Advice from live aboards

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Trevz

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My wife and I are hoping to become live aboards, and have lots of questions about how life works without a land address as such.

Initally this will be in UK but the dream is to travel when the finances are sorted.

Any help and advice will be most welcome.



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You need to get a friend/relative to act as your mail address. If you are only away 1 year best to have address local to where you were so you can keep Doctor/Dentist registrations in case you have have major problem and need to go home. Banks dont like people with no permanent address, so dont tell them what you are doing!
Do a search on the forum on liveaboard to get more information.

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Done it for 5 years now and

never regretted it for a minute. We still need to work, so we are not cruising full-time yet, just, like everybody else, weekend and holiday cruises. During weekdays we are in our marina (one that accepts liveaboards), where we have shorepower, water (essential to have an accessible tap in winter) and a land 'phone line for internet purposes and as to not discourage people calling us (many think a mobile is too expensive to call).

Apart from that, the boat is always ready to go. We do not keep anything ashore, no drying lines, no garden furniture, not even bikes.

Any specific questions? Fire away.......



<hr width=100% size=1>Peter a/b SV Heerenleed, Steenbergen, Netherlands
 
I would just add the text I posted a few months ago:

Be careful with the annual contract thingimy, the councils try to pretend that contracts for longer than two or three months imply a fixed point of abode. I know it is silly, but they do try to class a boat as a land based property. In nearly all cases they have failed in court to secure a fine and back payment.

I pay month on month at the cheapest places I can find and stay on board as often as possible in the rough and less secure marinas. This avoids ANY possible threat of council swoops but it does have some unfortunate side effects like having to move your vehicle regularly. Also having to use a postal box, or friends address to avoid the other council/legal twist of assuming if your post is delivered to the marina, you are a fixed tennant.

The law is slightly grey in this area and sadly the view of individuals (some of whom run marinas and work for local authorities), appears to polarise along their own political leanings. It pays in general to keep a low profile, a smart boat and pay all bills on time, but above all don't stay put for long.

If you must stay in one place for more than a few weeks ....... then get a house !

In the last few years I have spotted a few attempts to hit liveaboards with a bill of over £10,000 for back council tax payments, legal fees and fines ! So I simply say keep an eye on the "Permanency" issue as it can be a cause of great stress to you as the local officials play their sport at your expense. They usually lose when you involve an MP and put up a fight.

When I add up the £,000s per year that filters its way to the authorities via my partner, and 3 adult children, (who all live in houses), as a result of the bills I pay indirectly on their behalf, to say nothing of the cost of keeping my boat in a marina in pristene condition it is very annoying.

The contributor from Holland has fewer such problems, as the 'life aboard' life is more accepted there and generally they love their boats; but there is an element of greed, jealousy and a deliberate obtuse stance over here which on occasions has errupted.

Personally I would never wish to move back on land and would move abroad if pushed hard enough. The Lib Dem proposal to pay council tax via our PAYE could be a light at the end of the tunnel as it would kill of much of the twisted logic used by councils and get rid of the grey areas.

I wish you the very best in your venture (and hope you enjoy feeding sea birds and eating free fish as much as I do).

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We are stll in UK and probably will be here and thereabouts for another couple of years (family and business reasons). We deliberately choose annual berths for the savings over monthly morrings, and we choose marinas in order to have a phone and not aving to dinghy ashore in a work suit!! The saving on a an annual berth outweighs council tax, although in fact we have not been asked for it.

Lots of people we know suggest that if you are going for a loong time - dn't use friends/relatives but factor in the cost of a good mail service. It's an awful lot to ask after all. We are currently exploring both the (only UK) dedicated service shiptoshore, and other alternatives of local post boxes etc. The only people who have given us any grief using a marina office address are companies house on the third company directorship we were registering!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Sarah&Pip
 
Depending upon the size of your boat the savings 'may or may not' outweigh the council tax, and depending upon the particular marina there may be a long list of considerations imposed by the marina that you find you cannot possibly adhere to.

One National chain of marinas has written to every person they deemed as live aboards and outlined their 'extra charges' and their thirty plus list of rules and regulation they are imposing on livaboards.

They stipulate issues like 'no pets' and 'only one car parked at any time' etc. etc.

They appear for some reason to only be able to impose such rules on contract holders, (permenency rules maybe ?) hence my policy of deciding to be non permanent. The area is grey and hopefully will be solved soon.

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