Proving You Live Aboard

[Black Ibis]

In Cambridge, City Council moorings are provided on the condition that they are the owner's primary residence. However, they are only £1000/year and this system has been abused by people using them as cheap leisure moorings. There is a long waiting list for people who want to live on their boats in the city, so it is a contentious issue.

 

Recently the Council has cracked down, and has been looking over a period of months at lights, smoke, footprints etc to determine if boats are lived on.

 

Two problems with this:

 

1) people don't like being 'spied on'

2) they have sent letters to people who do live aboard saying that the boat is considered unoccupied.

 

So, firstly, how else could they have checked if boats are lived on without 'spying'?

And secondly, how can someone who's been told they are suspected of not living aboard prove that they do?

 

Edited to add. The moorings don't have postal addresses.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Black Ibis

[matty40s]

a lived on boat will have both dirty and clean underwear on board

 

a lived on boat will have no snow remaining on the cratch cover withing hours of a snowfall and an owner with a wet head

 

a lived on boats fridge will contain fresh food items as well as beer and wine (these items will possibly be out of date though - sometimes by months!!)

 

a lived on boat will generally have smoke coming out of the chimbly during October to March/April

 

a lived on boat will generally run the engine at some point every day unless they have a solar farm the size of the roof (this happens late evening in the cases where the boat has a notice in the window saying broken engine - awaiting engineer)

 

a lived on boat will generally use the roof as additional storage space

[Black Ibis]

a lived on boat will have both dirty and clean underwear on board

 

a lived on boat will have no snow remaining on the cratch cover withing hours of a snowfall and an owner with a wet head

 

a lived on boats fridge will contain fresh food items as well as beer and wine (these items will possibly be out of date though - sometimes by months!!)

 

a lived on boat will generally have smoke coming out of the chimbly during October to March/April

 

a lived on boat will generally run the engine at some point every day unless they have a solar farm the size of the roof (this happens late evening in the cases where the boat has a notice in the window saying broken engine - awaiting engineer)

 

a lived on boat will generally use the roof as additional storage space

 

It would be possible to arrange all those things though, to make it look like you did live there. And people will see most of those as an invasion of their privacy.

 

Personally I don't have a problem with people noting smoke, lights and footprints near my boat as long as they're not peering in the windows, but it is bothering some.

 

The issue is that it's all circumstantial. Unlike a house, where you can show that you have used a certain amount of water/electricity gas because you're connected to the grid, there's no piece of paper you can show that proves occupancy.

.

[MtB]

So, firstly, how else could they have checked if boats are lived on without 'spying'?

And secondly, how can someone who's been told they are suspected of not living aboard prove that they do?

 

Produce a driving licence showing the mooring as the address perhaps. Or a letter from HMRC to you at the mooring. One can elect to nominate a specific address as one's PPR (principle private residence) for capital gains tax purposes.

 

But I think the council are the best people to ask. After all, they are the ones deciding if you 'live' on the boat. Ask them what their parameters are.

 

MtB

[alan_fincher]

I think the first thing the council ought to be able to tell them if they say they don't live on the boat, is where thewy believe they are living!

[Black Ibis]

Produce a driving licence showing the mooring as the address perhaps. Or a letter from HMRC to you at the mooring. One can elect to nominate a specific address as one's PPR (principle private residence) for capital gains tax purposes.

 

But I think the council are the best people to ask. After all, they are the ones deciding if you 'live' on the boat. Ask them what their parameters are.

 

MtB

If only it were that easy. We don't have postal addresses at the moorings at all.

 

The Council have never set out exactly what they mean by 'primary residence'. This is one thing we hope to clarify as a result of this process. Those who've got 'naughty letters' have to go and meet with the Council to explain what's going on, so I hope that they will be reasonable.

[MtB]

P.S. this is an interesting inversion of the occasional need to deny one 'lives' on one's boat, even when one does!

[Black Ibis]

P.S. this is an interesting inversion of the occasional need to deny one 'lives' on one's boat, even when one does!

Yes, it is the only place I know of where you HAVE to live aboard as opposed to the other way around!

[MtB]

Another, more equitable solution would be for the council to put the moorings up to a commercial price for a resi mooring. One could argue the other ratepayers are subsidisng the boat dwellers otherwise.

 

(Head down anticipating flack...)

 

But seriously, is there no council tax bill associated with these genuinely residential moorings? Would that not put off the leisure moorers?

 

MtB

[Black Ibis]

Another, more equitable solution would be for the council to put the moorings up to a commercial price for a resi mooring. One could argue the other ratepayers are subsidisng the boat dwellers otherwise.

 

(Head down anticipating flack...)

 

But seriously, is there no council tax bill associated with these genuinely residential moorings? Would that not put off the leisure moorers?

 

MtB

 

That would be a reasonable solution, but it's hardly one we are going to push for! If it happened, I'd pay it.

 

And no, we are exempt from Council Tax because we have no fixed mooring spots - we just have a licence to moor anywhere along a several mile stretch. Our mooring fee is roughly equivalent to Band A.

[kevinl]

"a lived on boats fridge will contain fresh food items as well as beer and wine (these items will possibly be out of date though - sometimes by months!!)"

 

You have out of date beer and wine on your boats, never heard that one before Matty, are you alright? Mind you anyone posh enought to have 2 sets of underwear (one clean and one dirty) isn't your average boater