I light of the hurricane, what happens if you are a boat owner and the boat is in the water but not spilling fuel? They are seeing lots of boats that say "Not Abandoned"

So what happens?

Best friend lives in Port Charlote, endured a direct hit. LIterally said the winds were not gusting but continuously just screaming at 150MPH. Crazy stuff! House is fine, They are 10 feet above water and never got flooded. Has 2 lifts, one lift empty and the storm twisted it. Had his 42 Invincible up on the other lift(it was all the way up)., the aluminum didnt bend but the poles actually twisted in the sand and the bow went under water. He went to home depot and when he got home a salvage company was there saying they were taking the boat. To which he replied pretty much fk off, get off my property, how did you even get in... He has a gate, they opened it.

So what are the salvage laws?
His boat is paid off but has a $300K policy which doenst cover full replacement but what he considers enough.
One, possibly 2 Verado 300's might have water intrusion, one wont start, they were not under water, but wont start. Will they try to total the boat since the bow was under??

He since lowered the stern, the bilge pumped the water out, he drove to launch and pulled it out. Its otherwise fine but everybody is telling him its salvage? Salvage companies are running thru the neighborhood. I call BS but maritime laws are weird so, here I am...

How does this work with the thousands of other boats - especially if they say "Not Abandoned" which I assume has something to do with this?
.

Have your friend call me, I work for Morgan & Morgan, let’s see what my colleagues can do to possibly help him with the Maritime legal issue and or any insurance issue with the vessel/boat.

Stephen Jones
856-449-0939

Boat on the lift, opened a closed gate and said taking the boat? I don't think I would have started with FK off I would have started by getting contact info and calling the police to start with trespass charges and go from there. Then the FK off would have come into play!

Wonder who these clowns were representing that broke into this guys place, sounds like a good way to get shot......

F2,

I was thinking the same thing. DiSantis already put looters on notice. This doesn't seem much unlike looting.

Thanks. Brad.
(937)545-8991

Yep! I'm from Michigan and our necks are pretty red.....Firearms would have come out in this instance!!! To me that's theft plain and simple...if it was like upside down on a beach miles away then ok I can maybe see it but at his house??!!! No frickin way

Salvage laws are really shady , and a lot of people in the salvage business are as well. Not all , but a good majority. They bill on a percentage of the boats value. If it were taking on water and a salvage company stepped aboard with a trash pump , they will bill you based on the boats value. And sea tow doesn’t cover that and your insurance company will litigate the salvage bill. Most of the time. Meanwhile , you don’t have a boat anymore. And you are going to pay a storage fee while the case is being disputed. Your insurance won’t cover that. The billing percentage can be up to 50 percent of the boats value.

It's the beginning of a bunch of parasites that prey on tragedy.

Timely ?, Looking at the # of boats in the water if I am an insurance company I am allowing latitude with respect to under-writing/claim. Boat $ new/used is inflated and I don't see how current inventory levels would be able to replace boats they consider as salvage and/or repair given the #'s of boats in SW FL that are damaged with marinia damged as well the repait them.. I would guess some will take the $ and call it a day b/c that makes more sense than trying to locate a replacement. Couple that with the repair of damaged docks, storage facilities and personal docks your options are limited other than taking the payout check.. If thats the case I would guess there will be a good # of salvage boats that could be repaired as weil as well re-powered at some point, providing the electronics and other parts don't get removed as part of the salvage. Up here in LOTO I would find it advantages for some to locate a CC that may need some work and may cost a whole lot less even after repairs than todays MSRP's or limited inventory levels in the used market outside of SWFL . At LOTO the used boat market is still very tight.

Insurance companies will want to clear the files...........just like cars, they would rather "total" it, write you a check then sell the wreck as a salvage car..........they come out ahead vs. getting into a repair/rebuild situation. Sure anything that floated but just cosmetic damage will get refinished but if you have triple outboards that got dunked, they won't want to be married to that process of trying to get it right.


On the "salvage" situation on the Invincible that seems like they were cherry picking nice boats with little damage and easy access! Not sure how they could argue it was abandoned if it was still partially on his lift?

How does maritime laws work if the boat is washed up on land?