[Help need finding a boat for liveaboard]

23 minutes ago, David Mack said:

At 15k you are looking at bargain basement narrowboats. You are likely to only find older boats, which may well suffer from thinning hull plating, unless already overplated. So spending a few hundred quid on a lift out and survey, only to be told what was entirely predictable, is not exactly a good use of your limited cash. But then neither is buying a colander which sinks soon after you move on board.

As you are only looking for a smaller boat you should consider looking at GRP cruisers instead. You generally get a better boat for your money at that level. There's a few threads on here discussing GRP options.

I did look, and i thought about a grp cruiser, but was concerned about them being wider than 7ft as would be hoping to spend a few weeks in birmingham next year and then onto manchester and back and looking at some of the canals in birmingham a grp isn't going to fit.

I could do smaller narrow boat, but then there seems to be more issues with very small springers (due to thickness of steel in their construction.

Cheers for the info, I am looking at all possible options and looking at other threads on here.

[Help need finding a boat for liveaboard]

7 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

In my opinion the beauty of a boat is that it moves and enables anyone to get the hell out of London, not end up stuck there!!

Hopefully, that's part of the plan, and spend a couple of months of the year elsewhere.

[Help need finding a boat for liveaboard]

Hi New here,  so have managed to save up £15k so I can get a narrowboat for liveaboard.  and have been looking around for a few months now checking prices, seeing what is on offer, and there have been a few bargains about.    I've missed out on a couple in the last few days, as sellers have either just ignored contact or contact after a day or two just to say the boat was sold.

I keep seeing everywhere, people stating get a survey done before you buy and not to bother trusting a survey that's been done previous.
How practical is this to actually do before someone else just turns up and buys?
What if the boat is miles away?  What if the boat is not actually moored up anywhere near a marina or somewhere you can get it lifted out and surveyed?
What if during the liftout/survey someone else just waltzes in and pays the asking price?   (I am guessing this is why people use a brokerage?)
 

I don't really want to be paying out money for something that I don't even own yet, and like others, I don't really want to buy something that will end up sinking in a few weeks, because it's a lot of money just to throw into a canal.  I've bought a couple of motorbikes previously, and they had their mots done a week prior to me buying. Couple months in and there is no way they should have passed an mot, but I know hell of a lot more about bikes now.
.
So am budgeting roughly £15k for a boat, and then I have some cash spare for obviously survey, some repair work, blacking if needed,  (maybe adding solar if it doesn't have already),
I am aiming for something somewhere between 30-40 feet, as it will just be me.   I'm not particularly fussed on the inside, though open plan would better and that way I could customise layout with DIY.
I've watched vids and checked posts on what to look out for, thing is buying

I'm not even sure what questions I need to be asking when approaching someone who is selling their boat.

Though I do need to move soon as am getting evicted at end of oct, and I don't want that to just influence me into buying 1st boat available in my budget, am currently living in london and the plan is to continuous cruise here.  I really could use some hints, tips and if anyone willing to help walkthrough some of what I need to look out for.

Cheers
Paul

[Price discrepancies between surveyors.]

On 13/09/2020 at 20:17, Alan de Enfield said:

Bear in mind that in most cases you are also going to have to pay for a 'lift out' and a 'drop back in' after the survey £1000 'all in' would not be unreasonable to budget for.

 

The problem comes when folk are looking at the 'bottom end' of the market (say sub £20,000) and the boats in that price range are 'not the best'. You pay a £1000 for a survey, and the boat 'fails', you now have £19,000 so look at slightly cheaper boats, find one, pay £1000 and have it surveyed, it fails quite badly so you now have £18,000  ..........................

 

You can see where this is going.

 

If buying on a limited budget you either :

 

1) have to accept you are not going to be able to buy a boat that will remain floating.

2) buy a campervan

3) keep saving until you get enough saved up to take you up into the next price bracket where 'good' boats can be found

4) start a crowd-funding page

I am on the lookout for a narrowboat and this is what I find irritating...a boat could end up with a dozen surveys done on it. and i've seen people selling surveys of boats because they didn't buy the boat.   Why can't there be a change of practice, that if you want to sell your boat, get a survey, which will give you a more realistic cost, you can get, and also notify the buyers of precisely what needs doing.