Living aboard - sell house or not?

[Michele]

My dream is to live aboard a narrowboat, OH is coming round to the idea and we have been discussing the possibilites.

What a your thoughts on selling the house? What are the pro's and con's?

We'd be very interested to hear what your circumstances are and your reasons behind them.

thanks

Michele

[wonderdust]

Rent the house just in case it does not work out!

[Michele]

If we did sell the house what problems could we expect to come up against as time goes on?

[bridgit]

No one can predict what will happen next week, we sold our house and bought some cheaper ones to rent out. We were lucky that we already had our boat. I dont know what we would do if something happened and we couldnt live aboard, but Im sure we would manage.

[Tony Brooks]

If we did sell the house what problems could we expect to come up against as time goes on?

 

Unless you can find a place with genuine livaboard moorings I think it is wise to accept that eventually infirmity or loss of the other will make living aboard very hard. Now one of the people who posted here in the past did manage to get rehoused by the local council when he became infirm but I do not think you should bank on that. Likewise I do not think you should hope that house prices will do anything other than to keep rising faster than interest rates increase your capital in the long term.

 

Our friends have just come ashore after several years living aboard and they made sure they had a house to come back to. Whilst living aboard they sometimes had to travel the length of the country for hospital and routine dental appointments.

 

Many marinas will not take post in for unofficial livaboards so you probably also need a close relative or trusted friend to receive your official post and give an address for those organisations who can not get their heads around boat living. An official residential mooring solves this sort of issue.

 

Personally I would rather keep the house and buy a secondhand boat that needs a bit of TLC than sell the house and buy a new boat.

 

I intend to always come back to the house for the winter - if I can ever get away from my "work" for half the year.

[Michele]

Our friends have just come ashore after several years living aboard and they made sure they had a house to come back to. Whilst living aboard they sometimes had to travel the length of the country for hospital and routine dental appointments.

 

If we keep the house, rent it out and become continuous cruisers.....what would we do if we needed to see a GP? Would we have to come home?

 

Do any of you rent your house out? How successful have you found it?

[nipper]

Do any of you rent your house out? How successful have you found it?

 

Renting is not all sweetness and light!

 

If you are renting a house at £6,000pa, ie £500 a month, expect to get half of that amount!

 

Between the rental agencies fees and lost rent due to changeover of tenants, that is what you'll get (if your lucky).

 

You could of coarse have a tenant from hell, who does not pay! refuses to pay! and puts everything in the way, so she does not pay! Then it will take 12 months in my experiance to get em out!

 

I Just had one, took me all that time to get her out, owing me £8000 in rent and solicitors fees!

 

Can you afford to not have the dosh for that long?

nipper

[Yoda]

My dream is to live aboard a narrowboat, OH is coming round to the idea and we have been discussing the possibilites.

What a your thoughts on selling the house? What are the pro's and con's?

Don't sell, rent it out. Try living in one room for a month before moving on to the boat.

We'd be very interested to hear what your circumstances are and your reasons behind them.

thanks

Michele

[Michele]

You could of coarse have a tenant from hell, who does not pay! refuses to pay! and puts everything in the way, so she does not pay! Then it will take 12 months in my experiance to get em out!

I Just had one, took me all that time to get her out, owing me £8000 in rent and solicitors fees!

 

Yes this does worry me, also that they could wreck the house too.

Did you leave all your furniture in or store it and rent as an empty property?

[Michele]

If we went down the route of selling the house how would we stand with being registered with a GP?

[Ditch Crawler]

They have a very nice boat on a proper residential mooring at Norbury, check it out http://www.norburywharfltd.co.uk/index_files/Page1175.htm

[starman]

Sounds like you could do with getting in touch with the Residential Boat Owners Association click. I think they sell a booklet that may help with some of your questions (and a few you hadn't thought of!).

[journeyperson]

Renting is not all sweetness and light!

 

Very sound advice Nipper, but I'm exhausted from watching your avatar. I think you should stay away from the orange juice!

[bottle]

All sensible answers so far, .

 

Now!!!

 

We sold our house and will be CCers, life till now has been sensible but having now retired (early) all caution has been thrown out the door (with a lot of possessions).

 

We will deal with the problems when/if they arise at the time they occur, all 'official' needs will be provided by using daughters address.

[Michele]

We sold our house and will be CCers, life till now has been sensible but having now retired (early) all caution has been thrown out the door (with a lot of possessions).

 

We will deal with the problems when/if they arise at the time they occur, all 'official' needs will be provided by using daughters address.

