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Seeking advice on joint ownership or private long-term hire.


Mick in Bangkok

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We are a married retired couple and have followed the form for some time while hiring boats from commercial hire companies and looking to either buy a boat outright or in a partnership as we are overseas for most of the year.

 

I have seen companies offering long term hire alternatives by actually adding a client to the ownership of a private boat to make this work legally, is this a loophole or a valid approach?

 

I would like to explore the option of either joint ownership or long term hire of a private boat for say 6-10 weeks per year by either paying an equal share of the value and upkeep or alternatively, a monthly fee to an existing owner who does not use their boat all year around.

 

Traditional share consortiums do not work for us as we would fly into UK once a year only for longer periods, not 2-week slots.

 

We own property in UK and Thailand and would expect to add additional insurance etc. so would consider ourselves a safe partner in such a venture, also we could offer a Condo in Bangkok by return option.

 

Has anyone here ever heard of such options and is this something that might work? And comments would be appreciated.

 

Cheers Mick & Winnie

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2 hours ago, Mick in Bangkok said:

... Traditional share consortiums do not work for us as we would fly into UK once a year only for longer periods, not 2-week slots.

Well, those organised by shareboat operators may not be keen on changing their normal way of operating. That said, a potential customer is a potential customer and it is worth asking. It won't be a surprise-request as lots of overseas canal-enthusiasts have the same constraints.

 

Also possible is existing shared boats who already understand the constraints of sharing a boat, and may be keen for a new shared-owner who has a single lump-of-weeks each year. Try asking some of the owners on Boatshare or email the site owner who is very knowledgeable about the boats which advertise with him, and indeed the companies that run share schemes.

 

2 hours ago, Mick in Bangkok said:

I have seen companies offering long term hire alternatives by actually adding a client to the ownership of a private boat to make this work legally, is this a loophole or a valid approach?

I think you have answered your own question: if it needs a loophole, then there is something odd about it: in this case trying to avoid more expensive insurance, or safety checks, or  .... If it works, it works, but if you end up with a hole somewhere uncomfortable (on the tidal Thames in London for example) it is nice to know that the insurance is actually valid for what you have been doing.

 

If you want to share a boat for, say, 20% of the year, then buy 20% of the boat and work out with insurers, navigation authorities etc what the implications are: paying 'the proper' owner £5,000 for your 'share' with a option for them to buy it back in two months time for £1 is just going to fall apart if something goes wrong.   IMHO

 

Edited by PeterScott
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What time of year are you thinking of?  Some share consortiums will swap allocated (or lot-drawn) weeks, so if you want 8 consecutive weeks in say October-March most years, you might be able to find one where the other owners are usually happy to give up their autumn/winter slots in exchange for your spring/summer slots.  But clearly movement can be heavily resticted in those months, and to get 8 weeks you might need to buy 2 shares.   Conversely, if you want 8 weeks over the summer every year, that is when commercial operators make most of their money.

  • Greenie 1
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further to above two replies, there is also a shared ownership Facebook group which might be worth you joining and asking similar questions.     As @cheese says it might depend on which block of weeks that you need, some share boats operate on set weeks each year and if you join one of those syndicates at the early stage (carefree cruising offer this system I think though there might be others).     The system on our boat is that owners pick different weeks each year (there is a changing list in order that everyone gets a turn at the priority picks over the years)  and even when we had two shares in the same boat we didn't often have the opportunity to have a large block of weeks in one go! 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1119638451491774 

 

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