Abandoned vessels bill poised to become law
Kristen Grieco
The Gloucester Daily Times
Published: February 05, 2008 12:49 am
| The lengthy legal process that marina owners are required to go through when they want to dispose of an abandoned vessel in their yard is about to get shorter, easier and cheaper.
A bill easing the disposal of abandoned vessels, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Verga, D-Gloucester, is slated to become law within the next week. The House of Representatives and Senate enacted the bill last Tuesday, and it has been sent to the desk of Gov. Deval Patrick for a signature. |
State Rep. Anthony Verga, D-Gloucester, at Brown’s Yacht Yard yesterday, pushed legislation which will become law that would aid yacht yards when boats are abandoned. Deborah Hammond/Staff Photo |
The lengthy legal process that marina owners are required to go through when they want to dispose of an abandoned vessel in their yard is about to get shorter, easier and cheaper.
A bill easing the disposal of abandoned vessels, sponsored by Rep. Anthony Verga, D-Gloucester, is slated to become law within the next week. The House of Representatives and Senate enacted the bill last Tuesday, and it has been sent to the desk of Gov. Deval Patrick for a signature.
Abandonment often occurs when the owner of a run-down vessel incurs a bill for storage that adds up to more than the boat’s worth. The vessel then takes up valuable real estate in the yard, which can cost the marina between $240 and $300 a month in rental fees.
“The thing is, that 50 years ago, maybe lots of boat yards had extra space where they could tuck a boat,” Peter Bent, owner of Brown’s Yacht Yard in Gloucester, said when the bill was proposed in November. “In today’s world with real estate and taxes, every square inch of land is valuable and that boat’s taking up valuable land. We turn people away for boat storage.”
The current process for disposing of a boat is mired in paperwork and legal fees. A marina operator is bound by law not to touch the boat until acquiring its title — which requires hiring a lawyer and filing a petition in Superior Court. The filing fee for a lawsuit is around $300 a boat, but Russ Vickers, owner of the Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, said that legal fees can top $1,500.
The lawsuits are handled in Superior Court, often moving slowly through the waterlogged case load in an overworked court.
With the new process, marina operators would be able to gain the title without a lawyer, simply by going through a notification process and a waiting period. If a dispute ensued between the vessel owner and the marina, it could be handled at the district court level, which often makes the process more expedient.
“Local boat yards will now be able to regain valuable rental space that they were otherwise denied,” Verga said in a prepared statement.
If the marina chose to sell the boat, any money it would make above costs and outstanding bills on the boat would be held for two years for the vessel’s owner to claim. After the holding period, the money would go into a state trust fund administered by the department of Conservation and Recreation to be used solely for removing abandoned vessels.
To deal with the current laws, many boat yard owners simply turn away vessels that are in bad shape or look as though they are prime for abandonment — a tactic that takes a brisk business that could deliver another boat to pay rent on the spot.
Posted on February 6th, 2008 by Administrator in North Shore
