The Look Before You Leap

By Bert W. Quay, AMS ©2001

 

"Caveat Emptor" doesn't mean that you can't believe what you've been told about the boat, or that you should worry about what you haven't been told. It just means that you ought to have it checked out for yourself.

Can't you feel them circling, honey?
Can't you see 'em schooling around?
You've got fins to the left, fins to the right,
And you're the only bait around. . .

FINS by Jimmy Buffett

"All men by nature desire to know." Aristotle

THE INSURER AND LENDER REQUIRE IT ANYWAY

Just on the outside chance that you haven't figured it out yet, nearly all insurance underwriters and lenders require a survey from an accredited, full-time surveyor before covering the boat or lending any money.

Often, nobody in the deal wants a survey. The seller for certain doesn't. The buyer may not. The insurance salesman doesn't. The loan broker doesn't. Nobody who is making money off the deal coming together wants the survey.

No, its the people handling insurance claims who advance their career by controlling damage costs. And its the loan officers worrying about the quality and condition of their collateral who advance their career by avoiding repossession sales. Those are the folks who need a good survey to protect their interests.

And their argument for business prudence is strong enough with the executives and bean-counters inside their institutions to have put those needs into the policy manual long ago. What you want or don't want, and need or don't need is not likely to move the steely-eyed guys in unfashionable brown suits.

I'd love to talk the ethics of the insurance and banking crowd forcing a survey that they don't pay for. And I'd love to be able to charge (and collect from) every secondary player for the use of the report. But that's not any more realistic than the boat owner being able to get around having the survey in the first place. So, its just one of those things we have to accept as part of the price of doing business with boats.


THE INSURER AND LENDER REQUIRE IT ANYWAY

    Just on the outside chance that you haven't figured it out yet, nearly all insurance underwriters and lenders require a survey from an accredited, full-time surveyor before covering the boat or lending any money.

    Often, nobody in the deal wants a survey. The seller for certain doesn't. The buyer may not. The insurance salesman doesn't. The loan broker doesn't. Nobody who is making money off the deal coming together wants the survey.

    No, its the people handling insurance claims who advance their career by controlling damage costs. And its the loan officers worrying about the quality and condition of their collateral who advance their career by avoiding repossession sales. Those are the folks who need a good survey to protect their interests.

    And their argument for business prudence is strong enough with the executives and bean-counters inside their institutions to have put those needs into the policy manual long ago. What you want or don't want, and need or don't need is not likely to move the steely-eyed guys in unfashionable brown suits.

    I'd love to talk the ethics of the insurance and banking crowd forcing a survey that they don't pay for. And I'd love to be able to charge (and collect from) every secondary player for the use of the report. But that's not any more realistic than the boat owner being able to get around having the survey in the first place. So, its just one of those things we have to accept as part of the price of doing business with boats.