The inevitable "thoughts on this boat" thread

[magictime]

21 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

No, dont agree.

We bought our boat via GHBS. We offered £2k under the asking price (£45K) and this was accepted. The survey showed 2 'significant' faults, the squirrel stove was cracked at the back (hence a big safety issue) and the eberspacher did not work (when you tried to turn it on). I argued that boat was advertised (and being sold) with these items which presumably means they work and they should not be in the brochure if clearly they dont work. We agreed £1K off the sale price (half the price of sorting the problems out if replaced with new kit).

My approach with the broker was that the price agreed prior to survey was the price based on the info in the brochure and looking at the boat. Anything the survey showed up was separate. The broker agreed the revised offer with the owner and we bought the boat. We fitted a new stove and sorted the eberspacher.

Hmm... I'm not sure what (if anything) we do actually disagree about here. GHBS say this about the buying process on their website:

"If you had made an offer of £2000.00 less than the asking price and there was £500.00 of work required you would not get any more money reduced off the price because you have already had £2000.00 off the price of the vessel. If you decided to waithdraw from the purchase based on the fact that the seller would not reduce the cost of their vessel by £2500 for £500 of work required then your deposit would not be returned."

If you're telling me they didn't actually stick by that condition in your case, that's fair enough (and good to know), but I don't think I'm misrepresenting what they say.

[cuthound]

1 hour ago, magictime said:

Hmm... I'm not sure what (if anything) we do actually disagree about here. GHBS say this about the buying process on their website:

"If you had made an offer of £2000.00 less than the asking price and there was £500.00 of work required you would not get any more money reduced off the price because you have already had £2000.00 off the price of the vessel. If you decided to waithdraw from the purchase based on the fact that the seller would not reduce the cost of their vessel by £2500 for £500 of work required then your deposit would not be returned."

If you're telling me they didn't actually stick by that condition in your case, that's fair enough (and good to know), but I don't think I'm misrepresenting what they say.

GHBS may say that on their website, but two people who have actually bought from GHBS have told you what actually happens in practice.

You get the boat surveyed, the survey reveals issues, you renegotiate the price, pay the renegotiated monies.

However I paid substantially more than  £20k for my boat, as did Dr Bob, maybe that makes a difference? 

[magictime]

1 minute ago, cuthound said:

GHBS may say that on their website, but two people who have actually bought from GHBS have told you what actually happens in practice.

Yes, and I'm not dismissing that for a minute - as I say, it's good to know, and I appreciate you both sharing your experience. I was just backing up what I said originally about their 'official' Ts and Cs, given that Dr Bob had said he disagreed with me on that point.

[Sunflower16]

We have just bought our boat via GHBS.  I did note that the way they phrased things on the website seemed a trifle ambiguous - when I clarified this exact issue the reply was that if you had already viewed the boat and identified some deficits and made an offer taking those deficits into account, then the accepted lower offer would not be lowered further when the surveyor identified the same things you had already identified and taken into account when making your offer. Confusing, the way it is worded.  But if you viewed it and made an offer based on your viewing and their advert, and it was accepted, then any major issues identified by the surveyor could lead to a further reduced offer. It seems rather superfluous to even have that paragraph on the website.