Buying/Survey

[HBROK]

Hi all,

I am in the beginning of buying my first narrow boat and have a question regards the survey procedure.

Am I correct in thinking that the cost of the hull survey is down to the buyer pretty much 99% of the time?

Does this also mean the survey completion documentation belongs to the buyer and so effectively the boat could end up having survey after survey if the buyer did not buy the boat for whatever reason?

Also, if the seller had carried out the survey  and all documentation is in order, what is the general consensus on time lapsed between survey and final sale or does this never happen?

 

Hope this makes sense?

All the best

 

 

[WotEver]

Yes, if the buyer wants a survey then he pays for it and it belongs to him. 

Personally I would never trust a seller's survey because firstly you don't know exactly what the surveyor was asked to look closely at and secondly, like a car MOT, it only speaks of the condition on that particular day. 

[rusty69]

Yes

Yes

Commission your own survey 

[HBROK]

Thanks for the quick response, much as I thought then.

[mrsmelly]

You can however for an agreed sum have the ownership of the survey transfered to you by the surveyor with his agreement. This will then enable you personaly to not be able to claim any compensation from him as a result of an ambiguous survey first hand.

[Sunflower16]

The timelapse between survey and completion of sale is entirely dependent on the arrangements made by buyer and seller and of course broker, if there is one in the mix - if the buyer is happy with a survey there is nothing to prevent the sale being completed later that same day, except logistics of course. Of course it is best to wait for the full survey document to be emailed or posted to you so you can check it in depth before completing the sale. We recently bought a (cheap in narrowboat terms) GRP narrowbeam canal cruiser.  Saw it advertised, enquired and made arrangements to view within 2 days,  placed deposit on it after viewing, arranged survey (delay for surveyor to be available was 10 days) .  Surveyor phoned me and discussed the boat condition in detail and I transferred the balance of the price to the broker after discussions with surveyor.  Broker arranged handover / completion within 48 hours.   Seller accompanied us to marina after concluding sale at brokers offices to handover the boat.  Job done.  We arranged a day or two mooring while transport was sorted via road to the boats new home. 

There is potentially room for more delays if surveyor availability takes a few weeks or the survey finds any serous issues which would need negotiation on price.  The brokers we used appeared to indicate that a sale was expected to be completed within 30 days of placing a deposit on a boat unless there were circumstances delaying this. 

[HBROK]

All food for thought, thank you.

On a side note, I reckon I could fill this forum board with questions and observations while looking for a boat :/

[Naughty Cal]

Go for it. It could stop you making some expensive mistakes in the long run.

[HBROK]

If a boat was blacked with the 2 pac epoxy system previously, can it be blacked with the bituminous type later as opposed to the 2 pac epoxy again and would it need stripping prior?

 

[Athy]

I think that one should be removed before the other is applied.

As for questions, ask away. You will probably get a lot of helpful replies, a few conflicting ones, and a couple of discourteous ones, that's about par for the  course anyway.

[WotEver]

But why would you want to cover two pack with bitumen?

[HBROK]

16 minutes ago, WotEver said:

But why would you want to cover two pack with bitumen?

Is it not an expensive option?

If 2 pac is scratched can it not become flakey unlike bitumen type which would (I'm guessing) just smudge?

[alan_fincher]

18 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

You can however for an agreed sum have the ownership of the survey transfered to you by the surveyor with his agreement. This will then enable you personaly to not be able to claim any compensation from him as a result of an ambiguous survey first hand.

 

Can you explain, please Tim? (I don't understand the "Not" in the above quote).

Why would you pay to transfer a survey ownership if it had no benefit to you?

When I did this, I was told that the surveyor's own personal indemnity insurance covers him from possible things he may have got wrong when doing a survey, and my understanding was that by "buying" the right to the survey, I then had the benefit of that indemnity cover had the surveyor got something badly wrong.

Edited September 6, 2017 by alan_fincher

[HBROK]

3 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

Can you explain, please Tim?

Why would you pay to transfer a survey ownership if it had no benefit to you?

When I did this, I was told that the surveyor's own personal indemnity insurance covers him from possible things he may have got wrong when doing a survey, and my understanding was that by "buying" the right to the survey, I then had the benefit of that indemnity cover had the surveyor got something badly wrong.

This is sort of what I meant from my original post.

Lets say the boat had a survey last week and I want to buy it this week, you would think doing another survey would be a little OTT! (I'm talking a hull survey)

But, between the survey and now, a week later e.g. Did the boat strike anything or did anyone strike it?

I suppose ultimately the survey is as good as the length of time it took for the surveyor to sign the document.

 

Hypothetically, lets say a surveyor signed it off last week/month and Mr. buyer finds the same surveyor, by chance, would the surveyor insist on doing all the work again, knowing he signed it off last week/month?

[Alan de Enfield]

If the boat has been  surveyed on behalf of the seller be suspcious you have no idea what the ‘brief’ was – it could have been been ‘do not measure the back half of the hull – I know its OK’ (knowing that it is badly corroded).

 

If the survey was undertaken on behalf of a potential buyer – what did the surveyor find that stopped the buyer from proceeding ?

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, HBROK said:

Is it not an expensive option?

If 2 pac is scratched can it not become flakey unlike bitumen type which would (I'm guessing) just smudge?

The actual 2 pack paint isn't much more expensive than bitumen blacking. Most of the cost is getting the boat out of the water,  pressure washing the hull and applying the new paint, which needs doing whatever paint you use. 

Any flaky bits can be ground off and touched up, although eventually I suppose it wI'll need grit blasting back to bare metal. However by that time the money saved by the  longer periods between inspection and reblacking will have paid for the cost of grit blasting.

Edited September 6, 2017 by cuthound
To unmangle the effects of autocorrect.

[mrsmelly]

6 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

Can you explain, please Tim? (I don't understand the "Not" in the above quote).

Why would you pay to transfer a survey ownership if it had no benefit to you?

When I did this, I was told that the surveyor's own personal indemnity insurance covers him from possible things he may have got wrong when doing a survey, and my understanding was that by "buying" the right to the survey, I then had the benefit of that indemnity cover had the surveyor got something badly wrong.

Yes just sarcasm realy. People oft pay for the survey so they have some comeback when it is assigned to them but claiming from a dodgy survey is like taking hold of an eel by its tail.