Legality of contractor charges.

[TheConverted]

Afternoon everyone.

We quite regularly work on yachts and boats in marinas. theirs been a trend for a while now, of marinas charging a day rate for contractors. this is normally a fairly nominal fee of £6-8. they claim its an admin fee, it takes minutes for them to give us a passcode or fob and look at our insurance cert.

however Ive recently just booked a job in where they want £30 per day (2 day job) for us to work on the yacht.

bearing in mind we are always actioned by the vessel owners and have access permission from them.

i also found out today one of my customers gets billed directly for contractors to visit his boat. in this instance we have only met him to discuss works.

what is the legality of this? im guessing its in the vessels owners contracts?

for old school yards/ marinas that have services on site i can kind of see reason for it. but the two above examples re just marina's with no services on site. our trade is also not one that would usually be on site in a marina

I have no plans to do anything about it just intrigued by it.

[anonymous-user]

Their gaff, their rules. Pretty much any private facility owner can charge anyone for access to that facility.

[TheConverted]

Breadvan72 said:

Their gaff, their rules. Pretty much any private facility owner can charge anyone for access to that facility.

thanks BV

Fair enough I guess, just seems a bit mad what you consider the fees involved. that the owners cant have people work on them with out further costs, we just pass it on to the owners. I know some marinas have had to abolish them, because of backlash from the owners.

for example the marina down the road from me on the hamble charge £8-10k a year for a 40 foot yacht nothing is included either.

[bobtail4x4]

a mate of mine was working on his cat in a marina,
once it was out of the water and half stripped, they brought in a rule that you cannot work on your own boat,
it could not go back in the water, he had to pay the marina owners to make it water tight before he could move it,

I suppose their rules etc??

[Jasandjules]

Company tries to fleece for all they can shock.......

[matjk]

Get them to sail out at night, meet them at a predetermined spot in an inflatable rib ,
Hide onboard and get them to sail back to dock ,
To throw them further off the scent wear the owners clothes and possibly some comedy fake moustaches,
£60 saved , everyones a winner ??

Edited by matjk on Tuesday 19th January 19:40

[TheDrownedApe]

There was change to H&S a while ago wrt contractors on your site. TBH its a ball ache in the background with paperwork and permit to work etc, which could be the reason for the charge.......if they are following (or need to) the rules.

Im not knowledgeable on the subject but have been privy to the admin side

[anonymous-user]

Breadvan72 said:

Their gaff, their rules. Pretty much any private facility owner can charge anyone for access to that facility.

Sounds just like the 'mobile home' 'scam' that has been going on in North Wales and elsewhere for over 30 years I'm aware of.