Every record should show who is speaking, what supports it, and what it cannot prove.
BoatVerify is the public product of EMM Consultants LLC d/b/a BoatVerify. This page explains the trust hierarchy behind owner-authorized vessel history for owners, operators, professional contributors, and brokers.
Terms, Privacy, consent language, and dispute language described here are draft material for owner and legal review before launch. They are not a substitute for a signed agreement, inspection, survey, title search, or legal advice.
01 / Trust hierarchy
Confidence follows source and evidence.
BoatVerify does not turn every contribution into the same kind of truth. The hierarchy preserves useful owner context while making professional authority and supporting evidence visible to the reader.
Owner statement
Useful context, lower-confidence intake
An owner or Captain/Operator can start the record with firsthand observations, work history, dates, photos, receipts, and documents. That contribution is valuable context, but it is not professional verification simply because it is detailed.
Supporting evidence
A record readers can inspect
Documents and other evidence can support a history entry. BoatVerify keeps the contributor, evidence category, attribution, and trust label visible so readers can understand what is known and how it was established.
Qualified professional source
The primary path to Verified
Vetted repair facilities and authorized manufacturers are the primary professional sources of Verified records. Their role, qualification, owner access, and supporting evidence must all meet the applicable checks.
02 / Role boundaries
The record keeps five roles distinct.
Owner and Captain/Operator are separated here so readers can distinguish control from firsthand operating context. The application continues to use its existing OWNER_OPERATOR contributor enum; this public explanation does not introduce a new persisted role or schema migration.
Provides context, grants contributor access, selects what can be shared, and can request corrections. An owner statement is not automatically a Verified record.
Contributes observations and operating history through the existing OWNER_OPERATOR contributor path. This is a public distinction in perspective, not a new persisted role.
Contributes service records under a named, vetted facility. A facility can be a source of Verified records when qualification, authorization, and evidence checks are satisfied.
Contributes technical, warranty, or product context under an authorized organization. A manufacturer does not certify a vessel’s complete condition through this layer.
Requests owner-approved history, reviews sources and labels, and uses controlled shares in a transaction. Brokers do not verify records, edit trust labels, or become evidence authorities.
03 / Record labels
Labels are a map, not a shortcut.
A label is derived from the source and evidence available for that entry. It should help a reader decide what to ask next, not invite a reader to stop asking questions.
A statement supplied by an Owner or Captain/Operator without qualifying supporting evidence or professional-source verification.
Supporting evidence is attached to the entry. Documentation improves traceability, but a document alone does not make its contents Verified.
An approved, qualified source and supporting evidence meet the application’s checks. This label describes the record and its provenance, not the entire vessel.
Verified has a narrow meaning.
It means an approved source and supporting evidence passed the relevant checks. It does not mean BoatVerify independently inspected every fact in the entry.
04 / Evidence & attribution
Traceability stays attached to the claim.
Evidence
Receipts, invoices, photos, service documents, and other supporting material are attached to the relevant entry rather than treated as free-floating proof.
Attribution
Readers can see who contributed, which role they held, what qualification or authorization applied, and which evidence was selected for sharing.
Qualification
Repair facilities and manufacturers are the primary professional sources. Their authority is role-specific and never a blanket guarantee about a vessel.
05 / Authorization & consent
Owners decide who gets the key.
Access is controlled around the owner’s authorization, not around a public search index. Professional contributors need the right grant to contribute, and brokers receive only the history selected for the transaction.
Controlled sharing
An owner can select entries and evidence for an expiring, revocable share. A broker can read that approved slice but cannot expand it or change its label.
Consent in context
Authorization describes the specific vessel history and access requested. It is not permission to infer unrelated ownership, condition, or legal conclusions.
06 / Corrections & history
Corrections do not erase the trail.
Questions, disputes, conflicting accounts, and correction requests should be reviewable without rewriting the past. BoatVerify preserves relevant history and attribution so a later reader can understand what changed, when, and why.
Disputes are surfaced
A disagreement is not silently converted into a new fact. Affected parties can ask for review and provide context or evidence through the correction path.
History is preserved
Updates retain source and timing. A correction can improve the record without pretending that an earlier statement or conflict never existed.
07 / Private invoice evidence
Sensitive proof can stay private.
Invoice details and similar evidence can remain private to the owner and authorized contributors. An owner chooses whether a particular invoice or document is included in a controlled broker share. This describes evidence visibility only; it does not create or promise a billing, payment, escrow, or settlement service.
08 / The non-guarantee
Verified is not a vessel guarantee.
Verified means that an approved source and supporting evidence met the applicable checks for that record. It is not a guarantee of vessel condition, ownership, seaworthiness, safety, value, title, performance, or completeness. Readers should still use appropriate inspections, surveys, title work, professional advice, and their own judgment.
09 / Questions or corrections
Help make the record more accountable.
Use the form for a correction request, a dispute, a question about attribution, or feedback on this draft trust and legal-information layer. Submissions go through BoatVerify’s existing contact workflow to EMM Consultants LLC d/b/a BoatVerify.
Return to BoatVerifyPlease do not include sensitive invoice details unless they are necessary for your request.