The Surveyor's Proper Role in Your Purchase
By Bert W. Quay, AMS ©2001
Sweaty Curmudgeon? or White Knight!
To many sellers (owners and brokers), the surveyor is the primary obstacle to the sale. They see him as a greasy-fingered curmudgeon out to find enough faults to blow the deal or at least beat the price down, all for fun. And more than once I've been accused, by players whose only interest was in their commission, of being tough just to "get joy" from costing them money.
But to many buyers, the surveyor is a caped crusader, swooping down on the boatyard to protect buyers from either their own uncontrolled desires, or some sinister peril of the used boat marketplace. And more than once, buyers in the throes of remorse have demanded that I be really tough to get them out of the deal or at least save them the cost of the survey.
And there are some surveyors who try to perpetuate the myth of X-ray vision, thinking that surely the S on Superman's chest stood for Surveyor.
Most times, these opposing characterizations of the surveyor's role are so obviously self-serving that only the one making the accusation or the demand can't see it as outrageously unfair and improper. And on both sides of the coin, people seem to take the results of the survey very personally.
The same list of deficiencies that makes a buyer think he didn't get his money's worth from the examination may send the seller into a defensive rage. The same appraisal that the seller thinks is insultingly low may seem inflated to the buyer. It all depends on whose interest is being affected.
I'm not going to defend surveyors in general, because there is the usual bell-curve array of good to bad ones on both technical and ethical scales. Every surveyor has his own peculiarities, and strengths or weaknesses. Certainly there is the occasional self-serious and grumpy surveyor on some tech-freak trip of his own, who gets an ego boost out of turning his veneer of knowledge about the regulations into a long list of deficiencies that are impossible to overcome. There are more than enough nervous "buyers-in-distress" to guarantee the crusading, "White Knight" surveyor a steady stream of morality points as the self-appointed policeman of the boat marketplace.
The Surveyor's Proper Role
The surveyor's proper role is much narrower than is typically assumed by either sellers or buyers. The surveyor is there to inspect the vessel and render his independent, professional opinion on its condition and value. That's it. And that's enough for the work done and fee earned on survey day.
The surveyor shouldn't be an advocate, even for his client. Or he stoops to being a hired gun who'll say whatever his client wants. He shouldn't be a crusader either, even against "the bad guys" or "bad boats." And obviously, he shouldn't be the broker's "closer," who is working more for his next referral than the current client.
The great value of a surveyor's independence is that everybody in the purchase equation can be sure what he says is fair witness to the condition and value of the boat. That is why I do not solicit referrals from a variety of self-interested boat-market players who have proven themselves eager to influence the outcome of the survey. Nor do I compromise my independence and integrity just because a buyer asks for a special spin on the truth.
The surveyor can't do the inspection half-blind, or tilt his interpretation of the observations in anybody's direction. Everybody in the purchase equation has their own free (self-serving) opinions, which they typically have already expressed in order to close the sale, write the insurance, make the loan, or get the repair job. And some are aggressively eager to try to pick the surveyor, control the conduct of the survey, dispute the interpretation of the findings, and correct the wording of the report, all of course in their favor.
The surveyor's central position in the purchase process means that everybody is taking shots at him from all sides. There isn't much a surveyor can do to counteract aggressively bad behavior, except to advise his client of undue attempts at pressure from any player. And that -as a broker occasionally reminds me- goes with the territory. But shame on him for that attitude!
Who's to Blame?
The surveyor is a convenient scapegoat. For the seller who doesn't want to take responsibility for the poor condition or high price of his boat. For the broker who wants to be innocent of all knowledge or mis-representation of the boat. For the buyer who had unrealistic dreams, or whose wife has changed his mind. And for the banker or insurer who just wants a piece of paper with somebody else's signature on it to cover his decision to participate in the deal.
Everybody Wants a Good Report
I know how much effort you may have put into finding a boat that the seller, a bank, and at least some of your family will let you buy. But I also want you to be reasonably happy with the boat after you get it.
If you listen, I will tell you that reality may never soar to the heights of your Walter Mitty fantasies. That you can't win every race, catch fish every day, or be the star of every anchorage. That the boat will cost you more than you thought to own, or that you can't repair it fast enough to keep it perfect for more than the first summer. And that you probably can't sell it for what you have in it.
I may be able to recommend some meditation, counseling, or medication to help you get over the disappointment at finding some problems with the boat. But I am not going to tell you that the can't have it. I'll leave that to your banker. And I'm not going to tell you that you don't want it. I'll leave that to your spouse.
"Interpreting" the Findings
The technical details seldom speak for themselves. The discovery of blisters, deck voids, core rot, delaminations, moisture penetration, fractured tabs, galvanic corrosion, etc. is just the beginning. The hard question is what does all that mean?
Every owner and buyer has different attitudes and expectations about their boat. What alarms one person gets blissfully ignored by the next. Blisters are a perfect case in point. Some folks can't sleep knowing the boat has a dozen small blisters. Others, whose boat have a full crop of "nice-uns" on the bottom just drink more beer and laugh a little more.
The surveyor has a priority scale in his mind about the seriousness of any problem. And a recommendation about what must be fixed, what ought to be fixed, and what can be ignored for how long without hurting the boat or endangering the crew. That interpretation is based on experience with the consequences of leaving it un-attended, on common sense, and on a feel for the cost of a workmanlike repair.
What You Really Get from the Surveyor
The interpretive labels of "insignificant" "inconsequential" "cosmetic" and "non-structural" are very reassuring. But when the seller/broker tries to apply them --or get the surveyor to apply them-- to conditions that are demonstrably serious or require expensive repairs, it's obvious that he is just trying to save his deal or prevent a renegotiation of the offer price.
As much as you may like and trust the broker, you must absolutely understand from the beginning that he works only for the seller who pays his commission. But by the time the surveyor comes to interpretation, he has no doubt demonstrated the technical truth of the boat's actual condition to you. And you should have faith in the inspector you hired to look at the boat. So, in a "whose opinion ya gonna believe" conflict between your surveyor and the seller or seller's broker, you can't go wrong sticking with the independent explanation from the one person in the purchase equation who doesn't have an interest in the favorable outcome of the survey.
Once the objective observations have been made, the next step is to place all the details in reasonable, practical perspective. It's important for you to learn how the problems compare in their nature and extent to those commonly found on other boats of this price range, especially of this specific model.
So the surveyor must give you both the actual condition and some judgement -that I call "boat sense" or "survey sense"- about where this set of deficiencies puts the boat in the "big picture." At this point, the surveyor is your consultant not just an examiner with a checkout sheet.
Passing the Survey
A too-common mis-statement is that, "The surveyor didn't pass the boat." Or that, "The boat didn't pass survey."
But most properly, the surveyor cannot pass or fail the boat. And the boat cannot pass or fail the survey. The surveyor simply provides independent technical and market information on which readers of his report can base their decisions. Only the buyer, lender, or underwriter can accept or reject the boat. Again, it is not the surveyor's job to condemn or to tout the vessel.
The surveyor shouldn't be making the decisions for you. He can lay out the alternative courses of dealing with the deficiencies, and try to project the probably consequences of each choice. The surveyor is not yo momma, yo diddy, or yo wife. So he can't make up your mind for you, whether to buy a boat at all, or to choose a particular boat to buy.
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