Buyer Beware!

Why the Moffats’ business plan failed (and will always fail)

The information is accurate to the best of our knowledge and belief

  • On 20 Oct 2022 the market rate for mooring licences was determined by an independent expert, A P Harris LLM FRICS FCIArb.  Mr Harris determined that the rate for a vessel in the front row should be approx £478 per foot for a licence for ten years if it had no right to renew.  He determined that if there was a right to renew it would attract an additional 15%.

  • Mr Moffat ignored Mr Harris and continued to try to sell licences for 10x the Harris rate.  There are 60 berths.  In 2016 all 60 berths were occupied by boatowners paying fees to CYBC.  In 2026 there are empty berths because boatowners have removed their vessels rather than pay the unrealistic fees demanded by Mr Moffat.

  • A large proportion of boatowners are sure that they have a solid enforceable collateral contract claim which means that CYBC would not be granted a possession order in court.  CYBC has never been prepared to put it to the test.

  • Crucially, Mr Harris assessed the market rate for a mooring licence at a time when the boatowner was liable to pay CYBC an annual mooring fee at a rate of £138/ft and a maintenance charge at £88/ft.  CYBC now charges considerably more; £239/ft/yr for mooring fees and £185.39/ft/yr for maintenance.  Common sense says that if Mr Harris was to be determining the cost of a ten year licence now, he would set the rate considerably below that which he did about three years ago, to reflect the fact that CYBC has increased mooring and maintenance fees to such an extent.  It is the total cost to moor at CYBC that any boatowner will want to know; what the different fees are called and how CYBC chooses to structure the fees is unlikely to matter nearly as much as the total cost.

  • One third of the boats at CYBC are 46’ boats which provide about 700sq ft of living space, equiv to a one bed flat.  Since 2016, a person owning such a boat will have been required to pay CYBC more than £180k in service fees (called licence, mooring and maintenance fees).  Boatowners have none of the legal protections of leaseholders and no right to buy a share of the freehold and without any security of tenure, that £180k is dead money.  Only a fool would agree to higher fees which is why boatowners will never agree and there is no market for Moffat rates.

  • Mr Moffat has been keen to remind us over the last decade; “I own the mooring, you own your vessel”.  By appropriating the equity in our boats he has killed the golden goose; there is no sales market as no one will buy a boat knowing that in ten years time all they will have to show for it is their vessel, a wasting chattel, which cannot easily be moored elsewhere because of the design required to connect to CYBC services.

  • In the six years prior to the Moffats buying CYBC in 2016, the annual maintenance charge increased from £59.95 to £72.31 per foot. That’s an average annual percentage increase of circa 3.26%.  Boatowners did not dispute it, evidencing that when charges are reasonable, so too are boatowners.

  • Until 28 Sept 2026 (when no doubt it will be increased again) the maintenance charge is £185.39 per foot/yr on top of mooring and licence fees.  Over the last 10yrs standards of maintenance at CYBC have declined in line with the reduction in staff. In the case brought by HMRC, Mr Moffat’s own KC said in submissions on his behalf that ‘in reality CYBC seeks to charge an uplift on the maintenance charge, the uplift being  a 35% margin”.  Our licences say that CYBC is not permitted to add a % to the actual cost, it should be a straight pass through.

  • There is plainly a ceiling price at which living on a boat, which rises and falls 7 metres twice a day and sits on a slope in mud for much of the time, no longer makes any sense let alone commercial sense.  The market has spoken and the fact that CYBC is entirely dependent on TopCo for funding to stay trading is undeniable evidence that the Moffat business plan does not work at Chelsea Reach.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!