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New to Boat life - already unhappy with the CRT


DShK

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Bought my boat two months ago, paid for 3 months of license. I paid for it at the end of April. I was expecting to renew at the end of July. Nope! Apparently their licenses "start at the beginning of the month" so I paid for a month of license that allowed me to use my boat for 2 days. Great!

 

Sorry, needed to rant!

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That was a schoolboy error, did you not read the licencing page which starts with...

 

If you keep and use a boat on our canals and rivers, you’ll need a licence. You can buy your long-term licence at any time of the year. They start on the first day of the month and last for either three months, six months or 12

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I think that's rather bad luck TBH, when I bought my latest boat the previous owner was refunded for the part month and I wasn't charged for it so between us we got a free month.

 

I bet you did it on line, if you phoned them they'd almost certainly have suggested you start the licence at the beginning of the next month, they're not all bad. They insisted on that when I licenced mine as "it wouldn't be fair to charge me for an incomplete month". TBH I expected them to charge us both for that month, their attitude was a nice surprise.

 

Have you tried speaking to them? I would expect they'd sort it out if you're pleasant and calm about it, but not if you rant.

Edited by Slow and Steady
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I've often wondered what the chances are of being caught without a licence. I've seen several inspectors on the Stratford and around Braunston but don't recall seeing any others... with so many miles of canals, mostly rural, do inspectors walk for miles or focus on hotspots?  for disclosure i have a licence by the way...

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1 minute ago, robtheplod said:

I've often wondered what the chances are of being caught without a licence. I've seen several inspectors on the Stratford and around Braunston but don't recall seeing any others... with so many miles of canals, mostly rural, do inspectors walk for miles or focus on hotspots?  for disclosure i have a licence by the way...

 

 

C&RT state that EVERY Mile / Km of their system is walked / ridden by licence checkers EVERY 14 days.

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2 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

I've often wondered what the chances are of being caught without a licence. I've seen several inspectors on the Stratford and around Braunston but don't recall seeing any others... with so many miles of canals, mostly rural, do inspectors walk for miles or focus on hotspots?  for disclosure i have a licence by the way...

No licence no insurance. Big risk.

The spotters round here use bicycles, they knock on your window if you forget to show a reg plate!

Edited by LadyG
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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

C&RT state that EVERY Mile / Km of their system is walked / ridden by licence checkers EVERY 14 days.

mmmmm how many inspectors do they have?  :)      Sounds a bit like the TV licence van myth...

1 minute ago, LadyG said:

No licence no insurance. Big risk.

some will take it.... times are hard?

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38 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

mmmmm how many inspectors do they have?  :)      Sounds a bit like the TV licence van myth...

some will take it.... times are hard?

Not round here, there are probably more milestones than cruising boats. Fairly easy to keep track.

They know where you are, I had a phone call when one of the breaches closed the canal, to make sure I was safe. I had tied on to a lock landing, and stayed there for a few weeks as I recall.

 

Edited by LadyG
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44 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

That was a schoolboy error, did you not read the licencing page which starts with...

 

If you keep and use a boat on our canals and rivers, you’ll need a licence. You can buy your long-term licence at any time of the year. They start on the first day of the month and last for either three months, six months or 12

Honestly I had a lot more on my mind than figuring out if that meant, they'd take a direct debit at the start of the coming month or not. A change of lifestyle and a big work deadline coinciding is a bit stressful!

 

30 minutes ago, Slow and Steady said:

I think that's rather bad luck TBH, when I bought my latest boat the previous owner was refunded for the part month and I wasn't charged for it so between us we got a free month.

 

I bet you did it on line, if you phoned them they'd almost certainly have suggested you start the licence at the beginning of the next month, they're not all bad. They insisted on that when I licenced mine as "it wouldn't be fair to charge me for an incomplete month". TBH I expected them to charge us both for that month, their attitude was a nice surprise.

 

Have you tried speaking to them? I would expect they'd sort it out if you're pleasant and calm about it, but not if you rant.

It was by phoning them up to ask why I needed to pay early that I found out the reason. I'm always calm and pleasant with people on the end of these phone-lines. They aren't the ones imposing these decisions, so why would I take it out on them? I half expected it to be this kind of BS, so I was hoping that whoever I phoned up would be like "yeah that is unfortunate, let me see what I can do". But to no avail, just an explanation.

 

27 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

I've often wondered what the chances are of being caught without a licence. I've seen several inspectors on the Stratford and around Braunston but don't recall seeing any others... with so many miles of canals, mostly rural, do inspectors walk for miles or focus on hotspots?  for disclosure i have a licence by the way...

This reminds me, the displayed license I have on my boat is from the previous owner still. I was never sent any paper licenses, nor can I see any way to access a way to print them out online. Do I need to phone them up again? Seems fairly redundant given they can check my license online, but I know its a requirement.

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From CRT

I’ve lost my licence discs, what should I do?

Although we can tell from the boat index number whether a boat is licenced, it’s still a legal requirement to display them along with your boat name and index number. If you bought your licence online, you can log into your account and print another set. If your index plates are temporarily obscured for any reason (eg. under covers during winter) you can also print temporary plates to display

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You can log in to your CRT licensing account and get pdf of any licenses you have. 

 

I had similar but opposite situation happen recently. 

 

Sold a boat and the change of ownership form was from BW days so I filled it out and there was a tick box allowing me to transfer the remainder of the license to the new owner. So I ticked it. 

 

Lo and behold CRT then silently refund me (no email) and new owner ends up with unlicensed craft. 

