Whp is responsible for a yacht if it is traded in?

[Oscarpop]

We sailed our yacht round to the South coast where she is being traded against a new boat.

I have handed over the keys and cleared the boat of all my posessions. Nothing has been signed over although they have all the ships papers, and I no longer intend to use the boat any longer.

It did however occur to me that if the boat was involved in an accident, at what point does the responsibility shift from mine to the boat yard?

Obviously, should such a thing occur we would both be squabbling over liability, but I would like to hear the forums take on this.

 

[duncan99210]

IMO if you've got nothing signed transferring ownership to another person/company, the boat is still yours and your responsibility. You may be able to spread the blame around a little to whoever you've traded the boat to, but without some sort of handover paperwork, I'd say the liability is yours. Might be an idea to keep some 3rd party insurance running on it until you have got some paperwork transfering ownership to the company you got your new boat from.

 

[lenseman]

You need to be asking this question with the boatyard and brokerage handling the sale and you need a written agreement laying out all the details.

Until that time you need to check whether your insurance covers this situation (allowing unknown others onboard in your absence?)

 

[Tranona]

You need to be clear about the contractural relationship. From what you say, the builder has not bought your boat from you, but may have it on brokerage to sell and offset the proceeds against your new boat. On the other hand if they have agreed a fixed value then they should buy the boat from you and then it becomes their responsibility. However, doubt they will want to do this at this point as they will become a dealer and will be bound by consumer legislation to the ultimate buyer.

You need to discuss it with them - if it stays on brokerage then it remains your property (so you will need to insure it) and when it is sold the transaction is between you and the buyer. If it is not sold before your new boat is ready you need to know how the builder will deal with that.

Get whatever you agree in writing so there is no room for dispute. No doubt the builder has a mechanism for doing all this as they will have done it before.

 

[PeterGibbs]

We sailed our yacht round to the South coast where she is being traded against a new boat.

I have handed over the keys and cleared the boat of all my posessions. Nothing has been signed over although they have all the ships papers, and I no longer intend to use the boat any longer.

It did however occur to me that if the boat was involved in an accident, at what point does the responsibility shift from mine to the boat yard?

Obviously, should such a thing occur we would both be squabbling over liability, but I would like to hear the forums take on this.

Although this is apparently part of a deal you do need to treat it as a stand-alone. Your boat has been traded in value, and you require a proper receipt for it, dated and signed by someone in authority. Because you have handed over the boat does not mean it is now the property of the agent / vendor - only when you have clearly consigned it and it has been accepted as a transfer.

Secure your interests promptly even though you may well have nothing to fear from an addled transaction...When you take over your new boat watch how the vendor insures his interests, clearing money before keys are parted with etc etc. You should be no less diligent.

PWG

 

[maby]

What are the fine details of the arrangement? We have only recently been through exactly the same process and it worked like this:

1) Dealer quoted us a trade-in price which they guaranteed.
2) Dealer took boat onto their moorings and put it up for sale as a broker - boat was still ours and remained our liability.
3) In our case, the dealer found a buyer for our boat before delivery of our new boat and at a (slightly) higher price than the guaranteed trade-in value. Dealer facilitated the transaction between us and the purchaser working as a broker after which we were able to cancel our insurance. The actual price paid for the boat went into the dealer's Client Account against the purchase of the new boat.
4) If our old boat had not sold by the time the new one was delivered, the dealer would have paid the agreed valuation for it and it would have become his property to sell as best he could. We would have then cancelled our insurance.

 

[angelsson]

We sailed our yacht round to the South coast where she is being traded against a new boat.

I have handed over the keys and cleared the boat of all my posessions. Nothing has been signed over although they have all the ships papers, and I no longer intend to use the boat any longer.

It did however occur to me that if the boat was involved in an accident, at what point does the responsibility shift from mine to the boat yard?

Obviously, should such a thing occur we would both be squabbling over liability, but I would like to hear the forums take on this.

I would notify your insurance immediatly, they will need full details, should have been done on transfer and keep it fully insured until transaction completed, small price to pay if things go wrong.

 

[Nick_Pam]

What are the fine details of the arrangement? We have only recently been through exactly the same process and it worked like this:

1) Dealer quoted us a trade-in price which they guaranteed.
2) Dealer took boat onto their moorings and put it up for sale as a broker - boat was still ours and remained our liability.
3) In our case, the dealer found a buyer for our boat before delivery of our new boat and at a (slightly) higher price than the guaranteed trade-in value. Dealer facilitated the transaction between us and the purchaser working as a broker after which we were able to cancel our insurance. The actual price paid for the boat went into the dealer's Client Account against the purchase of the new boat.
4) If our old boat had not sold by the time the new one was delivered, the dealer would have paid the agreed valuation for it and it would have become his property to sell as best he could. We would have then cancelled our insurance.

In our case the dealer didn't find a buyer prior to the delivery of our new one, so we continued to insure it until the date of handover of our new one and they accounted in the price of our new one the agreed value of our old one.

 

[Oscarpop]

many thanks. I am keeping the insurance until it sells or is traded in. My question arose because I moored alongside one of the builders new yachts as instructed. If however a storm blew up or either boat was damaged in subsequent movings, would i be liable as I had left the boat in perfectly good order