Renting our boat out - costs against non renting.

[Jirmette]

Good morning,

 

We're very new to owning a canal boat after putting our deposit down just yesterday!

 

We are considering renting it out but only to people we know (we don't want to routinely rent it) at a very discounted rate purely to help out with the running costs, of course we want to ensure that we do it properly so are trying to understand just how much extra this will cost us in insurance, licence etc. to see if it's actually viable to do.

 

I've been doing some googling but being so new to this, any advice from experts would be very much appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

[BilgePump]

Firstly, the leisure boat you are in the process of buying would have to be upgraded to commercial boat safety standards. Then you will need to get CaRT to approve, then insurance and so on. In other words, forget it. 

[mrsmelly]

Dont bother. The costs to do it " Properly " far outweigh the benefits to yourself, much is involved.

Edited May 12, 2019 by mrsmelly

[Jirmette]

Thank you both, we had a feeling that may be the case    

 

Just for us it is then!  That's no bad thing.

[WotEver]

Of course, if you wanted to lend the boat to some friends they could be so grateful that they pushed some cash into your hands...

[Alan de Enfield]

You may also find that a 'leisure built' boat does not comply with the 'commercial safety standards'  (example : having all hull fittings a minimum of 10" above the water line is compulsory for commercial -rented - boats but not for leisure boats)

[BilgePump]

You can normally let friends use it on a non-commercial basis. If they replace the diesel and food they use that's fine. If you ask for contribution to ongoing costs you would have anyway (licence, mooring) you've moved over to commercial use. If your friends happened to leave the boat a gift of a nice bottle of plonk I imagine that would be fine. Don't think that your question is unusual though. I spent an hour last night dissuading a non-boating friend from buying a narrowboat as a rental proposition. He just saw the cost of boat, cost of licence and compared them to weekly hire rates and started seeing pound signs.

[Athy]

Sound advice from Mr. Pump.

[Guest]

What about a bespoke 'share boat' agreement for limited time periods - would that be legit and what would the costs be. Talking about genuine friends/family solution rather than anything else underhand.

[David Mack]

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/723.pdf

[StephenA]

19 minutes ago, BilgePump said:

You can normally let friends use it on a non-commercial basis. If they replace the diesel and food they use that's fine. If you ask for contribution to ongoing costs you would have anyway (licence, mooring) you've moved over to commercial use. If your friends happened to leave the boat a gift of a nice bottle of plonk I imagine that would be fine. Don't think that your question is unusual though. I spent an hour last night dissuading a non-boating friend from buying a narrowboat as a rental proposition. He just saw the cost of boat, cost of licence and compared them to weekly hire rates and started seeing pound signs.

 

Don't forget the insurance - from memory ours basically states that one of us has to be on the boat - so we can take it out with friends but they cannot take it out without one of us being on it.

 

 

[Jirmette]

Thank you all, we've bought it for our use, the thought of lending it to friends for costs was to help towards costs but mainly to benefit any friends who may want to save several hundreds on renting, we're quite happy to lend it to good friends for free

 

Off to enjoy planning our boating, thank you for all your help, I'm sure we'll have plenty of questions, hubby is pretty knowledgeable about them, but I'm a complete newbie.

[BilgePump]

^^^ that from StephenA. The insurance policies I have had in recent years have allowed unsupervised use by friends/family. One was for a NB fully comp and the others 3rd party only. Each insurer will vary and it may be that the policy price will reflect this.

[LadyG]

Try the search facility on here, top right on my PC.

Essentially, it's a non starter.

I have, in the past, borrowed a vehicle belonging to someone else, and avoided mentioning costs. I filled it up with diesel, and that was after the event.

Edited May 12, 2019 by LadyG

[Alan de Enfield]

11 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Try the search facility on here, top right on my PC.

Essentially, it's a non starter.

I have, in the past, borrowed a vehicle belonging to someone else, and avoided mentioning costs. I filled it up with diesel, and that was after the event.

Can you send me your PC so I can try it ?

[LadyG]

13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Can you send me your PC so I can try it ?

Can you send me £50 to cover postage?

[dor]

I  sure that many members of this forum have at times lent their boat to a friend or family member, although they may not wish to admit to such.

And I am sure any good friend or family member would leave a wad of cash on the table "for the diesel";  they may of course seriously overestimate the price of diesel.

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, dor said:

I  sure that many members of this forum have at times lent their boat to a friend or family member, although they may not wish to admit to such.

And I am sure any good friend or family member would leave a wad of cash on the table "for the diesel";  they may of course seriously overestimate the price of diesel.

Trouble is insurance companies have heard it all before. If you claim fifty k for a sunk boat they may well do some checks and it only takes one slip of a word and no fifty k. I wouldnt take a halfpenny from anyone who I was daft enough to lend my boat to. Insurance companies do stuff you wouldnt believe before paying large claims and if a death is involved!!!!!!!