Yacht & Marine Surveyors

Please include your name and email address and if you are happy for us to contact you by phone your contact number.

Once you have asked us to carry out your survey we will send you a contract which will state the fee and terms and conditions which state that payment is due when the invoice is sent and payable before the work is undertaken. Text from the terms and conditions below. In order to keep our costs low and fair we would like to be paid before but if you are coming to the survey, please bring a cheque or cash, otherwise we will send an invoice with the report.

The Survey Fee and all expenses shall become due and payable on such terms and in such amounts as shall be agreed from time to time.  VAT or other EU equivalent shall be payable, if applicable, in addition to all fees and expenses.  Invoices will be submitted in respect of all fees and expenses when due and the amount of each invoice shall be settled before the work is under taken unless agreed otherwise. Thereafter, interest shall be payable on all sums owing and unpaid at a rate of 3% over Barclays Bank plc (London) base rate.

The Yacht surveyor will send a contract which will require your address and details of the vessel and its location completed and then signed and returned, accepting the terms and conditions. This can be accepted electronically and is a requirement of the indemnity insurance.

Once the contract is returned, a day for the survey will have been agreed. As the buyer or owner you should arrange with the owner and a boat yard to get the boat ashore and to inform the surveyor of the time it will be ashore. Surveys can be carried out on a low tide in a suitable place. If you want the surveyor to arrange all this, we would be pleased to do so.  

The surveyor will need to access as much of the structure as he can internally and so if possible, please have the boat available for survey with clean bilges and tidy without excessive amounts of effects on board.  If lots of time is necessary to move things around then this will reduce the time available for actual surveying.

It would be ideal if the hull was not newly antifouled but this is not absolutely necessary. If recently hauled the hull should be pressure washed and ensure, as per the contract that the owner has agreed for the Yacht surveyor to remove antifouling patches to check the hull. These are normally 1 patch per 1.5m length and approximately 50mm x 50mm in size. The surveyor does not recover the patches in his fees although this can be arranged.

Marine Surveys UK are very flexible and accommodating so any issues please ask.

If you are the purchaser you are VERY WELCOME to attend the survey, like wise as an owner for an insurance survey you are VERY WELCOME to attend. The surveyor does need to concentrate on the task at hand so cannot give a running commentary but will point any items out at the end of the survey we feel you should see.

If you would like the surveyor to be with you when you have a seatrial, that can be arranged, preferably on the same day as the survey, so for example, seatrail at 9am, survey and lift out to follow. Again, we are very flexible, please discuss your requirements.

We appreciate that a timely return of the survey assists a sale and we will endeavour to get your survey back to you electronically within 48 hours of completion of the survey.  Whilst it may be thought that the inspection would be the majority of the surveys time, to produce a quality report takes many hours. To do a thorough survey, the surveyor needs time to think about the notes he has written, study the photographs. A hard copy will follow in the post.