Chuck Gould wrote:
Precisely. The surveyor reports to the buyer.

Yes, and many brokers will try to bend the process as far as
possible. From "helping" the buyer select a surveyor, to
hovering over the buyer while the survey is in progress, to
getting copies of the survey report and red-pencil-ing. Not
necessarily dishonest but not really straight either.


... If the buyer chooses to
use the "satisfactory survey" escape clause, all he or she need to is
to say "sorry, but the survey was not satisfactory".


This has to be rather carefully worded if you want it to
stand up in court. Satsifactory to whom? What conditions are
deemed satisfactory?

If written properly, the buyer can get out of the contract
on rather vague grounds, like saying he doesn't like the way
the boat handles at low speed, or hits waves funny. If
written improperly, the buyer can lose his deposit & his
chance to buy the boat and get a quick lesson in how to be
polite to a local judge.

It's a bit less formalized than buying a house, but less
informal than buying a car. The problem is that really
interesting boats are invariably far away from one's home.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King