Frequently Asked Questions

Got a question? Take a look below at our FAQ list which also includes useful information about the buying and selling process at FreeBoatSeller.co.uk.

If you can't find the answer then please get in touch using the form at the bottom of this page - I'm sure we will be able to help.

How much does is cost to register?

You need to be 18 or over to use this site.

  • Adding your boat listing to our website auction costs….nothing.
  • The minimum reserve is £500.00, if you think your boat is worth less then this is not the right place to sell your boat, sorry.
  • We make revenue by charging the successful buyer a “Buyers Premium”. Currently this is 6% of your listings final auction price.
  • We will pay a percentage of this to your Boat Yard, Marina or Broker if you are using one.
  • FreeBoatSeller.co.uk is a dedicated boat selling website.
  • We have tailored our dynamic form guides to make capturing boat related information as easy as possible.
  • We dynamically adapt the information required based on your previous entries, this reduces the time it will take you to complete.
  • Why do you ask for detailed information? This is what makes us great at selling boats, we want you to be upfront about all your boats quirks and foibles (character). We want your boat buyer to appreciate exactly what they are bidding on. Then when it comes to the boat sale there will be no surprises for them. 
  • Within your listing we also allow you to upload up to 200 high quality images to highlight your boats good points, also all those features that make up your boats character.
  • Once you have submitted you listing you will get a dedicated customer service advisor to assist you along your boat selling journey.
  • It does not matter whether you are a first time boat seller or a trade seller, we will sell your boat.
  • The best bit is you get all this for free.
  • Register an account if you haven’t already done so, if you have then log in.
  • Once logged in you can take a look at our “Sellers Guide“, this provides useful information about staging your boat and the type of photos that will make a difference when it comes to achieving the best price at auction.
  • Fill in our dynamic form guides with all the boat related information you can get your hands on. We want the successful bidder to be 100% confident on the condition of all elements of your boat, good and bad, so that they can make the best informed decision. Being honest pays in the end so please don’t hide anything.
  • Set your reserve. See our “Sellers Guide” for guidance on this.
  • We will add your boat to our “Being Prepared” page. This allows our boating audience to have prior visibility of your lot before the actual live auction.
  • We will generate your auction listing ready for your approval.
  • Once approved we will add your listing to the live auction page.
  • Once live you have entered a legally binding contract to sell to the highest bidder.
  • Please make sure you answer all posted questions about your boat in a timely manner. An e-mail will be sent to you to advise that a question has been raised. If you are unsure of an answer then give your dedicated customer service advisor a call. We advise against providing your reserve price as this is then seldomly exceeded.
  • You will receive e-mails to indicate increases in your listings bids.
  • Once your boat sells, (the winning bidder is under a legally binding contract to complete the purchase) and the buy pays the “Buyer Premium” we will exchange your details with the buyer and vise versa.
  • You and the buyer make contact and arrange a date/time and place for the boat to have a final viewing, please make sure it is in a public area with mobile signal, even better arrange to met at your local boat yard/marina. This viewing should be a formality as the buyer should already know everything they need to know about your boat.
  • There are no further negotiations, the final sales price of the listing is what needs to be paid. VAT if applicable can not be added at this point.
  • Buyer arranges payment to you, we recommend a CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) transfer, they should discuss this with their bank first, there are other alternatives such as ESCROW. (A third party that manages the transaction and exchange of funds for a charge).
  • You generate and complete a sales invoice.
  • You and the new owner both sign 2 copies of the invoice, one for them and one for you, as long as you are happy that the money is in your account (check with your bank) you can then hand over the boat keys to the new owner.
  • Congratulations, you have just achieved the best price for your boat.
  • You may have to tell the government of change of ownership check out his link to the gov.uk website Boat registration forms explanatory notes – GOV.UK
  • Please make sure you are aware of all our terms and conditions.
  • We love to include great photographs, we can accept up to 200 per listing. Each photograph should be a minimum of 1024 width x 1024 height in pixels. We recommend uploading in JPEG format.
  • Remember, a bid is a binding contract. When you bid on an item in an auction, you’re committing to buy it if you win. Please do not bid if you do not have the funds available.
  • Find the boat you want to place bids on by using our easy search and filter facilities.
  • Complete our registration form.
  • Log into your account.
  • Set your maximum bid amount.
  • Set whether you want automatic or manual bidding
  • Set your bid increments. (Applicable for automatic bidding only).
  • Use the listing’s associated post, to ask any questions, please make sure all language used is polite and relevant to the boat being bid on.
  • Answers to questions will be forth coming before the end of the auction.
  • For “automatic” bidding the bid amount will increase incrementally until you are the lead bidder or your maximum bid is reached.
  • For manual, you can add your current bid amount.
  • As the listing approaches it’s completion date/time any bids made within the last 2 minutes will automatically increase the time left on the listing by an additional 2 minutes, this is to prevent sniping bids.
  • If you have submitted the highest bid at the end of the auction then you will be the winner. 
  • You will be asked to pay the “Buyers Premium”, the amount of which will be made obvious during the bidding stage and will be requested via an Invoice e-mailed to you or an e-mail link to an online invoice or via your FreeBoatSeller.co.uk account. We accept all the usual electronic payment types. Sorry no crypto currencies.
  • Once the “Buyers Premium” has been paid and confirmed, (we will send you instructions to complete an online invoice), then you will receive the Sellers (and/or their representative) contact details.
  • Please make every effort to contact the seller (and/or their representative) to arrange a final boat viewing, this should be a formality as all the boat details have already been supplied and questions answered.
  • THERE IS NO FURTHER NEGOTIATING OF THE PRICE, the final auction price is the price you are legally obliged to pay. 
  • Arrange payment to the seller, we recommend a CHAPS (Clearing House Automated Payment System) transfer, there will be a nominal charge for using this facility, you should discuss this with your bank.
  • There are other alternatives such as ESCROW. (A third party that manages the transaction and exchange of funds for a charge).
  • The boat seller will complete a sales invoice.
  • You and the boat seller both sign 2 copies of the invoice, one for you and one for the seller.
  • Once the seller is happy that the money is in their account you can receive the boat keys.
  • Congratulations! You are the new owner.
  • You may need to register as the new owner check out this link to the gov.uk website Boat registration forms explanatory notes – GOV.UK
  • Please make sure you are aware of all our terms and conditions.
  • FreeBoatSeller.co.uk charges the winning bidder a 6% “Buyer Premium” on all boat listing sales.

