
duncan99210 said:
TThey now specify the residency rule. No idea if it'd stand up to a legal challenge but it would seem that someone in Cardiff has decided to try and change things somewhat in terms of enforcement.
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This 6 months in residence seems to have been instigated by the idiot EC rule makers. Virtually every time I want to do something such as take out insurance, open a bank account, change utility supplier, I'm asked if I've been in the UK for the last 6 months. If you're out of any EC state for more than 6 months then you're no longer resident there.
 
For anyone voyaging in distant parts with an SSR coming up for renewal and who has not spent 183+ days in the UK in the last year all is not lost.

You can still register under Part 1, the 183 days rule does not apply. Most is done on line. However you need to find a surveyor that is recognized by the MCA to carry out the arcane Thames tonnage measurements. They also take pics of the boat and record engine details including numbers. If you know you need such a surveyor it may pay you to register early when you are close to such a surveyor. Otherwise you may have to pay some serious travel and accommodation costs. Think in thousands.

I have just been through this and chose to register on part 1 when I was in Grenada and close to the excellent local MCA surveyor.
 
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