So you’ve found a boat, fallen in love with it, taken it out for a spin and are ready to buy? Congratulations!

The next step, not quite as exciting and often overlooked by purchasers, is paperwork. This not only helps you ensure that the boat you are buying is the vendors to sell but also to check it is safety compliant and has had all the relevant duty paid upon it.

Any boat should come with a good collection of documentation and from years of experience and understanding of different paperwork standards, including in different countries, we are well equipped to look through any paperwork for any deficiencies, omissions or problems in a way that a buyer might not be equipped to do themselves. 

The importance of this step cannot be understated as good paperwork will make transiting between countries, ensuring there is no outstanding finance or VAT requirements and ultimately reselling the boat in the future a significantly easier experience. 

For boats that are being bought through us this service is included free of charge, at no cost, to the buyer.

If you are buying a boat elsewhere within the United Kingdom then we are still happy to offer this checking service to buyers for a flat fee of £550 + VAT.

If you are buying a boat elsewhere in Europe or require advice on importation/exportation then we offer the checking service and advice for £1500 + VAT.

You can bring in or have sent to us (by post or email) documentation relating to a prospective boat and we will review and and provide you with a list of documents that are omitted and whether they either must be be found before completion or ideally should be found so that you can make an informed decision.

In many cases we are also able to recommend who to speak to about recovering lost or missing paperwork and can help on the road to finding it. 

We can also offer a similar service for contractual advice where a private buyer would like us to write a contract between them and a private vendor or to check a contract that they have been given as part of a purchase to ensure that no terms in it are unfair to onerous.

For vendors we offer a free, no obligation, paperwork check at any period to see what they have and what areas can be improved. 

Please contact [email protected] for advice on any of the above services.