Shared Ownership Schemes

[biggingerwookie]

Hello,

 

I am considering investing in a shared ownership scheme and would be interested to read of anyones experiences (good and bad) of these. If you are, or have been a member of a scheme can you recommend a good one.

 

Are there things that weren't bought to your attention at the time, or that you have since discovered that I should be aware of? One area that I am particularly keen to hear about at the annual maintenance costs, In general what should I expect to pay? and by how much have these increased over the last few years.

 

One scheme that I am looking at is www.carefreecruising.com I would be interested to hear of anyones experiences with this company.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Nick

[Jayseaess]

Hi Nick

We are current owners within Carefree with our share for sale as we brought our own

 

It is a very good scheme and the boats ours is Jenny Wren are well fitted and has

all the extras you could want. Within our syndicate we have a good group of people and have made sometime friends and as a gropu look after the boat well.

It is good value against hiring plus you get the good feeling of cruising on your own boat

See advert in for sale section

Nigel

[Mac of Cygnet]

They haven't a very good record, though, have they? (I mean shared ownership in general, not the one you're considering) The two biggest having gone under in recent times, substantially through fraud, I'd be be very careful about any terms, contracts, etc.

[plainsman]

Hello,

 

I am considering investing in a shared ownership scheme and would be interested to read of anyones experiences (good and bad) of these. If you are, or have been a member of a scheme can you recommend a good one.

 

Are there things that weren't bought to your attention at the time, or that you have since discovered that I should be aware of? One area that I am particularly keen to hear about at the annual maintenance costs, In general what should I expect to pay? and by how much have these increased over the last few years.

 

One scheme that I am looking at is www.carefreecruising.com I would be interested to hear of anyones experiences with this company.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Nick

 

 

 

 

I did this before my own boat but I chose a private sydicate (see some in Waterwaysworld mag). Apart from making sure the boat is right for you check out the arrangements for allocating weeks. Don't be sucked in with comments such as ' we all sort it out by mutal arrangement....'. Also make sure there is a Disputes Resolution Procedure. The good private syndicates will have one of these and a watertight week allocation arrangement. Good luck

[seaandland]

Hi Nick

 

I host the new share owners forum, loads of advice can be found here;

 

New ownweships info

 

The old ownerships forum is here (with Ads)

 

old site

[Tillerman]

Hi Nick

 

I'm secretary for Sapphire which used to be part of Ownerships before it went bust earlier this year.

We are now self managed so do away with the expense of engaging a management company taking care of the running ourselves. This makes us feel more like "Owners" rather than glorified hirers!

 

You will find that annual maintenance costs are propionate to the age of the boat, but then you pay more for your share in the first place. A share in an older boat will be significantly cheaper and annual costs slightly higher.

Shares in Sapphire (built in 1993 but still looking good for her age!) are around £2,000 with annual costs of aprox £1,000 You will find that if a shared ownership boat is being run by a management company you can add another £300-400 a year onto these costs.

 

A share on our boat has recently come onto the market.

 

Have a look HERE for more details.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

[Jayseaess]

Hi Nick

 

I'm secretary for Sapphire which used to be part of Ownerships before it went bust earlier this year.

We are now self managed so do away with the expense of engaging a management company taking care of the running ourselves. This makes us feel more like "Owners" rather than glorified hirers!

 

You will find that annual maintenance costs are propionate to the age of the boat, but then you pay more for your share in the first place. A share in an older boat will be significantly cheaper and annual costs slightly higher.

Shares in Sapphire (built in 1993 but still looking good for her age!) are around £2,000 with annual costs of aprox £1,000 You will find that if a shared ownership boat is being run by a management company you can add another £300-400 a year onto these costs.

 

A share on our boat has recently come onto the market.

 

Have a look HERE for more details.

 

Cheers

 

Tony

Hi Tony

 

You say your annual costs are approx £1000, althought you do not say how many weeks this for and it cost's more for a management company, well our annual costs with Carefree are £660 for the 2 weeks, so compared to hiring is excellant value

 

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=152728

 

Nigel

[Tillerman]

Hi Tony

 

You say your annual costs are approx £1000, althought you do not say how many weeks this for and it cost's more for a management company, well our annual costs with Carefree are £660 for the 2 weeks, so compared to hiring is excellant value

 

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=152728

 

Nigel

 

Hi Nigel

 

Our syndicate is based on the old Ownerships model (with a bit of tweaking here and there) and allows owners three weeks (two in high season and one in low season).

Plus of course, owners can have the pick of any spare weeks or part weeks left over.

 

£1000 is a consverative estimate as this is the first year of self management but she won't need much doing to her this winter apart from the usual full service.

Engine is only a few years old and we recently had new carpets and furnishings and a brand new cooker so she's pretty much up-to-date.

Out of the annual costs this year we upgraded to a Gold licence so we could cruise the Thames.

