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Marina and City vessel lien sale negotiation.

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Bayland510

New member
What is the name of your state? California
I have a small sailboat berthed at the Berkeley Marina. Money was tight in 2018, and I missed a few scattered months of payments. My marina gate key was turned off and my boat was chained up. I managed to work out a deal with the city manager with a payment just over 2/3 of what I owed them. They unchained my boat, and turned my electronic key access back on. I got current with my payments. In the early spring of 2019, the rug was pulled out from under my feet with a separate issue concerning my child and her mother. I fell into serious depression and everything in my life went unattended fa few months. I came to in June got some work, and called the customer service office to make a 900 dollar payment. I requested the same arrangement, stating that I have no business owning a boat at this time, that I wanted to gain access to fix the cosmetic details, and get her ready to sell. They informed me I'd have to speak with the marina, so then I requested to be patched through to the waterfront supervisor or Harbormaster, which they did.

I left a detailed message explaining my intentions, and noted I paid 900 towards a 1850 dollar balance. I received no reply. One week later, I paid an additional 290 and asked to be transferred again. A few days later I emailed the city managers office and explained I hadn't been able to get in touch with the marina. They provided me with the email address I should use to reach the managing personel there and so I then wrote two detailed emails within not quite 3 weeks. No reply. I called the Marina during business hours. No answer, which is not typical down there.. I then emailed the city manager again and they said that there was no one in that position at the marina currently. No one to answer the emais I sent to the email address they provided me. They said I had to go down there during business hours. A month had passed and more fees stacked up, before I am informed of this, and still no reply from the marina.


Guess what i do during business hours. That's right, and I am a single coparenting father who shares custody of my daughter with a hostile mother who considers me target practice when there isn't anything real to be angry at. Point is, I don't have availability to leave work to go to the marina on the chance that someone who can help, is there and available. 2 months later I get a notice of lien sale. Its now 5 months following that notice, and there is finally an acting waterfront supervisor. He isn't up for helping me. I explained what happened, and it doesn't click for me. What I want the city to understand is that I tried to address this with 1190 and requests for access to repair to sell to pay them balance owed. As is, the boat will not sell for what I owe them. They will end up trying to collect the debt from me, and when dont pay, theyll sell that debt for pennies on the dollar. What I want is to pay them close to 2500 now, they can keep the lien in place but stay the sale, an allow me 3 months of paying slip usage to restore and sell the boat, which will benefit them compared to the alternative which is collect probably the minimum of 500 as a starting bid, IF someone wants to even bid on it. In pristine condition, the market value is 5500 dollars. I think I can get it to just under 4k. I owe 3700 with all the late penalties, which would have been avoided if they had been available to work with a leaseholder.

What approach should I take with the city? They didn't perform their duty, just as I didn't honor my lease agreement. Their availability to assist slipholders is as much of their agreement as paying my monthlyslip fee is for myself. Both parties messed up, and I think its no unreasonable to let me try to restore to sell, ACTUALLY pay them money I owe them, and walk away with a little dignity restored. Is this pipe dreams or does it not sound like a reasonable request?

Thanks for reading through the chapter above.
 



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