Click here if you’d like to subscribe: you can [...]]]>

I’ve been writing a newsletter for yours2share for nearly four years now.  Except for the first few months all of them have been managed through the excellent ConstantContact.  I only recently realised that I could have an archive of newsletters.  So here is the yours2share newsletter archive.

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Many boat owners are wondering whether they can justify keeping and maintaining their beloved boat and yet selling it, even if they wanted to, isn’t that easy at the moment either.

Some of these pondering sailors are coming to yours2share to sell shares in their boat: [...]]]>

2-3 partners wanted, Southerly 110, Swing Keel, 2000, Lymington, Hampshire

Many boat owners are wondering whether they can justify keeping and maintaining their beloved boat and yet selling it, even if they wanted to, isn’t that easy at the moment either.

Some of these pondering sailors are coming to yours2share to sell shares in their boat: this is a great way forward.  They raise some capital and reduce their annual outgoings in one stroke.

An alternative is finding a like-minded person to rent your boat for part of the time on a long term basis, say for a week or weekend a month for a year: I call this fractional rental. One or two sets of people renting a boat like this should make a good contribution towards the annual running costs without losing any control over your boat.

In the latter case, if you have a British flagged boat and wish to charter or fractionally rent it, in the UK or overseas, it must be ‘coded’ by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA). MCA Codes of Practice apply to all boats under 24 metres in length that are in commercial use, carrying cargo and/or up to 12 passengers.  ‘Coding’ means that the boat carries all the necessary safety equipment and is deemed to be a ‘safe vessel’ by the MCA.

The RYA is one of the organisations approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) as a Small Commercial Vessels (SCV) Certification Authority.

Not quite the fractional rental that yours2share [...]]]>

Gill Dearnley of One Stop Italy sent me a link to Girl Meets Dress an interesting website where you can hire designer dresses for the night online.  I was aware of several websites where you can rent handbags, sunglasses and accessories, but I hadn’t seen one for dresses before.

Not quite the fractional rental that yours2share in which specialises, but good to see that the idea of hiring online works even for personal items like a party dress.  I’d love to see more people looking for like-minded people of a similar size living locally to buy special occasion wear together.  I could do this for shoes with an old friend, who bizarrely has exactly the same size feet as me (I say bizarrely because she is tall and thin and I’m not, at all).  We even wear shoes in the same way: if I put on shoes that she’s worn a lot, they fit like shoes I’ve worn in.  Unfortunately she lives in Bristol and I live in Norfolk, so the logistics don’t work.

This created a great deal of [...]]]>

About a month ago there was a great article in the Daily Mail discussing fractional ownership and private syndicates. Two yours2share members who share more than one major asset were interviewed: Graham Price shares a property and boat in France; and Bill Hosie shares a boat and an aircraft.

This created a great deal of interest in yours2share and I’ve spent a fair amount of time since then answering questions. Many people who are trying to sell a holiday home abroad wondered if sharing was the way forward.

There are broadly three ways in which you can share an asset: joint or fractional ownership, fractional rental and timeshare. The principles below apply just as well to boats, planes, motorhomes, cars and any major asset.

Joint ownership

Two or more people own the property: either they find each other first and buy together; or the existing owner of a property sells shares.

In the latter case, if the property was worth £100,000, the owner might think four shares was ideal and look for partners to buy quarter shares. As it takes time to find people to agree the deal, often they will sell one share at a time. This could mean selling a £25,000 share to each buyer.

However it is important that all the partners are like-minded. So the vendor often sells half to the first partner on board for £50,000. Then both owners look for the next partner. The third partner then buys a third share for £33,333 and the first two partners split this between them. If, and when, a fourth partner joins them, their payment of £25,000 is then split between the three owners.

Fractional rental

One or more people rent the property for several non-continuous weeks a year. The owner often doesn’t want to holiday let, but wants to generate some income and to ensure the property is kept in use.

Some numbers help to illustrate how this might work. For example a £100,000 property might let for £200/week in the low season, £300 in the mid season and £400/week in the high season. The owner looks for a partner that is looking for a holiday home for 12 weeks a year, split between the three seasons. If this was a straightforward holiday let, this would cost £3600 per year.

Most owner/holiday lettings company give a good discounts for this many bookings, but between £2000 and £3000 a year is reasonable for the 12 weeks. Usually this kind of arrangement is agreed annually, with all or most of the payment up front. Generally the weeks are not fixed (although the number in each season should be defined in the contract), but agreed once a year for the following year.

Timeshare

One or more people rent the property for one or more weeks a year and pay for the right to do this for several years in advance. This is similar to fractional rental, except all the rent is paid in advance.

Taking the example above, instead of (say) paying £3000 per year, they may pay £10,000 in advance for the right to use the property for 12 weeks a year for 5 years, or maybe £30,000 for the right to use it for 25 years.

Commercial timeshares are generally sold for periods of one to three weeks a year, and there are usually annual management/maintenance fees. There are strict laws on selling timeshare in many countries because, amongst other issues, the timeshare purchaser has to know that the property will be available and properly maintained for the contract duration. In general, I would advise private holiday home owners to avoid the timeshare model: this is why I rarely mention timeshare. However last week I had several questions about possible sharing arrangements which were effectively timeshare. There are many well run commercial timeshare schemes; I just don’t think it works for private holiday homes.

Sharing a holiday home is a great solution if you can’t justify the cost of full ownership and don’t want to holiday let. Finding like-minded partners, discussing and agreeing everything, getting advice, writing the contracts and dealing with the purchases, can easily take a year, or two, or more. If the property is a long term investment, this is fine for many people; they are looking for long term partners. But if holiday home owners need to raise capital fast or are struggling to pay a mortgage, sharing is less likely to be the solution.

I should make it clear that I am not a professional legal, financial, tax or property advisor. The laws on ownership, finance, tax and property vary enormously from country to country and if you are considering sharing property or any other major asset, you must get independent professional legal, financial, tax and property advice. And I mean “must”. Even within any one country there will be several entirely different ways of setting up an arrangement each with advantages and disadvantages. The best solution will depend upon all the partners’ particular personal circumstances. Sharing is very cost effective, but you do need to invest time and money into ensuring that the arrangement is properly set up.

Many thanks to the two members, Graham Price and Bill Hosie: to [...]]]>

There was a great piece in Saturday’s Daily Mail about fractional living with a good mention of various sharing arrangements.  Two yours2share members were interviewed and it explained how private syndicates work and the benefits.  I couldn’t have written it better if I’d tried.

Many thanks to the two members, Graham Price and Bill Hosie: to the author, Steve Boggan; and toPiers Brown of Fractional Life for putting Steve in touch with me..

As a result we had thousands of extra visitors on Saturday, some interesting new ads were posted and it’s taken me all morning to answer all the questions which people have asked us.  Fantastic!