Droit maritime

Yacht broking is unregulated in France, so everything turns on the mandate. When commission is payable, what the broker owes the buyer, and how to keep a deposit safe.

The APA, the deposit, the breakdown clause and the cancellation terms, what French VAT and consumer law add, and why the default London arbitration clause deserves a second look.

Two years from discovery, capped at twenty years from the sale. When the as is clause holds, when it does not, and why repairing before the survey destroys the case.

Four questions to settle before signature: the VAT treatment, whether the buyer can keep the French flag, sanctions screening, and how the price is secured through escrow.

Where French ship mortgages are recorded since 2023, how to read a statement of registrations, why a clear statement proves little, and how discharge is coordinated with payment.

The clause transfers to the buyer every defect a reasonable survey could have revealed. What it leaves standing, why English and French law read it differently, and how to amend the form.

Title, mortgages and liens, VAT status, CE conformity, flag, sanctions, history, survey, contract, and whether to buy the boat or the company that owns it.

A ship can be immobilised in a French port within hours on a claim that merely appears well founded. Which court, which vessel, how release works, and the one-month deadline.

Additional cost, however considerable, does not amount to force majeure. Rerouting via the Cape of Good Hope excuses the delay