Use FreeBoatSeller.co.uk to sell boats on behalf of your clients. We would like to be part of your sales strategy.

  • Register with us as a Boat Yard/Marina/Broker.
  • Supply the owners details, your authority to sell, which is a written confirmation from the owner.
  • Create the boat listings.
  • Remove all boat details from any current sales platform/s.
  • Provide Approval to proceed from “Being Prepared” to “Live Auction”.
  • Answer any questions raised by the bidders during the auction via the listing comments.
  • Once sold and the “Buyers Premium” paid both the seller, buyer and yourselves will be provided each others detail, you will be responsible for managing the final viewing and overseeing payment between the buyer and seller for the boat, once we have confirmation of the successful transaction from the buyer and seller, then we will pay you a commission on the listings “Buyers Premium”, the amount is disclosed once registration has been made.
  • Remember this commission is in addition to any payments your have already agreed with the original boat owner for your services.
  • Using FreeBoatSeller.co.uk will mean a massive time saving as the buying decision will have already been made by the time a final viewing is arranged.
  • Please make sure you are aware of all our terms and conditions.
  • We would either place your listing back into the auction.
  • Or place your listing back onto the “Being Prepared” page, maintaining visibility, whilst we contact the highest bidder on your behalf to see whether we can come to a mutually beneficial final sales price.
  • If a final sales price can not be agreed, then when you are ready, your listing can be placed back into the auction.
  • No, whilst you are using our site please remove any listings you have on other platforms/sites.
  • Due to the nature of an online auction it is not possible to have your site advertised else where.
  • If you are reading this and your boat is advertised else where then it probably is not selling. So you would have nothing to lose by placing a hold on your current adverts/listing and giving us a go.
  • However, we want to work with Boatyards/Marinas/Brokers so if you are using them it would be great if you could suggest they utilise our great boat selling site as part of their sales strategy.

No – possibly in the future, but not at the moment.

  • You can bid from anywhere around the world.
  • However, all bids are currently in Pounds Sterling.
  • If you want the boat delivering outside the UK then this will have to be arranged outside of the auction process once the sale is complete, and is outside of the services we provide.
  • Sorry that that happened to you. However, FreeBoatSeller.co.uk can take no responsibility for bids not being registered.
  • Setting the automatic bidding facility will get around this issue.
  • Whilst we have made every effort to ensure the stability and constancy of FreeBoatSeller.co.uk, sometimes these things can happen.
  • We do monitor the sites performance, and so should be aware of any issues.
  • However, If you can send us a communication and we will look to restart the bidding process.
  • Seller – your personal data such as name address, contact details etc, will be exchanged on successful auction with the person buying the boat and boatyard/marina/broker if being used.
  • Buyer – your personal data such as name address, contact details etc, will be exchanged on successful auction with the person selling the boat and boatyard/marina/broker if being used.
  • Buyer – we use your data during the Authorisation and Payment process.
  • Buyer – we will supply your data to our payment processing company and any government departments for tax purposes where required.
  • Buyer/Seller – your details will be shared internally to enable us to process any of your boat related auction lots.
  • Buyer/Seller – we will request your authorisation for any other usages, such as receiving notifications for up and coming lots that maybe of interest to you.
  • You can request removal (not financial data, which has to retained for accounting purposes) and copies of your data at anytime via the form at the bottom of our privacy policy statement.
  • Non personal data is data related to how you use our FreeBoatSeller.co.uk website.
  • It includes information used for statistical analysis. Such as the pages you have visited the functionality that you used. All things we need to improve our site design.
  • Your personal data is not related to this in anyway.
  • Please take a look at our privacy policy statement for full details.
  • Yes – All the data to and from the FreeBoatSeller.co.uk website server and your browser is SSL encrypted.
  • This is denoted by the HTTPS (S for Secure) in our web address.
  • We use an online payment processing platform called “Stripe”, they accept all major credit and debit cards. At no point do we have visibility of your payment details. Stripe are used by companies such as Amazon, AirB&B and Spotify