Trust in a direct boat purchase...

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Whoa.!!! just had a tremor.. settee wobbled for a minute.. hope the dam upriver holds.

A 4.9 South of Lisbon..

[Tricolor]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hi Cranky.. I'm a Brit and as far as I am concerned if his name is on the SSR with no other names and he provides a bill of sale made out to him and signed by a witness that would be good enough for me.. there's very good protection laws against this kind of stuff in Europe.
However.. that being said you could follow a route I took when I bought a Hunter in the USA.. like you I was unsure about the security of buying in a foreign country so went with the seller to his bank and made the transaction in the managers office with the bill of sale witnessed and stamped by his bank manager.. the seller trusted me as little as I trusted him.
If your bank manager is as good as mine you can have the whole transfer pre-set and ready to go with a phone call.
Regarding the Part 1 Reg.. in the old days when it was run by Lloyds one got a Blue Book and the inside page folded out to x4 an A4.. it listed all information pertaining to the boat such as owners, number of shares held, marine mortgages and other relevant info.. these days since the State took over however its just a sheet of A4 with a minimum of info.
However going through the owners bank will give you a much more solid trail if he is trying to pull a fast one.. beats the hell out of a broker.
The call is yours to make in the end.. go with your gut.

+1 As a Dutchman I known that without a Part 1 registration (or equivalent registration in other EU countries) there's no bank who will give a mortgage or loan on a boat.

[PHR]

Originally Posted by Smokeys Kitchen

We have used a buyers broker twice on both of our sailboat purchases and would not hesitate to do so again. It was very helpful in both cases and there was no effort on the part of our broker to 'up the sale price' so he would share in a larger commission. It all depends on who you use.

Just my experience, YMMV

I used a buyer broker, and seller had a broker too. Both were very helpful. Last minute needed a new delivery captain in an unfamiliar place, for example. When there were other problems, both jumped in to help resolve them. Of course, that was my personal experience, and not everyone is so fortunate. In my search, ran across some crummy ones too (as well as bad faith sellers)

About the escrow, I you feel something isn't right, I would walk away. There are many other great boats out there.

Good luck.