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Tradespeople on marinas


Hannah Jones McVey

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Hi,

 

I've grumped about this for years but wondering if anyone knows where we stand legally.

We live on a marina with an evil landlord who has a terrible reputation. He doesn't allow tradespeople on and then charges a small fortune to get the job done badly. He is now saying someone can come onsite but only if we pay £50 for the honor. Is this legal....is there any legal info about this stuff?

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

Thanks

 

H

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A marina is private property. The owner can basically set any terms he likes regarding who has access to the property and what they can do. A charge to approve contractors is not uncommon - the marina owner has a duty of care to others on the site, so it is reasonable for him to ask for evidence of the contractor's capability and third party/public liability insurance, and to charge for that. Likewise if the contractor is making use of marina facilities such as electricity supply, parking etc.

If you don't like it you can take your boat out of the marina to have the work done. 

And if the quality of the marina's own work is poor you would be well advised to go elsewhere anyway.

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9 minutes ago, Hannah Jones McVey said:

Hi,

 

I've grumped about this for years but wondering if anyone knows where we stand legally.

We live on a marina with an evil landlord who has a terrible reputation. He doesn't allow tradespeople on and then charges a small fortune to get the job done badly. He is now saying someone can come onsite but only if we pay £50 for the honor. Is this legal....is there any legal info about this stuff?

 

Any advice gratefully received.

 

Thanks

 

H

His marina his rules, unfortunately. Your choice of which marina to moor in.
We are fortunate to moor in a marina which is much more relaxed about that sort of thing. The office just wants to know that you have a tradesperson visiting just from a security point of view, which is fair enough.

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At the end of the day they can set any rules that they want, you could simply move the boat onto the towpath to have the work done, or just move mooring. The good thing about a boat is that it moves, so why stay there if the marina owner/management are not being helpful.

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We used to moor in a private marina, not one owned by a "chain."

The owner would allow external contractors on site provided he saw the bill and then he charged 20%.

Needless to say we took the boat elsewhere for repairs at the time.

We now moor in a much more enlightened and easy going marina where all they ask is the contractor makes himself known and has £3M (I think) insurance.

 

The marina owners call the shots.

 

Edited by Ray T
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We live on the river which makes popping out to the towpath a little tricker than on a canal as a....there isn't one and b any stop points (the nearest to us is about a 4 hour trip away) are 48 hour. It's what we will do if needed though of course. Thanks for all your thoughts, depressing but helpful!

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Fairly standard practice for marinas to make a charge for visiting tradespeople doing  work on moored boats.

Where I am (was) a percentage of the bill is charged.

The rule that most annoyed me and others,was they charge 3.5% plus VAT if you sell your boat privately as I did,or 5% + VAT+ advertising if the marina broker it.

If the private sale levy is not paid, legal action is threatened.

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3 minutes ago, MtB said:

Is this that marina that stiffed CRT for £100k a few years ago? 

 

I would not moor there on principle.

 

No I don't imagine so, we are on an EA river. I'd love to have principals or more specifically I'd love not to line his pockets, but mooring options round here make it hard!

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Fairly standard practice for marinas to make a charge for visiting tradespeople doing  work on moored boats.

Where I am (was) a percentage of the bill is charged.

The rule that most annoyed me and others,was they charge 3.5% plus VAT if you sell your boat privately as I did,or 5% + VAT+ advertising if the marina broker it.

If the private sale levy is not paid, legal action is threatened.

 

Yes ours is the same, though I think the percentage is higher. We've already annoyed them selling one boat 'off the towpath' but they aren't good at selling boats and there is no justification for them getting that money!

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19 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I doubt it because :

 

1) There are plenty of mooring posibilities in way under a 4 hour cruise from that Marina

2) Location hown as Bristol.

I think?? the boat in question is a wide beam?? That usualy makes marina choice more interesting to say the least.

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4 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I think?? the boat in question is a wide beam?? That usualy makes marina choice more interesting to say the least.

 

Plenty of temporary moorings where work can be done (and a marina or two - one even offers liveaboard with a 32 amp supply) available within a fairly short cruise of "the marina that shall not be mentioned"

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The marina on the Great Ouse that we moor in, Hartford, seem happy enough to allow outside contractors in to work. They just have to check in with the office first. The only one they don't allow is welding, but even then only on the pontoons. You can book the service quay though, and that's free.

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The marina where I keep my boat makes a similar charge per day for outside contractors 

The marina has a responsibility to see contractors are insured and will operate safely.  They are within their rights .

 

 

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Years ago when I was on the contractor list at Thames and Kennet, they wrote to us all telling us to come onto the marina and carry out any work of any description whatsoever on any boat we had to first report to the office in full safety gear. Steel toe-capped boots, hard hat, safety goggles, the works.

 

This was just as my boiler repair work was really taking off so I told them to shove it, as did pretty much every other contractor.

 

I put it FAR more nicely than that though! 

 

 

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52 minutes ago, Goliath said:

This fee that marinas charge is it a daily fee or a one for the period that the work takes to complete?

 

 

I doubt there is consistency across all marinas, ask the one you have in mind. Thames and Kennet for example charged nothing, but required their PPE policy to be observed. 

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4 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I doubt there is consistency across all marinas, ask the one you have in mind. Thames and Kennet for example charged nothing, but required their PPE policy to be observed. 

I’m not needing anyone, just curious.

I’ve heard of marinas charging and can understand it to a point.

 

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