# marina lease contract



## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

i'm sure this topic must have came up before but i can't find it,every marina contract i've saw have gobs of provisions protecting,ensuring and gives the marina specific rights but none i've saw makes any provisions for the leasee's rights,can these contracts be legal? for instance if i agree to a one year contract and my slip becomes unsafe or unusible do i have any recoarse but to leave and if i do what happenes to the remaining contract,theres tons of info about renters rights[appartments ,houses etc]but i can't find anything pertaining to marinas.btw i'm not in any curent dispute


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## Silvio (Nov 10, 2010)

Just a very broad and general thought here; in contract law the offerer (marina in this instance) is the master of the offer. If you agree to the terms of the offer and enter the contract willingly then typically you would be bound by the terms that you agreed to. Your most beneficial time to negotiate is BEFORE you sign a contract. If you don't agree with the terms and the offerer will not alter them then you should go somewhere else.

Good luck!


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

Silvio said:


> Just a very broad and general thought here; in contract law the offerer (marina in this instance) is the master of the offer. If you agree to the terms of the offer and enter the contract willingly then typically you would be bound by the terms that you agreed to. Your most beneficial time to negotiate is BEFORE you sign a contract. If you don't agree with the terms and the offerer will not alter them then you should go somewhere else.
> 
> Good luck!


normally i would agree,however as most boater[sailors]know theres only so many marinas[slips] available in most areas because of local/state/fed.regulations,i would think this fact alone would [should] make marinas more user friendly.i suppose what i'm asking are there particular laws that provides some protection for boat owners or as boat owners are we becoming an endangered species


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## CaptainForce (Jan 1, 2006)

I find the policies at some marinas easier to accept than others, but I rarely see requirements that I don't easily accept.......no open flames aboard (grills), no laundry hanging aboard, no for sale signs, no debris on the dock, etc. If I don't like it, today's slip availability on the East US Coast allows me to move. I did take a slip at a place last year where everyone was required to dock stern in and they didn't allow water hoses stored on the dock! I took my special offer of six months for five paid and they did have a nice pool, but I don't think I'll be back. I hear of waiting lists on the West US Coast, but here it's a buying market. If they require something that is unacceptable, there is usually another place. We cruised up the Patapsco to Baltimore July 1st and I did a little shopping for a two month stay. One marina was asking $1,200/month and 20 cents/ KwHr elec. and the other required $680/month and 15cents/KwHr. They both had a long list of "you are resonsible and may not do.....we are not responsible and we may do..........". It was a "no brainer", I'll pay less for the same lack of rights! Take care and joy, Aythya crew


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## wingNwing (Apr 28, 2008)

My favorite is several marinas around here have a clause that helps them get rid of anti-social types. My contract reads in part, "congeniality is a requisite for any tenancy ... an owner may not conduct himself in a manner detrimental to ... any other owners."


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

i can agree with what you are saying,ofcoarse in a marina atmosphere ie trailor park,consideration for fellow inhabitants is very important as is marina property but come fall/cooler temps and huricane season i plan to be long gone from my current headache,to me a sailboat should spell freedom not bite your tongue,grin and bear it


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

wingNwing said:


> My favorite is several marinas around here have a clause that helps them get rid of anti-social types. My contract reads in part, "congeniality is a requisite for any tenancy ... an owner may not conduct himself in a manner detrimental to ... any other owners."


ouch,does that mean i should kiss your a++ btw if you plz tell me what your area is i'll be sure to avoid it


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## Oldsoul (Mar 2, 2011)

I'm guessing you're referring to most marinas stating that short of them pouring gasoline in you boat and setting fire to it, they aren't responsible for pretty much anything including quite a few things that would appear to constitute negligence on their part. These same contracts are basically silent or may even specifically state that the renter has no recourse for the marina's mistakes. Most of the marinas that I looked at in California had pretty much the same language. I ask one marina about adding in a few things and they stated that the corporate office wouldn't allow it and in a nice way said take it or leave it. Some of the choice marinas out here can have a several year waiting list so I just figured that I'd have to deal with it.

If there are rights afforded to those renting slips, they are probably state specific and I don't know of any.


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

thanks old soul for your insight,it would seem your right,i've had marinas board and move my boat for no apparent reason,once putting it directly across a very narrow finger and in line with the mast of another sailboat,another time it was draged by the dock line rubbing my hull across god knows what,and i only live 1 hour away and my phone number is on file,yup i suppose i'm an anti-social type


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## CaptainForce (Jan 1, 2006)

Amazing! I can't imagine someone aboard my boat without my knowledge and moving it! I've never had anyone move my boat without a previous arranged work order from the boatyard to move it to the travel-lift. Sawingknots!-where are you and where do people behave this way? ..Aythya crew


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

tenn.river/tva [damed lakes]3 different marinas did this on 2 different lakes,marinas here [what few there is]do pretty much what they want,thats basicly the reason for my original post,oh btw the local marinas comunicate with each other if one blacklists you,good luck finding another locally


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## wingNwing (Apr 28, 2008)

sawingknots said:


> ouch,does that mean i should kiss your a++ btw if you plz tell me what your area is i'll be sure to avoid it


Eh, its not quite so bad, I think its deliberately vague to give the marina owners some wiggle room but truly, the people I know that have been kicked out under this clause are NOT folks you want to keep your boat next to. The guys who, every single Friday night, got drunk at one of the picnic tables and then were either found there sleeping it off next morning, or were repeatedly fished out by their neighbors after falling into the creek trying to get back aboard. Or maybe the guy who practiced diving - in the fairways (!), then strung helper lines below the waterline between his slip and the next one, snagging the neighbor's prop in the process. Expensive repair for the innocent neighbor. The guy who was not barbequeing, but acetylene torch welding in his slip... Stories of inconsiderate insanity abound. And BTW, both of these marinas, one pricey and one very inexpensive, have waiting lists.