 

I didn't scan the form but it did have an option to transfer license. 

 

A bit rude really but my fault for not taking a picture of the form before I posted it. 

 

It could get technical if the buyer and seller were at loggerheads. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by magnetman
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Not sure that it CRT's fault.

 

It is the same with VED. Starts at the beginning of a month.

 

We had the same when we "taxed" the van for the first time. Cost us a whole month to use it for a few days. The other option of course was to not use it for a few days and tax it on the first of the month.

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

No licence no insurance. Big risk.

 

I don’t think that is true. For example if you take your boat onto water where no licence is required, does that automatically make you not insured? A policy would have to state that the boat must be licensed for cover to apply, ours doesn’t and I can’t see why one would as it doesn’t affect the risk, unlike not having a BSS.

1 hour ago, DShK said:

Bought my boat two months ago, paid for 3 months of license. I paid for it at the end of April. I was expecting to renew at the end of July. Nope! Apparently their licenses "start at the beginning of the month" so I paid for a month of license that allowed me to use my boat for 2 days. Great!

 

Sorry, needed to rant!

It’s a bit annoying but as said, that information was available to you. It’s the same with road tax. When we bought our boat, it was ready 2 days before end of the month but we put off taking ownership of it until the 1st for just that reason.

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1 minute ago, nicknorman said:

I don’t think that is true. For example if you take your boat onto water where no licence is required, does that automatically make you not insured? A policy would have to state that the boat must be licensed for cover to apply, ours doesn’t and I can’t see why one would as it doesn’t affect the risk, unlike not having a BSS.

Yes, you're right, I knew there was some sort of criteria.

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25 minutes ago, Creaking Gate said:

These posts. You didn't check properly, because you were busy and had several deadlines.  You blame CRT.  Hmm, sounds more like you're fault to me.  

 

I'm no fan of CRT but the constant blaming directed to them for problems, which for the most part, people create themselves is boring (if not annoying). 

 

its clearly written down, but you chose to assume you knew how it worked.   I'd be annoyed as well....with myself, not at CRT

Just a bit of a rant mate, to me it's a bit of a ripoff allowing someone to pay for a full month of license for 2 days of use. Does it seem fair? Sure, it is my fault for not understanding the system, but does that mean it's just? And of course I'm annoyed at myself as well. I just think it's a dumb system and there are better/fairer ways of doing it. I never said I was BLAMING CRT. I said I was ANNOYED with them. Please don't put words in my mouth.

 

And to be fair I err on the side of giving CRT the benefit of the doubt, I expect it is hard to appease all of their sources of limited revenue. 

Edited by DShK
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11 minutes ago, DShK said:

Just a bit of a rant mate, to me it's a bit of a ripoff allowing someone to pay for a full month of license for 2 days of use. Does it seem fair? Sure, it is my fault for not understanding the system, but does that mean it's just? And of course I'm annoyed at myself as well. I just think it's a dumb system and there are better/fairer ways of doing it.

 

And to be fair I err on the side of giving CRT the benefit of the doubt, I expect it is hard to appease all of their sources of limited revenue. 

I think it's just a way of keeping the job simple for CRT. Fairness isn't really a characteristic of how businesses are run. Some things they do probably work out to our advantage, though I can't put my finger on one right now...

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1 minute ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I think it's just a way of keeping the job simple for CRT. Fairness isn't really a characteristic of how businesses are run. Some things they do probably work out to our advantage, though I can't put my finger on one right now...

 

For sure, I get that. But for the same reason our privatised railways have been slowly failing back to public ownership, monopolies on infastructure it is impossible to compete with in the modern era doesn't really work out well. If CRT had a competetor, I'd have the choice to use them instead. But they don't, so they can do as they wish. They are of course supposed to be a charity, but that really means very little outside of tax/profit use.

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18 minutes ago, DShK said:

Just a bit of a rant mate, to me it's a bit of a ripoff allowing someone to pay for a full month of license for 2 days of use. Does it seem fair? Sure, it is my fault for not understanding the system, but does that mean it's just? And of course I'm annoyed at myself as well. I just think it's a dumb system and there are better/fairer ways of doing it. I never said I was BLAMING CRT. I said I was ANNOYED with them. Please don't put words in my mouth.

 

And to be fair I err on the side of giving CRT the benefit of the doubt, I expect it is hard to appease all of their sources of limited revenue. 

Fair enough, you did not say you blamed them.  Equally, i did not say i agreed with them on this far from it, but like it or not - they've written it down. 

 

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25 minutes ago, DShK said:

Just a bit of a rant mate, to me it's a bit of a ripoff allowing someone to pay for a full month of license for 2 days of use.

 

Does it seem fair?  

No, it is not.

 

Yes, it does.

 

I have occasionally been cross because I was a couple of days late with a credit card payment and thus had to pay a couple of pounds in interest, but the due date was clearly stated on my bill, so it was no one's fault but my own.

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14 minutes ago, Athy said:

No, it is not.

 

Yes, it does.

 

I have occasionally been cross because I was a couple of days late with a credit card payment and thus had to pay a couple of pounds in interest, but the due date was clearly stated on my bill, so it was no one's fault but my own.

Are you, uh, comparing a couple of pounds interest to £100 worth of fees? Yours is lack of action. Mine, what were my choices? I'm sure I would get the same kind of blaming attitude if I didn't license and insure my boat and got in trouble? Should I be punished for playing by the rules? Did I get my money's worth in those two days?

Edited by DShK
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