Mark is correct that in S. Florida it is customary to do the Sea Trial after the Survey--however where I origionally came from, the West Coast it was traditional to take the sea trail first. Slightly over a year ago I purchased a boat in Clear Lake, made the offer and sent the deposit thru a broker, subject to 1. my inspection of the boat, 2. my diving on the boat (I paid to have the bottom cleaned) 3. a sea trial, 4 a hull and equiptment survey and 5. an engine survey. After the inspection, and the sea trial, I did another sea trial with the hull surveror on the way to the haul out and a third sea trial was done by the engine surveyor. After all of the above, I obtained estimates on what the costs of repair/replacement would cost--and renegotiated the selling price--all with full co-operation with the broker--and disclosing only those parts of the survey which were to my benefit. I am currently looking for a boat (actually have one under contract)--but several private sellers have taken me on sea trials without a deposit. I would never sign a contract that would allow the seller to correct the defects found at survey or my having to disclose the results of survey. As already pointed out--if there are defects, the purchaser should have the repairs done to his satisfaction--not those of the seller. In fact the surveyor should be involved in inspection of work that is done. Bob Austin

Think about this from the seller's viewpoint. You're going to demand that he lower the price to fix defects that you won't let him know about? How's THAT going to work out? I can just imagine my buyers saying "The survey determined that you have $5,000 of defects, but we won't tell you what they are. Lower your price so we can fix them or we're outta here." See my problem with not seeing any of the survey results? Hey, surveyors aren't infallible either. Their job is to be a "hired gun". Bob Austin wrote: <snip> > I would never sign a contract that would allow the seller to correct the > defects found at survey or my having to disclose the results of survey. As > already pointed out--if there are defects, the purchaser should have the > repairs done to his satisfaction--not those of the seller. In fact the > surveyor should be involved in inspection of work that is done. > > Bob Austin -- __________________ Keith Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

Friday, January 3, 2003, 7:49:38 PM, Keith wrote: > Think about this from the seller's viewpoint. You're going to demand > that he lower the price to fix defects that you won't let him know > about? How's THAT going to work out? I can just imagine my buyers saying > "The survey determined that you have $5,000 of defects, but we won't > tell you what they are. Lower your price so we can fix them or we're > outta here." See my problem with not seeing any of the survey results? > Hey, surveyors aren't infallible either. They sure aren't - the guy who surveyed Sea Spray before I bought her (actually he surveyed for another buyer who backed out, and I bought the survey) found two more cylinders on my 80 HP Lehman than I can find, and couldn't find the ring buoy which was cleverly hidden on the flybridge rail! -- Peter Bennett, VE7CEI Vancouver, B.C., Canada Pacific 30 "Sea Spray" http://members.shaw.ca/peterbb GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver-webpages.com/van-ps