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Moving day logistics?


SaltyPipe

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Hi All,

 

The wife and I, plus four children (16, 10, 7 & 5) are about to embrace the narrowboat life. We are selling a 5 bedroom house and will likely be buying a 70 footer (possibly a butty too). Having moved from house to house before, this is normally done on the same day, however we wanted to transition more gradually to a boat. Not because of any worries to do with the change in lifestyle more the working out what we can take as oppossed to what we need to sell/store.

 

We can't afford to buy a boat upfront, or even get a deposit or finance as i'm out of work. However we will be able to buy the boat completely on completion of the house sale.

 

Once we have a sale agreed on the house, are there companies that offer bridging type loans for buying a boat?

 

How can we have a boat purchase agreed for the day we vacate the house, and can we trasistion onto said boat in advance somehow?

 

Sorry if the questions seem confussing, I am confusing myself the more i type lol.

 

 

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I can't advise you on your specific question, but what I can warn you about is downsizing. However much downsizing you think you will be doing, you will be doing more, a lot more, in fact the process can best be described as exreme downsizing. It's tough & you have to be brutal unless you can deposit stuff amongst friends & family for safekeeping.

 

Having said that, when I did it, I didn't go to the lengths of paying for long term storage which, in hindsight, would've been a good idea. Something worth factoring in whilst making your plans

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On the long term storage issue, I once put a load of stuff into storage on the basis it would go back into a house when the time came. In the end I paid for about 3 years storage, then disposed of most of the stuff either to the tip, or for very little money.

 

If moving onto a boat, treat the storage as short term. If it isn’t on the boat within, say, 6 months, you almost certainly neither need nor want it. Dispose of everything after 6 months and get rid of the storage costs. If you find there was something you needed, you can buy it with the saved money :)

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My thoughts...

 

Extremely unlikely to be a smooth transition from house to boat date wise - plan for an interim period.

 

I chose a caravan using official sites - cost about £3k over a number of months (including purchase, resale and fees) - probably saved more on the boat and got the boat I wanted due to not being a 'complicated' buyer.

 

By all means use a storage place but only as an interim solution.

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43 minutes ago, SaltyPipe said:

Once we have a sale agreed on the house, are there companies that offer bridging type loans for buying a boat?

Over the last few years there has been a considerable change in financing of boats, boats are classed a 'chattels' and really offer little security to the lender. There are an odd one or two companies that will offer marine mortgages but under eye-watering interest rates and strict requirements for registration of the boat on the Governments registration scheme.

 

You will be best trying for a personal loan from the bank and making sure you don't have any penalties for early repayment.

 

Although - maybe the BEST is to (as suggested above) move into a caravan for the Summer and save you money whilst looking for the boat of your dreams.

 

I think it will be very unlikely that you would actually be able to take ownership of a boat on the day you leave your house.

 

You have an awful lot to do when buying a boat - you will need to find one that sleeps 6 (probably limiting yourself to ex-hire boats), you need to pay a deposit (10%) & arrange to have the boat lifted out and a survey undertaken (cost £1000)

Assuming their are no problems with the boat, you then need to find somewhere to moor it, licence it and insure it and expect the seller to wait until you have sold your house - what happens if your house sale falls thru' or your boat seller wont wait ?

You have lost your £1000 and need to go thru it all again.

 

Now, if the survey finds problems and you decide not to go ahead with the purchase of the boat you will have (again) lost your £1000.

 

 

Just another though - you can make a long term hire of a narrowboat for say (3 months) starting from £1000 per month - this will give you the chance to actually find out if 6 of you can live in a 6 foot wide 55 foot (deduct the pointy bit and the engine bit at the back) steel tube without killing each other.

One issue you will have is 'water' both the supply of clean water and the disposal of the 'toilet water' 6 people will produce a lot of waste, so again the idea of a long term hire may help save you £1000's when you find that you cannot stomach emptying the toilet every day.

 

Try these folks :

 

http://www.etrr.co.uk/

 

 

 

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Nine years ago I downsized from a 5 bed house to a 3 bed house, and can offer the following thoughts which might help the OP:

 

First and foremost, begin by eliminating as much clutter as you can. Absolutely everything that you won't need in your final destination. This might mean living with less stuff than is comfortable for a while, but get used to it; you'll have to have much less stuff when on a boat. I had the relative luxury of a whole 3-bed house, didn't clear enough clutter, and still have too much stuff now despite gradually getting rid of things over those 9 years (it didn't help that I got more stuff when my mother died two years ago!).