So all-in-all much more cost effective than hiring!

[ditchcrawler]

Hi Tony

 

You say your annual costs are approx £1000, althought you do not say how many weeks this for and it cost's more for a management company, well our annual costs with Carefree are £660 for the 2 weeks, so compared to hiring is excellant value

 

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=152728

 

Nigel

If that is £1000 per 1/12 share, what do you spend 12 grand on each year?

[biggingerwookie]

Thank you all for your replies, you have certainly given me aloth to think about.

 

Nigel, one question regarding maintenance fees on Carefree Cruises - You say that the maintenance costs for your two week share are £660pa, on their website Carefree Cruises advertise maintenance costs for this period to be £482.71, I appreciate that they state that these are estimated and can not be guranteed, but could you tell me how much they have risen since you joined the scheme. I would like to get an idea of expected cost increases over the coming years.

 

Many Thanks

 

Nick

[WJM]

They are not an investment. An investment appreciates, these things depreciate.

 

This is my observation - why commit yourself to the same holiday for the next ten years (or whatever the timespan is)? Would it not make more sense to rent a narrowboat each year, and then on the year when you feel like doing something different, then you can! A shared ownership boat will never feel any more 'yours' than a rented one. Unless you own the boat fully, fill it full of your own stuff and can jump on it anytime you like, then why tie yourself to a boat thats not yours?

[Tillerman]

If that is £1000 per 1/12 share, what do you spend 12 grand on each year?

 

We had standing charges amounting to aprox £6k in 2009 when we were with Ownerships. (mooring fees/license/insurance/regular servicing and full annual maintenence etc)

If you factor in additional extras that owners requested, including a paint job, new carpets, new cooker, then it came close to £12k

 

This year we haven't spent nearly as much and won't need as much work this winter as last, so these costs will be considerably cheaper, possibly even matching those quoted by Carefree and with the added benefit that we don't engage the services of a management company.

[Alway Swilby]

We have a 1/12 share of a Carefree Cruising boat that we have had since July 2009. In general we are very pleased with the boat and with the sharing concept.

Carefree's communications skills weren't very good to begin with but have improved no end recently. The people that turn round the boat do a good job and their maintenance seems to be good. Their diesel's a bit dear as is their pump out cost but we normally fill the diesel tank somewhere cheaper a day or so before returning to base. The week allocation scheme is fairly complicated but once you get the hang of it it works ok.

The annual cost is for everything excluding diesel and pumpouts so it's not £660 per year just for maintenance. It includes the BW licence, mooring fee, cooking gas, blacking every year, 3 x gunwale painting every year, insurance and syndicate management as well as the maintenance.

We both work full time so find it difficult to justify ownership of our very own NB. It would be great and we might just do that when we retire but financially it just wouldn't work out for just 4 weeks a year or so. It's cheaper than hiring and the co owners definitely look after the boat better that co hirers might.

 

We actually OWN a 1/12th of the boat so if Carefree went tits up we would still own a 1/12th of the boat. Any monies we paid to Carefree might become lost but we and the other owners would still have the boat.

 

All in all we are very pleased with our decision to go down the shared ownership route.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Alway Swilby

[Jayseaess]

in reply to Nick's question on how much the maintenance fee has risen since we joined 3 years ago is very little, from memory we paid around £630 last year for our 2 weeks as stated this includes all costs for the year, all you add is the diesel and pumpouts, we have no regrets in joining and being shared owners fro the last 3 years.

 

As for WJM saying why have the same holiday each year and it never feels like yours, well those that own their own boat me now included chose to have their holidays on the canal's and the shared option is far cheaper than renting. We have always felt while on board is it ours, it shas a totally different feel to a hire boat

 

Nick if you have not already seen the CC boat you are welocme to come and view Jenny Wren on Saturday as we are about to have a week on board

 

Regards

 

Nigel

[ditchcrawler]

in reply to Nick's question on how much the maintenance fee has risen since we joined 3 years ago is very little, from memory we paid around £630 last year for our 2 weeks as stated this includes all costs for the year, all you add is the diesel and pumpouts, we have no regrets in joining and being shared owners fro the last 3 years.

 

As for WJM saying why have the same holiday each year and it never feels like yours, well those that own their own boat me now included chose to have their holidays on the canal's and the shared option is far cheaper than renting. We have always felt while on board is it ours, it shas a totally different feel to a hire boat

 

Nick if you have not already seen the CC boat you are welocme to come and view Jenny Wren on Saturday as we are about to have a week on board

 

Regards

 

Nigel

Tillerman has a share for sale on this forum

[biggingerwookie]

Thanks again for all your replies, particularly the comments regarding maintenance/running costs and Carefree Cruising, they have all be very useful.

Nigel, Thanks for the offer to come a see Jenny Wren, that is very kind but unfortunately we are unable to make it this weekend.

 

Nick