Quote:
Originally Posted by goboatingnow
Buying across country boundaries is often a fact of life in Europe. Vat laws are harmonised . The lease scheme is not a VAt avoidance scheme. It's a legitimate and extremely common way to finance boats in France.
Dave |
and if I
recall correctly a scheme designed to support the French
boat building industry. Which may help explain why they still have a
boat building industry...........
Whilst finance on a boat may complicate a deal, I think overall not a bad thing (if you know in advance
) as highly likely means that the past
ownership paperwork will have been done correctly by the bank / finance company to protect it's interests. that the debts are known and that the Loan will be repaid as part of the
sale (as otherwise the bank won't release the charge / mortgage).
On any boat of value I wouldn't rely on a yachtbroker, use for guidance - but not rely on, whether written or verbal. nor would I let him handle that sort of
money (deposit, let alone the balance
) - use a lawyer as at least an Escrow Agent on the cash, if not to handle the whole deal. and if you don't personally understand the intricacies of the deal - get a lawyer (or 2) to advise you.
FWIW I once administered a fund owning what I can best describe as Leases, used by Italians to buy houses. about a $billion worth - and back then also in Lira 00000000000
...........enough time has elapsed to finally admit that I didn't understand the Italian end of things much back then. but no one else did either
The
concept of
buying a house using what was (to me) a form of HP seemed bizarre to me (and still does), but was re-assured it was quite normal in
Italy (for every day folks) and simply had some tax benefits. The
legal paperwork though was a
work of art
. all 4 foot of it
Foreigners doing
funny things can be quite normal. the trick though is never assume..........unless you truly don't care as it ain't your
money My guess is that in this deal all parties didn't really understand what was involved........the trick for OP is avoid having that made his problem.
To my mind sounds like a few grounds for OP to break the deal, especially the part that the
sale price is not what is agreed for a boat free and clear. and throw in what the
Surveyor has been (paid) to find wrong. As well as making the right noises on a new deal (IMO a good tactic
even if you don't mean it
) I would be sure to follow the
contract to the letter in formally rejecting the deal and requesting the deposit back............don't want to end up in a situation where by not doing anything you accepted the deal. And I would engage a lawyer in the country of whatever law governs the
contract (likely be the same country as the person with the cash) to look at your paperwork on this deal, and advise on the new deal - if the other party knows you have a lawyer involved it can concentrate minds. and including him in the new deal is a polite way of waving a gun at someone.........
Plan B would be to sell the debt on. Might get 10 cents back in the Euro - plus a set of kneecaps to use as ashtrays
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