paul851

Well after some weeks harrel has finaly posted this on his website, with a small mention that its slightly wide!!!!and priced accordingly! no mention thats its been judged worth thousands less by a judge........ . http://www.harralbrokerage.co.uk/search.asp?a=nl

I have been waiting for narrowboat skylark to appear online, but it looks like it is not going to, I can now reveal that the boat deemed unfit for purpose and worthless. is for sale for £52950(thats only 4 thousand less than it was sold for as new in 2006) in Harrals brokerage in northwich, it is slightly strange as to why it has not been listed on the web site, maybe to keep it away from interested parties and sold discretely???? i would like to thank every one for their suppport in this case.

the boat arrived at the brokers yesterday afternoon, the boat is not yet online,Iam going to speak to the brokers before naming them.

carl ,you have obviously got hold of the wrong end of the stick, all along I said in court that there is nothing wrong with the boat, the reply you have quoted is after the judge deemed it unfit, I was meerly warning that if they buy a .........boat it may well be deemed unfit, as this one was. the boat builder went bust as soon as he heard there was a problem, however is re trading under another name. I think you are all missing the point, its been judged by a crown court judge as worth thousands less than a simular "thinner" boat, how can it be sold at 50k.

they won undisclosed damages, thousands of pounds!! after changing their evidence on the morning of the case, and that evidence winning the case. the compensation was supposed to be the difference in the value of a 7' boat and a 6' 10" boat, so how can they sell for full value??

You may remember the case between a couple who bought a boat that they said was too wide at 7' 1/16" the case went to court and they won the case with the judge saying "it is worth substancial damages" as they stated in sworn evidence that the boat wont fit in some 30 locks on various canals, and as it was " their cherished dream to travel the canal system" the boat fitter who sold the boat was forced in to paying an undisclosed but substancial damages.. you can read their experts report at the link below. https://acrobat.com/#d=YOYSleWtqda7mUMPWHIfdw you will notice that he states the boats was worth at the time of sale at £36000, and that british waterways lock keeper said it is dangerous and unadvisable to navigate hurlstoon locks.. HOWEVER, the very same boat has now turned up for sale at a well known brokerage for ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,wait for it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,£50 000.. to be fair, the brokers first words are "i have to tell you its 7' wide" however he then states that the boat has been up the llangollen so there should be no problem, a complete contradiction to three years of legal battle, where they said it was far too dangerous to navigate narrow locks. here is a reminder of the case and also the judges report.. http://www.grannybuttons.com/granny_button...oats-width.html NOW TELL ME THE LAW IS NOT AN ASS

You might have heard of or read my posts last year, of the boat that was 7'1/6" wide, and deemed unfit for purpose as a narrowboat by judge Dereck Halbert in Chester county court,and declared to be worth some 40% less than a "narrower " boat, well, this hull was bought from Stirling Boats, even though stirling never built boats this boat was sold to me as a stirling shell, only right at the end of the build I found out that infact had been built by Bickton boats, in a neighbouring yard to stirling, again passed off by Jim as his yard. BEWARE, If this is a Stirling/Bickton boat, its not fit for purpose!! also to add to the story Stirling,who did fit the engine,which, after 250 hours broke free from its mountings, after apparently, being crow barred into alaignment with the prop shaft. When I was purchasing the boat in 2006, there was a boat returned to stirlings yard after most of its trims buckled and either fell off or twisted beyond repair. get a survey on this boat,inc width, it could land you in trouble in the future.

I wouldnt moor down at the basin in Chester, the telfords wharehouse pub is great, but, it is on the highway for all the scum from Blacon to rob, vandalise, and all round abuse boaters moored on the basin. I got broken in to at christmas, and have witnessed attacks on other boaters over the years. infact anywhere in town isnt great, with drunks and druggies everywhere. If you want to be safe stay outside the Cheshire cat, or Trooper pubs in waverton and get the park and ride into Chester, the scum of the city have not ventured out that far yet. you have to watch out for rouge narrowboat "engineers" though, cant mention names but theres one mobile, so called "engineer", in the area that would rob his own granny,if you breakdown becareful !! enjoy Chester, its a nice place otherwise!

