Not as expected

A BOATER has had a rather bad experience when he decided to upgrade to a larger narrowboat, with his purchase being far from expected.

We recently decided to upgrade from our lovely 50' narrowboat to something bigger as we are hoping to expand our family, writes Wim Dries.

Limited resources

Since we are a young couple with limited resources we thought a project boat would be the best option, as I am a carpenter we thought it would be best to buy ourselves a good solid 60'-70' narrowboat. We thought we had found this when we looked on MK marina's website and found a 1991 68' narrowboat called Oxford.

We rang them and arranged a viewing that same day. With its recently blacked hull and new safety certificate we thought we had found the winner. Our new home? After putting in an offer pending survey that got accepted and we paid the required deposit, the boat was then taken to Willowbridge to be taken out of the water for a hull survey.

Shocking verdict

Unfortunately the agreed £40 to transport it there now became £60 plus VAT. After two days the hull survey was executed but the verdict was shocking. It needed re-plating both sides of the aft 25ft with some other repairs to the rudder needing to be made as well.

Our surveyor who has been working in the business for over 15 years told us we were best to leave this boat for what it was and look out for another boat.

Offer refused

We then went back to the brokers and explained everything but we wanted to make another offer as we both liked this boat. My wife and I agreed to make an offer of around £10,000 or we would walk away. Two days after making this offer as we suspected it was refused and we told the broker we were walking away from the boat at that point in time.

As stated in the sales agreement we would be entitled to our deposit money back. This is where the broker said he would pay us the deposit back by bank cheque minus the cost to return the boat back to MK Marina. so another £60 plus VAT. Nowhere in the agreement does it state we have to pay to get the boat back to the marina. Yet I am being refused to get the complete deposit back.

Back for sale

Now a few days later I notice the boat is back up for sale on their website with no mention of the extent of work it needs doing. I do not think this is appropriate for a broker, and by writing you this letter I hope to warn people to be extra careful.

[Should anyone be concerned about the name. Wim is of Belgium extraction.]