Why Hire an Accredited Surveyor?
When it comes to shopping for a boat, your choices could either lead to years of pleasure and proud ownership or years of financial distress, or even worse, to a significant accident or injury.
There are many considerations to be made when looking over a boat, and the technical understanding and standards ensured by an appropriate education are of paramount importance. How can you be sure that the person who is performing your survey has the right education for the job? Look to organizations like The Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors (SAMS®) and the National Association of Marine Surveyors (NAMS) and find out if your surveyor has accreditation or membership with them. These organizations have standards and educational requirements for their members that are driven by industry standards like those outlined by the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
Another consideration: find out if your insurance company or lending bank will accept a report from a “Marine Surveyor” without credentials. Most of the major ones will not. This is another reason to make sure that your surveyor is appropriately credentialed: both SAMS® and NAMS are well established and recognized by most financial institutions and insurers.
Buying a boat utilizing a surveyor with no credentials could be as painful as going to a dentist that went to the internet for their degree and then built a great website to brag about it. Skip the suffering - find an accredited surveyor.