Complaint Review: Hamilton & Hamilton Marine Surveyors

I signed surveying contract with Mr. Hamilton before going to S. Florida to sea trial a boat. I specifically requested for him to examine for rot. I was not concerned with other parts of the boat, since I was going to perform custom cosmetic and enhancements on it. Later on, Mr. Hamilton emailed me back that he could only find weakness in a deck hatch. I dove to S F from N F, based on Mr. Hamilton’s expertise. I sea trialed boat without incident. During sea trial, I never removed boat motor hardware to fully see down into boat's bilge area, since I trusted Hamilton to do his job and fulfil his contract. While originally communicating, he had informed me that he had special equipment to test for rot.

I bought boat and trailered it back to Pensacola, Fl. Boat sat in my yard for some time while I performed other cosmetic changes to it. While trouble shooting the boat's auto-pilot, I noticed sea water leaking around one of the I/O's transom assembly. I emailed Mr. Hamilton concerning the rot that he or his equipment had missed. He later phoned me and requested an estimate for repairs. Unfortunately, I suffered knee injuries, while preforming home repairs. It took some time before I could get a repair estimate for Mr. Hamilton. Replacing an I/O transom requires major hardware/motor removal before laboriously removing wood rot. Mr. Hamilton should know this! I have emailed Mr. Hamilton twice with a repair estimate. The $3,400 estimate doesn’t include hardware removal or associated expenses via sea trial and bringing boat to Pensacola. He has yet to respond.