Boat Rental

[monkeyhanger 44]

A friend wishes to rent out her narrowboat to another friend. The amount of rent to be charged is small, just enough to cover the general costs of the boat while she is not using it. The boat has passed the stricter Boat Safety scheme test, but my friend is struggling to find a company which will insure her boat for the duration of the rental period, which will be one year. I know there must be many rental boats around, especially in London. What do other owners do about insurance? If anyone can recommend an insurance  company which deals with this sort of thing, I'd be grateful, and I can pass the info on. The boat is on a permanent mooring, which is not on CRT water by the way.

Edited December 1, 2020 by monkeyhanger

[Jen-in-Wellies 1749]

Congratulations to your friend for doing the job properly. I suspect that a lot of rented boat owners have not made a full declaration to the insurance company, let alone passed the stricter BSS test. Very dumb thing to do if there is ever a claim.

Jen

[David Mack 1777]

Your friend needs to contact a broker that deals with marine business insurance. And that means ringing round and speaking to someone, not just responding to the usual consumer-oriented leisure boat insurance websites.

[Chewbacka 620]

To avoid these problems she could sell her boat to her friend, then buy it back 12 months later, the danger is that the friend likes the boating life so much they won’t sell it back........

Though I don’t think I would do this.

[ditchcrawler 2226]

15 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Your friend needs to contact a broker that deals with marine business insurance. And that means ringing round and speaking to someone, not just responding to the usual consumer-oriented leisure boat insurance websites.

I wonder if Michael Stimpson could help

[haggis 914]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wonder if Michael Stimpson could help

If he can, might I suggest that when you get the insurance certificate you phone the insurance company and confirm that they are actually covering the insurance. I say this as our canal society had an instance of Mr Stimpson  covering the insurance himself but giving us a false certificate which said we were covered by an insurance company. 

 

Haggis

[Murflynn 1941]

1 hour ago, Chewbacka said:

To avoid these problems she could sell her boat to her friend, then buy it back 12 months later, the danger is that the friend likes the boating life so much they won’t sell it back........

Though I don’t think I would do this.

surely this could be covered by a bill of sale to prove change of ownership, covered by a private letter confirming the boat will revert to the original owner after 12 months.  no money apart from rent needs to change hands.

[LadyG 878]

2 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

To avoid these problems she could sell her boat to her friend, then buy it back 12 months later, the danger is that the friend likes the boating life so much they won’t sell it back........

Though I don’t think I would do this.

What about leasing?

[ditchcrawler 2226]

1 hour ago, haggis said:

If he can, might I suggest that when you get the insurance certificate you phone the insurance company and confirm that they are actually covering the insurance. I say this as our canal society had an instance of Mr Stimpson  covering the insurance himself but giving us a false certificate which said we were covered by an insurance company. 

 

Haggis

Thats interesting

[haggis 914]

6 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Thats interesting

It happened several years ago but it comes to mind every time I hear the gentleman being recommended on here.  When challenged, he said it was quite normal:-) At the end of the day I don't suppose it made any difference but we hadn't had a claim (the "policy" ran for several years) but it struck me as being dishonest. 

 

haggis

[Paul&Sam 22]

Why not get a lawyer to put the boat in a trust arrangement. 

 

Could this be time limited to 12 months with a reversion to owner afterwards? 

 

That way the renter has "ownership" / beneficial interest and financial interest during the 12 months with it automatically reverting to the owner at end of term? 

 

Just thinking outside the box, I maybe well of f the mark. 

[Tam & Di 523]

9 hours ago, monkeyhanger said:

A friend wishes to rent out her narrowboat to another friend. The amount of rent to be charged is small, just enough to cover the general costs of the boat while she is not using it.

I trust she will hold a substantial damage deposit - the amount of 'wear and tear' over one year by an occupant even if they have experience of boats and boat life is likely to be pretty high I'd think. And if they don't have previous boat experience ................ ?

 

Tam