Fred Moore Consulting, Boat Surveys, Florida, Georgia, Alabama ELSEWARE

Why surveys go bad

It seems every week things just don't go as expected. The customer become so frustrated they just want to walk away from a good boat, and the surveyor just can't get his job done. Five hour survey into twelve hour days. On these days we don't even get a lunch break. Why does this happen?

The owner want to sell the boat, and the brokers it sold so they can get their commissions, but neither think it is their responsibility to make sure things are ready for the survey. The broker thinks "its his boat if he wants it sold it will be ready for the survey". The owner thinks "The broker is getting a huge commission, getting things ready is his problem". To make things worse the broker views surveyors as one of the things that gets in the way of his making a commission, and just wishes they would go away. The big day arrives both you and I show up, and things are not ready.

At this point I think some real life examples are in order:

The purchaser and surveyor meet at the boat at 9AM with an 11AM haul out scheduled. No one is there by 9:15 so the purchaser calls the broker. The broker comments: "you mean the owner isn't there? You would think he wasts to sell his boat. I will call him". The owner arrives around 10:15 and says.. "I would have been here but the broker didn't tell me I needed to be here" Surveyor: Do you know if the broker has rescheduled the haul out. We talked about that on the cell on the way here, he said we would just have to make the 11AM time. Surveyor: I really need some time before we start the engines. Owner, that's between you the buyer and the broker. Deal with the broker he is getting the huge commission check.

A quick inspection shows no life jackets, no flares, no power cables. When asking where these items are the seller says, "oh I moved them to my new boat". The purchaser: Those items are listed as sale items, don't they go with the boat?. Owner: I told the broker to tell you that they didn't. That's between you and him. Surveyor, We need safety equipment to do the sea trial, and power to test vessel systems. Otherwise we need to reschedule. Now the owner takes an hour to go get the needed items.

When ready to move the boat to the haul out point for bottom inspection, the engines won't turn over, with no owner on board just the broker. The broker comments "Dam you would think this guy wants to sell his boat and have it ready. When the mechanic shows up he offhandidly comments: These batteries were bad during the survey last week.

Surveyor: Mr owner can you turn on the air conditioner for me? I only have one shore power cable so we can't run the air conditioner. Surveyor: I really need to confirm it cools properly. Owner you mean you are going to make me go get a power cable. Surveyor: Sir its not my job to tell you anything, if I don't see it work I am assuming it is broken and I will write it up that way. The owner leave and returns 1.5 hours later. And guess what the air conditioner didn't work.

Surveyor, Are there any other sails included with the vessel. Oh yes I have 5 other sails they are in my storage shed. Can you call someone and have them bring them to the boat so we can inspect them?, No they are 130 miles away.

Halfway to the haul out point both engines die. The owner comments.. "guess we don't have enough gas" 2 hours later we are at the fuel dock. During the wait the owner comments, this boat takes 300 gallons that's a lot of money to give away with the boat.

Surveyor, can we start the generator? I havn't used it in years, I am always on shore power but it works just fine. One hour later the owner can't get it started and says where is that manual I know it here somewhere? You don't really need to see it run do you it looks new?

Surveyor, can we turn on the Chart Plotter? I unhooked a couple of weeks ago when I was fixing something else, let me figure out what wire it is so we can get it working. One hour later, It works you just need to figure out where it is unhooked at.

I know the hot water heater works, just give me some time to figure out how to turn it on.

The surveyor and buyer arrive at the vessel at 9AM to start the survey with a scheduled haul out for 11:30. The broker tells them, I moved the haul out to 9:30 to speed things up. The haul out point is 30 minutes away so we need to leave now. After reminding the broker that we need 2 hours on the vessel before moving it he says. Dam surveyors they are always in the way of the sale.

Owner, these are new engines. Do you have any paperwork showing the replacement, any receipts? Not on the boat.

Surveyor, do you have the vessel registration? Not on board. Is the vessel USCG registered? Yes, do you have the registration paperwork? Not on board. Do you have any insurance paperwork? Not on board. Do you have the required USCG visuals on board and can I inspect the dates? Don't bother they are all expired. Surveyor, how are we going to do a sea trial without the federal required documents and equipment on board? Owner.. beats me, I never carry this stuff. Broker.. just like always we don't need that stuff.

Now that you are done laughing I can tell you that each and everyone of these things has happened in the last 3 months.
The problem with Brokers is that surveyors do get in the way of the sale. There best day is when some fool just plops down 100 grand, turns the key and leaves. They write contracts to sale a junk boat and then are mad when you the unsuspecting buyer want a surveyor to look over the boat. The surveyor finds a 10 page list of items wrong, and correctly you walk from the boat. The best endorsement I have ever had was when a broker commented "I will never recommend you again, you find too many things wrong".

You are hiring the surveyor, he works for you and the last thing the surveyor wants to write is "not inspected, not accessible". The surveyor just can't do his job with a boat so full of junk no one can move around. He can certainly can not test things that are not ready for testing. How can he inspect things that are not even on the boat. You are not paying him to make assumptions about what the owner or broker says. No matter what the arrangement between the broker and seller, the buyer and surveyor are stuck in the middle on survey day. What ever problem they create for us we are stuck with it, or are we? This problem is worsened because the surveyor has no contractual agreement with the broker or seller (as it should be), so the surveyor can not make demands that things be prepaired. The only person who can demand that things be ready is the buyer.

So how do you keep this from happening. I have prepaired a form that I suggest you present to the broker and the owner, and a checklist for your personal use. If the vessel is not ready, ask the broker to reschedule, and to extend your purchase contract to reflect the delays caused by the seller and broker. Two copies should be given to the broker. The broker should be asked to send a copy to the owner. The morning before the scheduled survey, call the broker and ask "Have you verified that this vessel is ready for inspection?". If he has not just reschedule, its as simple as that. If they understand this from the beginning the boat will be ready for survey, insuring you get the job you are paying for.

Bottom line its your money and time the broker and seller are wasting. Neither think you will reschedule as you want the boat.