Residential Status

I said that I would post about this development and here it is ........

Currently most marinas across the UK are non-residential. That means that all boat owners should have a home elsewhere. Usually there is also a stipulation that berth holders are only permitted to occupy their boats for 10 or 11 months of the year and should spend a period of time at their 'home' address. This fits in with the policy on leisure caravan parks.

However, more and more people are actually living on their boats all the time without having another 'permanent' address.

All boat owners have different reasons for moving full time to a boat. They range from wanting a completely different life style and not wishing to have the responsibility of maintaining a house, (like us) to people who want to 'disappear' and not have to pay tax, council tax, television license etc. people who want to go completely 'under the radar'.  Most people are somewhere in between these two extremes and just enjoy living on a boat.

We attended a meeting recently about the implications of the planning permission which will allow the marina to allocate residential berths. The first positive for us, is that our post will be delivered to us personally and we will get a proper post code. Currently our post code is shared between British Waterways offices, various cottages on the canal side and numerous transient boat owners. Consequently it is considered to be a bit 'dodgy', with the knock on effect on our credit rating. I tried to change my mobile phone contract last week and you'd think I was a criminal with all the hoops I had to go through to get my hands on a new phone, just because of my post code.

Occupying a residential berth will legitimise our presence here too. The marina owners know that we live on our boat and just turn a blind eye, but we don't want to be doing anything that is outside our contract. In addition it always gave them the upper hand. Two years ago the toilet block froze in the severe weather and the water supply was turned off for a few days. Those who hadn't filled up their boats with water or who had pump out tanks which were full, really struggled. They were simply told to 'go to their permanent address' for that period and there was no sense of urgency in getting the facilities restored.

Most people are concerned that we will have to pay more. The cost will increase because we will be required to pay council tax. I really don't mind this provided that it is fairly allocated. At present our council tax is included in our mooring fees because the marina pays business tax. However I am happy to pay more because the business fees really only cover the cost of rubbish collection etc. and I use the local facilites, such as the library, roads etc.I believe that as a part of the local community I should pay my way. These are views which are not shared by some of our neighbours, so we tend to keep them to ourselves!

I can understand in some ways why other berth holders are against it. All of a sudden they will be paying a considerable amount more for their mooring without gaining a great deal. Not everyone is bothered about the things that we are and to them it means a massive hike in cost.

All of this has made us think very carefully about the future. As I have said, we chose the lifestyle for two main reasons, firstly because it suited our need for being out and about in the great outdoors and secondly because owning a large victorian terraced house was becoming a burden as it needed constant maintenance.

This week advertised in the county property paper we have seen a georgous two bedroomed flat advertised for rent, which is in a beautiful village near the lake district with fantastic walks nearby and stunning views. All this at less than we will be paying for our residential mooring. Hmmmm some thinking needs to be done.

I will keep you posted ........

Al