 

Second, as there are 6 of you it must make sense to get a butty if you can possibly afford it, and I'd have thought that once your house is sold the money should be there.

You'll have plenty of crew, and if one or more of you joins the Narrow Boat Trust you can learn how to handle a pair.

 

As you have a house to sell (I didn't, I was renting) I'm sure that some sort of interim accommodation, preferably with flexibility as to how long you stay, would be desirable to reduce the stress and financial risk. So think about any friends and relatives in suitable areas, but the suggestion others have made of looking into mobile homes sounds good. As always, it'll help if you can be well away from London!

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In your position I would rent a much smaller property for 6 months. That would give you time to get used to a degree of space restriction and identify what you really need to keep, and time to sort the boat purchase.

 

Have you lived on a boat for a few weeks as a family? If not, is everybody truly on board (pardon the pun) with your plans? Will you be cruising or in a marina/other mooring?

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Just an assumption - but with 4 school age children CCing would not appear to be an easy option (especially with a family with no boating experience)

 

Without "even any money for a deposit and cannot get finance" I cannot see how they would be able to afford to have a survey(s). I think this will end badly and would re-iterate my suggestion to hire a boat for 3 months via "ETTR" (see post #5) once the house is sold (and paid for) and see if it works for them, before committing their 'life savings'.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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With 4 children, presumably not all at the same school, how are you going to comply with the license requirement for continuous cruising by moving a reasonable distance every 14 days and progressing around the canal system rather than backwards and forwards over and over?

How are you going to be employed within the same restriction?

I think you need to reconsider.

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4 minutes ago, hider said:

With 4 children, presumably not all at the same school, how are you going to comply with the license requirement for continuous cruising by moving a reasonable distance every 14 days and progressing around the canal system rather than backwards and forwards over and over?

How are you going to be employed within the same restriction?

I think you need to reconsider.

The OP made no mention of continuous cruising, perhaps they have already secured a fully residential mooring in their preferred location or maybe they don't have a clue about living on a boat.

 

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3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Just an assumption - but with 4 school age children CCing would not appear to be an easy option (especially with a family with no boating experience)

 

Without "even any money for a deposit and cannot get finance" I cannot see how they would be able to afford to have a survey(s). I think this will end badly and would re-iterate my suggestion to hire a boat for 3 months via "ETTR" (see post #5) and see if it works for them, before committing their 'life savings'.

I agree.  In fact I'd go further and advise the OP to look for a different plan as this one does indeed appear most likely to end badly. At the very least there needs to be far more research as the present question covers only one of the more minor issues and pitfalls.

 

I have no wish to rain on the parade, and some people do seem to throw their life up in the air, land on a boat and make a decent fist of it so there will be examples of success, but I'd suggest many, many more struggle and have to abandon the idea.  Children are involved here and they impose restrictions which add to the risk and  increase the consequences of failure significantly.  Tread carefully. 

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My experience is a bit different to most. I lived in cramped accommodation in Tokyo for 10 years, then lived on a narrowboat for a few years when I came back to the UK. I sold that in 2000 and lived in shared houses and flats for a few years while I was in London so it was always just living in one room and sharing a kitchen & bathroom. When I bought my widebeam in 2005 I'd never had so much living space. For me living on boats has never had any element of downsizing, but I'm single. I certainly wouldn't want to do it with a wife & kids (but I wouldn't want to live with a wife & kids in a house either! ?)

Edited by blackrose
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1 hour ago, Sea Dog said:

 

I have no wish to rain on the parade, 

 

I think it's good to inject a bit of reality into the discussion. The OP needs to consider these things if he hasn't already. It's fine to throw oneself into a new and untested lifestyle, but I'm not sure it's fair to impose that on kids who haven't really had an informed choice.

Edited by blackrose
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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Without "even any money for a deposit and cannot get finance" I cannot see how they would be able to afford to have a survey(s).

The OP has said that he can't afford any of those things untill house sale is finalised - once that happens he might be more that capable of affording survey. The problem seems to be that the OP wants to be able to move directly out of the house onto the newly purchased boat, hence the talk of bridging loans. 

