What a surveyor sells is impartiality. A report gains its value not from finding faults but from the surveyor having no interest in the faults found. This page states plainly which activities we do not combine, and why.
1. Why the Rule Is Needed
Three roles are often held by the same person in this industry: the one who finds the boat, the one who inspects it and the one who repairs it. That combination works against the buyer:
- Broker + surveyor: no sale means no commission, a quiet pressure to soften findings.
- Surveyor + repairer: more findings mean more work, pressure in the opposite direction, to overstate.
- All three: the buyer no longer knows whose advice they are hearing.
In ABYC and international survey practice such relationships are conflicts that must be declared. We go further: we do not enter into them.
2. Four Things We Do Not Do
| Situation | Our position |
|---|---|
| A vessel we are brokering | We do not survey it; we refer you to an independent colleague |
| A vessel we have surveyed | We do not act in its sale |
| A defect recorded in our report | We do not sell the repair; any yard we suggest invoices you directly |
| Marina, lift, hardstanding, transport | Invoiced to you directly, we add no mark-up |
3. What About the Consultancy and Listing Services?
Boat search, listings and purchase consultancy are a separate commercial activity. Where a client of those services wants a survey, it is carried out by an independent third-party surveyor; we will suggest colleagues on request. The reverse holds too: we do not enter the sale process of a vessel we have surveyed.
The separation is written into the engagement contract and is not relaxed verbally. The rule applies equally on the days it costs us work, that is where its value comes from.
4. Ownership and Confidentiality of the Report
- The report belongs to whoever commissioned it. Brokers, sellers and third parties do not see it without your instruction.
- Reports, photographs and field notes are retained for 24 months; you may request a copy within that period.
- Vessel and client information is never used for marketing or passed to third parties.
5. Interference with Findings
No finding is softened to ease a sale and none is inflated to win a negotiation. The technical judgement behind a finding is the surveyor's professional opinion and is not open to negotiation.
6. Fees Are Not Linked to the Outcome
The survey fee is fixed. It does not depend on the findings, on the sale completing, or on the discount achieved in negotiation. Charging a percentage of "what we saved you" would reward exaggeration; we do not do it.
7. How to Verify Any of This
- Check that these clauses appear in your written contract, do not rely on verbal assurance.
- Make sure the surveyor was not recommended by the seller or the selling broker.
- Obtain quotations for the recommended work from independent firms, not from whoever wrote the report.
- Ask other surveyors the same questions: do not work with anyone who cannot answer, or will not put it in writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
8. Commission a survey with these clauses in writing
Scope, fee and independence rules agreed in writing before work starts.
Related Pages
Prepared by SurveyYat, ABYC Professional Member, 149 GT Yacht Captain. Last updated: September 2026.