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

i have no problem with marinas enacting noise/inaproperate behaver rules also you should notice your posts have little to do with my origional thread, did you even read it?if you wish to throw pointed barbs plz open your own thread


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## LauderBoy (Mar 15, 2010)

CaptainForce said:


> Amazing! I can't imagine someone aboard my boat without my knowledge and moving it!


I came home last week to my boat to find the bow spirit wedged under the newly rebuilt docks at the marina and the ass end of my boat sticking several inches out of the water. The anchor roller was locked into the pipe that feeds water to the dock and was bending that considerably.

What happened was that some contractors were working on the dock pilings and moved the lines around and didn't tie them back in correctly. As the tide came in my boat shifted under the dock and lifted it up. The guys at the marina office had to help me leverage my boat out and under the dock. Luckily the boat wasn't harmed. It damaged the dock though.

If there had been any damage to me I would've gone after the contractors. They were idiots. On the same day it happened the next dock over too. There it lifted and twisted the entire dock up. When people went to the end of the dock to move the boat wedging it up, the boat popped out and the dock slammed down back into place.

Note, these *aren't* floating docks I'm talking about 

These docks were completely redone 2 weeks prior. All new wood planks. All it takes is a couple fools who don't know what they're doing to screw things up.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

"can these contracts be legal? "
Well anything can be legal. Under most "western" law a contract is supposed to represent the meeting and agreement of two minds, or at least, bodies. When it has all been written by one party, for the benefit of that same party, and the other one pretty much just has to sign and accept it...sometimes that's called an "adhesion contract" and thrown out or enforced AGAINST that party.
If contracts were simple there wouldn't be a whole arena called "contract law" and there wouldn't be "contract lawyers".
You wanna tie up your boat in some marina? You don't have to sign. They don't have to rent. But there's nothing to stop you from being a Marx Brother and saying "_Fiorello:_ I no like-a" and ripping it out. [A Night At The Opera]


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## MarkSF (Feb 21, 2011)

wingNwing said:


> My favorite is several marinas around here have a clause that helps them get rid of anti-social types. My contract reads in part, "congeniality is a requisite for any tenancy ... an owner may not conduct himself in a manner detrimental to ... any other owners."


If only life came with the same clause.


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## wingNwing (Apr 28, 2008)

sawingknots said:


> i have no problem with marinas enacting noise/inaproperate behaver rules also you should notice your posts have little to do with my origional thread, did you even read it?if you wish to throw pointed barbs plz open your own thread


Sorry, no thread drift or barbs were intended. (It can be hard to convey tone in text posts.) Certainly noise and behavior rules can be appropriate. I tried to contribute "congeniality" as another example of the extremely one-sided contracts that you described in your original question "every marina contract i've saw have gobs of provisions protecting,ensuring and gives the marina specific rights but none i've saw makes any provisions for the leasee's rights" My interpretation is something as subjective as "congeniality" gives the marina the ability to kick you out if they feel like it, and you have no recourse. Again, sorry for the miscommunication.


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

w&w i too am sorry,sometimes i over react thats a flaw of mine and one i often reget,i do agree that one party[the leasee] doesn't have to sign the onesided contract but in some area's and if one needs to be in that particular area,often theres not many marinas to choose from,in my origional question i meant has anyone has ever challenged said contracts in a court of law?it would seem to me the very vagueness and only benifits one party would nulify the contract,btw public marinas are disapearing at an amazing rate,i think this issue is going to be affecting many of us in the near future


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

any way for me its a moot issue because i bought my boat to sail not languish at some crappy trailor park,come fall or about 2 months i intend to "move it on down the line"


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

MarkSF said:


> If only life came with the same clause.


we all have just this one world to live in,as long as there are atleast two inhabitants someone will invariblely anoy the other,who gets to decide which clause?


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## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

Hellosailor pretty much got the answer. Whether or not a contract is enforceable depends on the jurisdiction and how it is written. The only way to be sure is to find a local attorney who specializes in contract law and have him/her look it over.

I will say that, just because something is written in a contract, that doesn't make it enforceable. The classic example are the waivers that you sometimes see that say thus and such is not responsible for any damage even if the damage results from their own negligence. In almost any court in the land, if someone else is injured as a direct result of your negligence, you are going to be held responsible, and it doesn't matter one little bit what sort of waiver the other guy signed.


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

that sounds about right to me,i was just wondering if any sailneters had firsthand experince, what i think and what is may not be even close


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## SailKing1 (Feb 20, 2002)

At the last marina I was at they did not have a contract. The owners belief was simple. If you cause problems or I don't like you here I'll give you 30 days to leave. If you don't like it here an plan to leave just let me know so I can rent the slip. If they noticed your boat needed tending (dock line, shore power cable, leak) they just took care of it and informed you the next time they saw you. Worked for me and I stayed for 5 years.


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## sawingknots (Feb 24, 2005)

most of the marinas i've stayed at also had like policys,but in this particular area the marina's know they have you by the short hairs,many also have long waiting lists which makes demanding one years leases even more inane,i think they just have a trailor park mentaility but mostly they know they can do pretty much whatever suits them


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