OK, any offers i made before the hearing were without prejudice save as to costs, and will be brought up in the quantum court, which is due to take place in June. the "it will do every thing else" statement was only brought up at court for the first time by the preeces, it was never in their statements, or pleadings, also the phrase "we agreed to buy the boat only if we get moorings" was a novel case as my barrester put it, only being relied upon on the morning of the final case, even though they amended their case in November. the judge decided i must have said the phrase "it will do everything else" without me ever being asked about it. I have the transcript of the days in court to prove it. we all agreed we talked about the length of the boat but not the width, yet the judge in his wisdom thought it must have been discussed at our first meeting. why? has any one ever asked the width of a boat your buying?? The boat was only on the Llangollen for a week,(if they where so terrified at the prospect of going through the locks , why didnt they demand their money back,there and then, not wait three months?) when they returned to Chester and stayed on the 48 hour mooring out side the trooper pub for 18months,no licence or eog permit displayed. not the law abiding boat owners they try to come across as. Infact the boat was section 8ed last november, only for them to get moorings at the last minute. I will let you know the out come of the quantum court.

well, this is causing a stir! you can only imagine how I feel, having been dragged through the courts by money grabbing leeches. I am no Alan Sugar but do a good solid job of my boats, and the comments that I shouldnt be in business deeply hurt me. If you buy a tv, that doesn't work properly, you take it straight back to comet! this couple only contacted me 3 months after they first thought they had a problem,(first three months of winter,btw) the judge came to the decision that they had clearly accepted the boat. it did take over 2 years to finally come to trial, only because of their conduct in the first 3 attempted trials, which has cost them thousands of pounds in costs. most not paid, as I have already said. I do however, think we have gone off the track...................................................... A 7' BOAT IS CLEARLY NOT WORTH 40% LESS THAN A 6' 10" BOAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes this case went on for 2.5 years, it came to trial 4 times(actually had 2 more hearings when they failed to comply with court decisions, all costs going against them) with each time the other side "ambushing" the defence with so called new evidence, the claiments getting all cost of all them aborted trials awarded against them,running into tens of thousands(incidently not paid!) they originally suid for recision of contract and wanted all the money back and compensation, while still living on it out side the cat(48 hour mooring for over a year), with no licence and no mooring permit. they at no time asked for the boat to be fixed,or even looked at. they are very good at telling the story to suite them selves, with no regard for the truth.they now rent an appartment and never go near the boat, they hated life on board from the begining. apparently though I ruined "their dream" of life on the canal. the recision argument soon collapsed as they clearly accepted the boat, unfortunately the judge believes the boat is worth less, this clearly isnt the case.

I am a boat fitter. I buy boats and fit them out and sell them on, to a high standard. Two and a half years ago I sold a boat to a couple new to boating, who were going to live on it. Eventually they sailed up the Llangollan Canal, found the locks at Hurleston very tight, had the boat measured and it came out at 7' 1/16". They took me to court, saying it was unsafe to use, even though the boat has been up and down the locks at least once. Last week a judge ordered that the boat was unfit for purpose and that a boat of that size is worth less on the open market than a boat of 6'10". The expert that the owners used [valued the boat at] 40% off the price they paid. We all know this is nonsense, but has left me in a state of bankruptcy, just because a couple made the wrong lifestyle choice and bought a narrowboat. I plead for people who think its a good idea to live on a boat to hire one first and make sure they will cope, and not have to resort to suing the boat fitter who didn't even build the boat in the first place. You should warn your readers that boats of 7' are not worth a bean (apparently).

can anyone tell me how you would accuratley measure a beam of a narrowboat,does it need to be out of the water?i would suspect that it would be advantageous to be out of the water but some surveyors use plumb lines while the boat is in the water, bizzar!has any one got the answer on how it can be done correctly?

the boat is made to 6' 11" instead of 6' 10", i have had the boat up hurlston by playing with water levels, i do dot except the boat is unfit for purpose!it clearly is!the customers are trying it on, for cash compensation! after being told by a bw employee that they should sue the boat builder when they couldnt get it through hurlston!(bw passing the buck!) they are new to boats and tried to get it in the first lock at an angle, carlt if you know hurlston you will know its problems with bulges and bw wont except it needs fixing.