What happens if your boat fails a structural survey?

[Reginald Bknham]

Does that mean your insurance carrier will drop you and then evicted from the marina?

[oldragbaggers]

In our experience surveys are generally required in two situations. One would be pre-purchase either for the buyers personal use to assist in the buying decision or price negotiations, or because the bank requires it for the loan and required hull insurance. But in that case, if the boat fails the structural survey you can still walk away from the purchase.

The only time we have been required to get a survey post-purchase is when we were buying hull insurance. We have never been required to get a survey in order to purchase liability only. Marinas do not (in our experience) require hull insurance. Whether or not you lose your boat is not their concern. They are only concerned with damages you might cause to or in their facility. Therefore you only would need to carry liability to satisfy the marina requirements and that can be purchased without a survey. If you have a bank loan t that' s a whole different animal. You will most assuredly be required to carry hull insurance.

[a64pilot]

Define "fail"


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[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by Reginald Bknham

Does that mean your insurance carrier will drop you and then evicted from the marina?

That would be the least of your problems assuming your surveyor is correct.

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[Reginald Bknham]

Originally Posted by oldragbaggers

In our experience surveys are generally required in two situations. One would be pre-purchase either for the buyers personal use to assist in the buying decision or price negotiations, or because the bank requires it for the loan and required hull insurance. But in that case, if the boat fails the structural survey you can still walk away from the purchase.

The only time we have been required to get a survey post-purchase is when we were buying hull insurance. We have never been required to get a survey in order to purchase liability only. Marinas do not (in our experience) require hull insurance. Whether or not you lose your boat is not their concern. They are only concerned with damages you might cause to or in their facility. Therefore you only would need to carry liability to satisfy the marina requirements and that can be purchased without a survey. If you have a bank loan t that' s a whole different animal. You will most assuredly be required to carry hull insurance.

Thanks. This is a cash purchase.

[Don C L]

Marinas want to know if your boat is about to sink. Insurance companies want to know if you are about to sink your boat.

[a64pilot]

I don't understand fail, a survey is a through inspection that lists the findings. There is no pass or fail.
There may be discrepancies the insurance company will want corrected, even on a very good boat.


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[Cheechako]

Generally surveys don't "fail". There are items specified that need correction, on different levels of importance. Usually the few most important items are required fixes by the Insurance company.
However, there are potentially repairs required that are beyond the scope of fiscal viability. One might be a cored hull that is nearly entirely wet core.

[senormechanico]

My boat "failed" because I didn't have a CO detector.
A trip to eBay fixed that.

[CaptTom]

My boat got a glowingly positive "insurance survey" from (I suspect) a buddy of the PO who happens to be a surveyor. The only thing he mentioned was the cheap-ass jeep windshield wiper motors that the PO installed weren't working.

The insurance company wouldn't write the policy until they were fixed. Fortunately, I located the manual on line and was able to correct the wiring. I've never used them, since I almost never use the lower helm, and I'm quite sure they'd do absolutely no good if I ever tried. But they work, so the insurance company is happy.

I had a pretty good idea as to what the boat really needed to meet my needs, and when I presented the PO with that list, along with my estimate to complete it, he accepted my offer, over 30% less than the asking price.

In the end, I probably came in way under my estimate on the "needs". Where I blew the budget was on "wants." But then again, it IS a boat!

[Heath68]

Originally Posted by Reginald Bknham

Thanks. This is a cash purchase.

I'll be interested to see what cat you go for bearing in mind your other post about a sea view with a mast and plenty of entertainment area...

[Stumble]

As mentioned it depends on what you mean by 'fail'. But if it is a structural element it will have to be fixed before insurance is bonded normally.

As a legal issue the vessel may no longer qualify as seaworthy for most passages (other than to the boat yard) which opens up massive new liability Windows on the owner if anything goes wrong. Some of these can easily penetrate a corperate shield.

[Liam Wald]

Almost all surveys will disclose some sort of situation that requires attention.
Just means that those issues must be addressed and corrected.
If it is a pre-purchase survey you have one of three options.
1) cancel purchase agreement (hopefully it was written with acceptance of survey as a contingency).
2) pay for the repairs yourself
3) negotiate that the seller pays for all or some agreeable portion of the repairs.
Generally I would go for numbers 1 or 3 unless the issues were very minor.

[hellosailor]

Unless the problem indicates you are in immediate danger of sinking, exploding, or bursting in flame?

The insurer will probably tell you that you have 30/60/90 days to remedy the defects and supply proof of that, or your policy will be cancelled, or not renewed.

At that point you have no insurance and if the marina requires insurance, they'll do their best to evict you. Depending on state laws, that can mean many things, none of them good.

Of course in some states, if you can post a bond that's acceptable in place of insurance for a "vehicle". But that might mean having enough cash assets at hand so that fixing the boat was quicker and cheaper anyway.

Give us a clue: Why are you expecting your boat to be condemned?

[valhalla360]

They usually say, fix X, Y & Z. If you fail to fix X, Y & Z, you are effectively not covered even if you send a check to the insurance company because coverage was contingent upon fixing X, Y & Z.

I do recall one time, I was talking to a marina owner. After seeing the sides flex in on an old 50' motor cruiser badly, he told the guy he would launch it at the boat owners risk and wouldn't touch it again without a full survey showing it was fixed...but there was no way it was worth fixing.