mick1964

Excellent!!

true enough, but this is the canal boat industry were talking about here, ive had two close shaves myself now, first was svbc, they tried the old stage payments nonsense with me , £28k upfront, 18 months before doing anything, we all know what happened there. six months ago i was nearly going to order off big fish, again stage payments. 20 odd k . as i was heading off to china and japan for a 3 months i thought id think about it whilst i was away, not saying i would have got bumped by them of course, but makes you wonder, dont you think ?????

yeh i looked at one a few weeks ago, wasn't overly impressed.

where do you stand if the boat has outstanding finance on it ? is it like a car, where its not yours to sell until the loan is repaid ? can the boat be taken off the new " owner"

hi mjg, was the boat compass rose ? if it was, we asked the same questions, the price was too good to be true

well im feeling a little jealous of you folks this morning ! yes the lancaster is fabulous. we were up there in April, not boating im afraid to say. we were cycling lands end to john o groats and we decided to do it via as many canals as possible, the lancaster being one of them. i was amazed at the lack of boats, the K and A in comparison is like the m25! theres a great cafe at the basin, have the fish and chips, delicious ! mick

i never said they were crap boats or anything like that, what do i know? there's a massive green thing moored in temple quay in bristol, they use it for the magazine ads, its built like the titan.......... ok bad comparison !

hi everyone, well it seems my thread "builders gone bust " has been closed and lots of comments removed by the mods. in my opinion there wasnt anything on there that wasnt the truth,except for the bastdard bit, AMW's status at birth i wouldnt know,so sorry for that. what kind of discussion forum is it , if anything discussed , slighty sensitive gets removed ? if the mods on here are to scared to let people post topics that are in the boat buying publics interest, isnt it time they left the job to people that arent ? opinions please and thanks.

hi, yes i have. theyre just diwn the road from me in bristol (keynsham) . called in the yard a while back. talked about a "bespoke boat" . that is if you agreed to everything he put to you. an example being, i wanted a solid fuel stove. reply was " you dont want one of them , creats to much dust " dont worry about it i say " ill be doing the dusting " he told me he didnt do them any way. pretty standard kit i thought. a few moments later he piped up, " well got to go mate, some one has just pulled up who's spending 250k on a dutch barge " ok i said, can i have a look around, sure carry on he replied. a new boat had just been craned in the avon, listing like i dont know what, i walked over and poked my head in, to see a couple of guys using a circular saw to cut the solid oak floor up, i guess to get at the ballast. it was a right royal panic going on. the owner was going to take delivery of it later that afternoon. these things happen i suppose. give em chance to put things right i thought. then i cast my eye down the side of the boat to see a dent the size of tennis ball. i pointed it out to one of the lads wiping the windows down, to witch he replied " well lets hope they dont see it " this caused every body to fall about laughing. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm . thats all i can tell you about RLL. never considered them again , oddly enough.

well said gareth! if the guy wants to spend 2 of HIS hours moving his own c&@p, thats HIS business

hi every one, how many narrow boat builders have gone through the hoop since the "down turn" started, since say, september 2007 ? can you name the ones you know of ? ( no rumour mongers please, only the ones who have gone for sure) thanks mick.

hi everyone, if boat prices mirror house prices, then why are they so overpriced ? lets face it , with uk house prices in free fall why are nbs still so high, imho they must be, 835 on apollo duck now. called into harrall brokerage and the lady there told me not a single sale in months. ive seen the same boats up now for the last couple of years! surely the asking price is way too much ? what do you think ? if you paid £85k today , £45-50k in two years time? sentiment has all but evaporated in GB PLC since april. boats arent worth what they were last year. should they now be priced realistically ? regards mick

