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These are the recurring questions we have been asked by Ownerships share owners over the past few weeks. We hope they answer some of your questions too. What’s the first thing we should be doing? You put a great deal of emphasis on syndicates getting their own ‘Syndicate Agreement’ why is this? Do we have to move to one of your marinas? Are your boats members of RCR? Do you have a central help-line? What if we break down a long way from our base? How do we know our money is safe with BCBM? What are your administration charges? Can we see if someone isn’t paying their fair share? What happens if someone doesn’t pay up? How do we know you’ll do a good job? Do you get everything right all the time? How do you sell re-sale shares? So you are going to build new boats? Are you willing to help us set up an EGM? What would happen if you or one of the team is taken ill?
Q. What’s the first thing we should be doing? A. First, make sure your insurance, licence and moorings are secured. (By now you probably have.) Second, organise your syndicate. We’d advise drafting a syndicate agreement (see below) then calling an Extraordinary General Meeting to discuss and ratify it. Elect a spokesperson / chairman / representative and if necessary a treasurer and secretary. Decide on a way forward for your syndicate. A. When a company builds a new boat and sells shares in it, they get share owners to sign a legal agreement, which defines their rights and responsibilities. If that company ceases to exist then that agreement is null and void. So owners are usually left with no binding agreement even between themselves and this can leave you open to all kinds of potential difficulties. It’s in every owners interest that rules are agreed and stuck to by each member of the syndicate. A. Yes, we have draft agreements available, but it is for each syndicate to agree on their own rules. That way, whichever way you decide to go in the future, your relationship within the syndicate remains intact. But there’s no point re-inventing the wheel. Most syndicates take a draft agreement and tweak it to suit themselves. You might wish, for instance, to limit the size of shareholding able to be held by any single owner or you may wish to make yours a non-smoking or pet free boat. Most of all you’ll have to decide on what size of majority is needed for voting on major issues. Typically simple matters are carried by a simple majority, but major expenditure might need a bigger majority, say 80% for instance. A. Yes. It’s entirely up to you. You choose what system you want and we will gladly administer it. You would be employing us … we won’t dictate to you! A. That’s fine too. It’s your boat, your syndicate, your rules! We’d be there to make it work for you. Q. Do we have to move to one of your marinas? A. No. If you want to stay where you are now, there’s no reason why not. We’d sort it out. And if you do want to move, we’d sort that out too. Q. Do you have local managers? A. No, but talking to Ownerships owners, it sounds like a good idea and we are thinking about introducing them where practicable. Q. Are your boats members of RCR? A. No, we have a ‘rescue’ service provided by our yards and marinas. Q. Do you have a central help-line? A. Yes, but in case of difficulty you have 24 hour access to locally based on-call engineers, we think that makes sense to be your first port of call. Our central number is manned around the clock too. (We make every effort to get you on your way – we even replaced an entire engine once within 36 hours of it seizing up while out on the cut!) Q. What if we break down a long way from our base? A. Then we can arrange someone closer to come out to you from our network of bases. Q. How do we know our money is safe with BCBM. A. Following the collapse of Challenger, we needed to rebuild the trust of share owners who had lost money. So each boat has its own bank account with HSBC. Accounts spreadsheets are sent each month to every single owner along with a copy of the month’s bank statement from HSBC. On top of this, each syndicate Chairman has an HSBC ‘Dongle’ and can view the account online anytime day or night 24/7. A. Definitely not. What’s more, you can see that we don’t via our completely transparent accounting system (see above). An electronic note is attached to each item on the spreadsheet so you can see what every single payment was for. If any owner wishes, they can request to see any invoice from a supplier or base. Carole Briese, our Financial Manager will scan and e-mail or post it to you. That way you know you’re getting value for money from suppliers too. Q. What are your administration charges? A. £340 plus VAT, which is £400 including VAT. This is per single 8.33% share owner. A. You can either pay your boat running costs and the administration charges (which of course are paid to separate accounts) on a 6-monthly OR monthly basis. If you choose the latter, then this is by standing order. In fact we actually prefer you to pay monthly! That way you keep hold of your own money for longer and if anything ever did go wrong you’ve only ever paid 4 weeks in advance. Q. Can we see if someone isn’t paying their fair share? A. Yes. As part of the monthly accounts, you can see the income from owners as well as expenditure. Q. What happens if someone doesn’t pay up? A. We chase any unpaid invoices - not the most pleasant of tasks sometimes, but its part of the service. One of the most common questions we’re asked by new share owners is, ‘What happens if someone doesn’t pay their dues’, so it’s something we take very seriously. (See ‘Legal Matters’ in our newsletter on line) In cases of genuine hardship, we will arrange to sell the share in order to pay off the debt, with the balance going back to the owner. If an owner continually and knowingly defaults on their payments in a way that compromises other syndicate members we will take them to court, we have in the past and won each time! We would recommend that you have a clear course of action for such eventualities written into you syndicate agreement. Q. How do we know you’ll do a good job? A. Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. But there’s one thing that always keeps us on our toes. It’s that you only appoint us one year at a time. If we don’t come up to scratch after each year, we don’t deserve to be reappointed. At every AGM you get the chance to either reappoint us or not, simple as that. We also sign a ‘Service Level Agreement’ which shows exactly what we promise to deliver and by what measure you can expect to judge us. Q. Do most boats re-appoint you? A. Yes, they do. A couple have left to self-manage, but even one of those came back! We like to have a good relationship with all boaters if we possibly can, whether they are our customers or not. It’s a small world in boating and it’s good to make friends! Q. Do you get everything right all the time? A. No, no-one can. But we try to get as close as humanly possible! Q. How do you sell re-sale shares? A. Following the demise of Challenger there were lots of issues to grapple with, but pretty soon it became apparent that something had to be done about the 50 or so ‘used’ shares which had been left unsold, some for many, many months. So we set up BCBM Boat Share Limited as a subsidiary to sell resale boat shares. We also promised that we would add no new boats to our fleet until almost every share for sale as of February 2009 had been sold. That way we were able to give our full attention to resale shares before even thinking about new ones. This has almost now been done. There have been some more shares that have come on the market since then, but a look at our ‘shares for sale’ pages and you’ll see there are only a handful left. We’re proud to be able to say that on average, we take just 8 weeks to sell resale shares and we get an excellent market price for them too. It’s become a sellers market! Q. So you are going to build new boats? A. Yes, now we have fulfilled that promise, we have just commissioned our first brand new boat. However we will not build new boats unless there is a clear demand for shares in them. Our business model does not rely on new boats being built and we do not have to do so in order to remain successful. A. NOT from syndicate funds!! In fact not even from BCBM funds. We have financed the whole thing via independent financiers. This is completely ring-fenced from BCBM and, of course, any of the boat accounts. No hair-brained investment schemes here! Q. Are you willing to help us set up an EGM? A. Most definitely. We have a fabulous rate for weekend meeting rooms at the Village Hotel in Walsall and the Holiday Inn, Crick. If you let us talk to you for 15-30 minutes as part of that meeting we’ll even pay for it ourselves! So no room hire cost at all for the syndicate. Q. What would happen if you or one of the team is taken ill? A. There is a robust contingency plan in place for each of us to ensure that continuity is maintained at all times and the business is not affected whatsoever. If you have any other questions not answered here, or need clarification on any of the points made, please don’t hesitate to call us.
Please feel free to contact Andrew at:-
Tel 01270 628 076 Mob 07768 741 213
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