Marine Documentation
The job’s not finished until the paperwork is done!
Worldwide Catamarans are experienced in Marine Documentation in their own right, but to give clients total peace of mind, we work with a number of specialist marine documentation companies worldwide offering ESCROW facilities for our clients, home and abroad.
Always use a Yacht Broker if you are buying or selling!
When buying or selling any yacht it is more than just writing out a note on a blank piece of paper, “sold as seen tried and tested 1 boat”.
Yacht purchase of even the smallest of boats is like purchasing a house and it is extremely important to obtain clear title of any vessel as a buyer or seller. Any registered vessel in many worldwide locations can have heavy charges, fines or liens attached, TAX owed, a number of shared owners, undisclosed mortgages or even could have been stolen carrying forged papers and changed identity. The yacht could have been corporately owned and the VAT claimed back, therefore it is deemed a VAT unpaid vessel in the eyes of the TAXman.
A marine documentation company can help protect your interests, offer ESCROW account facilities protecting your deposit. They are also familiar with each locations marine law and requirements needed to ensure clean title.
Ships papers are extremely important and need looking after as if lost or destroyed can make any boat unsaleable!!
Be careful, some people will naively part company with large quantities of their hard earned money after falling in love at first sight with a yacht without doing any research. For instance: fairly recently we had a charter company list a 45ft catamaran with us on our brokerage listings, we quickly found a buyer who place a deposit on the boat.
We insisted on the correct paperwork and in the process of doing our own due diligence after some minor discrepancies in the paperwork, we discovered that the yacht was sold from new at 500,000 + EURO each, to 4 separate owners each unaware of the other. In fact when this charter company had the boat with meagre charter income to the owners, but was found to have been chartered for over twenty weeks. It was also later discovered that the new engine the boat needed, all four owners purchased a new engine, all four owners each payed berthing charges, maintenance, damage, insurance. The cat was registered in Germany, Holland, Spain and also on the British SSR (Small Ships Registry). This was a complicated fraud and the guy, who owned the charter company once discovered, just disappeared to the Caribbean with a couple of million Euro in his pocket!!!
It is always a good idea to give copies of all your ships papers in advance of any sale as if there is something missing we can deal with it sooner rather than later before a buyer comes along. It enables something to be done about it rather than having a last minute panic.
PAPERS YOU WILL NEED:
ORIGINAL BUILDERS INVOICE SHOWING VAT PAID STATUS
ORIGINAL BUILDERS CERTIFICATE
E.U. CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMITY
SIGNED BILL OF SALE DOCUMENTS FROM ALL PREVIOUS OWNERS
CURRENT REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE
PROOF OF VAT PAID STATUS
INVOICE FOR TENDER AND OUTBOARD
PAPERS REQUIRED IF OWNED BY A COMPANY
ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION
CORPORATE RESOLUTION TO SELL
CERTIFICATE OF GOOD STANDING
SIGNED NOTARISED BILL OF SALE SIGNED BY THE DIRECTORS OR NOMINEES SAME AS ON THE REGISTRATION DOCUMENT
BENEFICIAL OWNERS PASSPORT COPY NOTARISED
TONNAGE CERTIFICATE
Normally it is not the end of the world if you have not got all of the correct paperwork, BUT IF YOU HAVE NOT GOT IT, LET US KNOW, SO WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Many countries such as the USA these days, will insist on notarised documentation
LOOK AFTER YOUR PAPERS, Use a Broker, employ a Marine Documentation specialist!