It is not difficult to issue a court claim - you can even do it online for claims up to £100,000. Here are the fees To issue a claim form where your claim is for money only and the amount is: up to £300 £30 £300.01 – £500 - £45 £500.01 – £1,000 - £65 £1,000.01 – £1,500 - £75 £1,500.01 – £3,000 - £85 £3,000.01 – £5,000 - £108 £5,000.01 – £15,000 - £225 £15,000.01 – £50,000 - £360 £50,000.01 – £100,000 - £630 £630!!! I bet the curtains on the boat cost more than this. I really don't understand why people do not stand up for themselves - It seems this company has traded insolvently, has got away with thousands of people's money - if it was my money I would have issued a claim straightaway and let the court decide whether he was trading insolvently. I accept that this is not always easy to prove but in this case he took the money only days before going into administration! Risking £500 quid or so has to be worth it. Also you don't have t use a lawyer, you can do it yourself. The trouble is that whilst people are allowed to get away with it, then they will continue to do it. You can ask to see his bank accounts, and check where the money has been paid. It must be worth at least a go - most solcitors offer half hour free advice anyway. Or give consumer direct a ring and ask them. Mick

For further information here is the HMRC take on wrongful trading http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/insmanual/ins44321.htm

With all due respect - trading whilst knowingly insolvent IS fraud - that is company law. A director who trades whilst knowing they are insolvent does not have the protection of limited liability and is PERSONALLY liable, as this amounts to wrongful trading. To take a cheque 3 days before calling in the administrators suggests very clearly of a knowledge of insolvency and I would suggest therefore a strong case for Pav having a personal claim against the director irrespective of his company status.

Pav This is obviously fraud - I am not a lawyer but i would think you could issue a claim in the civil courts for all your losses - i know this will only be of use if this crook has any assets, and as this is clearly fraud have you made a formal complaint to the police as fraud is a criminal offence? if not - why not? Too many people allow themselves to get totally shafted without doing anything about it. Don't be one of them! Comfort and caring messages are all very well but you have been done over for £26k and you should NOT take that lying down.

pav where are you ? whats the latest please tell !

I posted on here last June that I had concerns with this company (see my previous posts if you are interested) , although I didn't mention them by name as we were concerned about libelling them. We were told at the last Crick Show that there were problems with them paying suppliers. This will not be the last boat builder to go under in this coming recession. Buying a new boat is a minefield. I have decided to go for a newish secondhand boat instead - its less risky. Micky

yes i agree 100%. like my dear granny would say ( rest her cherry soul) " if you got nowt nice to say , shut the @~{}:? UP !!!!!! " yes i agree 100%. like my dear granny would say ( rest her cheE ry soul) " if you got nowt nice to say , shut the @~{}:? UP !!!!!! "

Oops sorry, still getting the hang of this. Pav I do hope things work out as you have decided to stick with your builder, I do sympathise with the difficulties you have had. I am also selling my house to live on a boat and have been finding the process a real minefield. I placed an order with a company based in Stourport-on-Severn who were exibiting at the NEC in February. I went to have a look at their yard and placed an order with a £500 deposit to (I thought) secure the build slot. About two weeks later the builder asked for £28,000 first stage payment to be paid immediately, a year before any work would be started. I was suspicious and contacted Consumer Direct. They advised that he was in breach of contract as he had asked for more money after the original contract had been struck. (No mention of the £28k payment had been made at the time I paid for the build slot and I had assumed the first tranche would be payable when the work had commenced on MY boat some 12 months on). I can only assume that due to cash flow problems the builder was looking to me to finance existing builds. At some stage if the deposits dry up the builder has a problem and so do any customers with money deposited with the company. I decided to ask for my £500 to be returned. He initially said no but when I said I would go to the credit card company with my complaint he reversed the transaction immediately. Consumer Direct advised me that as I had made the initial payment with a credit card, had I paid any more money over, the credit card has to refund that amount too, up to a maximum of £25k. As you started the original transaction with a credit card, if you decide to ask for your money to be refunded then you should be covered in the same way. We were surprised to see him at Crick as he was not on the list of exibitors. When talking to another builder at Crick he said he was owed money for materials paid to this boat company totalling £7k. Wouldn't be surprised if this builder goes soon, don't want to worry you unduly but I would keep a very close eye on what he is doing.