Re: Sea Trial vs. Escrow
Dan<br />I've had some experience with Escrow agreements in the computer software industry. In that case, it's an agreement between the software developer and their client that if anything should go wrong with the developer or their ability to provide adequate service to the client - then the client gets given a copy of the source code, so they can use another developer to continue development.<br /><br />It is essentially a legal contract between the two parties that is controlled by a third party - the Escrow agent (usually a lawyer).<br /><br />In the case of a boat purchase, I imagine that you have a third party (lawyer?) holding a certain amount of cash in trust - so that if anything goes wrong with the boat within a certain timeframe, it gets paid for out of the trust fund. After the timeframe is over, the amount remaining in trust gets handed over to the seller.<br /><br />The effectiveness of the Escrow is totally reliant on A) the content of the legal contract B) the quality of the Escrow agent (does he/she understand the issues impartially?) C) the enforcability of the contract. D) perhaps most importantly, the integrity of the people involved. All the usual issues regarding a legal contract - ie get a good lawyer (but expensive!).<br /><br />Hope this helps...