 

I can understand that with such a large family the OP wants to make the move from house to boat in as few steps as possible but I do think, like others have already said, the allowing a buffer where house is sold, rent something while finding and buying boat then moving onto boat with less pressure is a far better idea than bridging loans and trying to buy a boat in a rush, which may lead to buying a boat that doesn't suit such a large family of varying ages. I wish the OP all the luck in the world but sometimes some breathing space is a god send. 

 

 

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21 hours ago, SaltyPipe said:

Hi All,

 

The wife and I, plus four children (16, 10, 7 & 5) are about to embrace the narrowboat life. We are selling a 5 bedroom house and will likely be buying a 70 footer (possibly a butty too). Having moved from house to house before, this is normally done on the same day, however we wanted to transition more gradually to a boat. Not because of any worries to do with the change in lifestyle more the working out what we can take as oppossed to what we need to sell/store.

 

We can't afford to buy a boat upfront, or even get a deposit or finance as i'm out of work. However we will be able to buy the boat completely on completion of the house sale.

 

Once we have a sale agreed on the house, are there companies that offer bridging type loans for buying a boat?

 

How can we have a boat purchase agreed for the day we vacate the house, and can we trasistion onto said boat in advance somehow?

 

Sorry if the questions seem confussing, I am confusing myself the more i type lol.

 

 

1ST Question.  What attracted you to living on a boat?

2nd,  How much "homework" have you done on the idea?

3rd, After paying off any outstanding mortgage on the house, inc any credit cards and other debts, will there be enough to buy outright a decent boat?

4th, Do you have above average DIY skills or just get a "man" in when required? 

There are many others, but answers to 1 & 2 will give an indication to your success chances.

 

Bod

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3 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

How much is enough - how do you know what you don't know? :D

Anything is a start.

Doing your own research, will give you an idea, whether or not the advice given on here is good/relevant/bad.

The C&RT website is good place to start.

 

Bod

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WOW.

Well that opened a can of worms. I can’t reply to you all individually but thanks for all the feedback.

 

Firstly, it would have been great to have stuck to answering the question I asked, all the presumptions have done nothing to help :)

 

With all due respect I only need an answer to the question of whether there are companies that would help in the transition, once funds are ‘almost’ secured. Or other scenarios regarding the logistics. That was it.

 

Thank you to Tumshie and Alan de Enfield your suggestions are useful and we are in fact looking at buying a static caravan on a residential site while we make a boat purchase, no need to rush. ETRR seem to be ‘gone’, no response as yet and a strange php error from their contact page.

 

As for the other stuff, we are more than happy with our knowledge and research (at this point). No doubt more questions to come in the future.

 

We home educate and we would be embracing the CC lifestyle and travelling as and when the mood takes us. Proximity to school is not a requirement. We know numerous families closely who live aboard and home educate and have had discussions with them AND our children about it.

 

Not that i need to explain myself but we have a shortage of money following my fathers death from terminal lung cancer last year. I took time out from work to care for him. I will have plenty of cash once I sell my house, can semi-retire.

 

I work in IT, mainly in London, I will still commute as and when required or work remotely. Mobile internet although patchy is sufficient.

 

SaltyPipe


 

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32 minutes ago, SaltyPipe said:

Firstly, it would have been great to have stuck to answering the question I asked, all the presumptions have done nothing to help :)

We are a small and close community and just like in everyday conversation topics tend to meander off topic. It's just how we are. There are some who make assumptions, sometimes those assumptions are helpful sometimes not; You can take what you like and leave what you don't like, and you're right you don't have to explain your self but sometimes it helps. We're not complicated though. :D

 

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your adventure. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, SaltyPipe said:

Thank you to Tumshie and Alan de Enfield your suggestions are useful and we are in fact looking at buying a static caravan on a residential site while we make a boat purchase, no need to rush. ETRR seem to be ‘gone’, no response as yet and a strange php error from their contact page.

I haven't actually sent them and enquiry but everything on their website seems to be working for me.

I filled everything in but didn't hit the 'enquire' button.

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

We are a small and close community and just like in everyday conversation topics tend to meander off topic. It's just how we are. There are some who make assumptions, sometimes those assumptions are helpful sometimes not; You can take what you like and leave what you don't like, and you're right you don't have to explain your self but sometimes it helps. We're not complicated though. :D

 

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your adventure. 

 

 

 Haha, yes I know everyone means well, I do apreciate all of the help and advice :)

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