 

That's great.....so jealous! So if you needed to see your GP and you're the other end of the country to where you are 'officially' based - what do you do?

[valrene9600]

That's great.....so jealous! So if you needed to see your GP and you're the other end of the country to where you are 'officially' based - what do you do?

 

Just go to the local doctor and sign on as a temp patient.

[Michele]

Just go to the local doctor and sign on as a temp patient.

 

Thank you Valrene. I wasn't aware you could do that. That's another box ticked and question answered.

[dasboot]

They have a very nice boat on a proper residential mooring at Norbury, check it out http://www.norburywharfltd.co.uk/index_files/Page1175.htm

That is just blatant advertising. There are other trade people on here such as Tam & Di, Phil Speight of Craftmaster, and DominicM from Rugby Boats, for example. They all make it clear that they have a business interest. They also offer useful advice and good input without trumpeting their wares. You, whoever you are, are just using this as a blatant promotion of Norbury Wharf's business. Not offering any helpful advice at all, to the original poster ot anyone else.

[david and julie]

We sold our house and will be CCers, life till now has been sensible but having now retired (early) all caution has been thrown out the door (with a lot of possessions).

 

We will deal with the problems when/if they arise at the time they occur, all 'official' needs will be provided by using daughters address.

The correct approach in my opinion - cliché or not - it isn't a dummy run.

 

I'd sell the house(if you can that is) once we get the general election over - irrespective of which self serving shower get in - interest rates are bound to rise. I wouldn't even consider letting the existing house as it would be an endless worry. If you ever have to move back on land you would probably want to downsize anyway, so the boat may well finance a retirement flat or at least cover rent for a long time.

[alexandra]

That's great.....so jealous! So if you needed to see your GP and you're the other end of the country to where you are 'officially' based - what do you do?

 

 

I live in a house most of the time and haven't been registered with a GP for six years , your only here once if you have the oppertunity, just do it !!! Perhaps not the sensible answer you are looking for but then thats me.................... away with the faries!!

[Guest User]

To steal a slogan .. "Just Do it !" ... but do it properly

 

Sounds like you've thought about it at length .... if you're happy that you and your OH will be able to really live on a boat then why not ?

 

But I'd caution that CC'ing is a country mile apart from living aboard on a fully serviced residential mooring with a postcode and all ... therein lies the choice which end of the spectrum do you want to pick ... but I get the feeling you'll be on a boat sooner rather than later ... good luck

[Michele]

To steal a slogan .. "Just Do it !" ... but do it properly

 

Sounds like you've thought about it at length .... if you're happy that you and your OH will be able to really live on a boat then why not ?

 

But I'd caution that CC'ing is a country mile apart from living aboard on a fully serviced residential mooring with a postcode and all ... therein lies the choice which end of the spectrum do you want to pick ... but I get the feeling you'll be on a boat sooner rather than later ... good luck

 

Hi all, thanks for the advice, it's given us more food for thought. Please keep it coming!

 

As for when this will happen...for me - yesterday, last week, 20 years ago etc!

The OH though is more cautious, at first not into the idea at all but we've spent some time on boats with friends (including the lovely Cheshire~Rose and Postcode) and has been completely sold on the idea. We have a hire-boat holiday booked for later this year and then we'll decide what's our next step!

 

[jelunga]

If we went down the route of selling the house how would we stand with being registered with a GP?

 

We ar planning the exact same thing. We had a chat with our GP. He was quit happy to keep us on his books, provided we visited once a year for a check up. If you are ill, you are perfectly able to visit ANY NHS GP and ask to be treated as a temproary visitor, as if you were on holiday. The treatment details are then sent back to your own GP.

But it is up to your GP as to whether he is willing to keep you on his books. Ours said it would be better if we could keep an "address" in his area.

 

Keith

[Michele]

We ar planning the exact same thing. We had a chat with our GP. He was quit happy to keep us on his books, provided we visited once a year for a check up. If you are ill, you are perfectly able to visit ANY NHS GP and ask to be treated as a temproary visitor, as if you were on holiday. The treatment details are then sent back to your own GP.

But it is up to your GP as to whether he is willing to keep you on his books. Ours said it would be better if we could keep an "address" in his area.

 

Keith

 

That shouldn't be a problem as we have friends in the area who aren't very likely to ever move!

I'm going to send you friend request so we can keep in touch with our progressions to the water, if that's ok?

[mrsmelly]

All sensible answers so far, .

 

Now!!!

 

We sold our house and will be CCers, life till now has been sensible but having now retired (early) all caution has been thrown out the door (with a lot of possessions).

 

We will deal with the problems when/if they arise at the time they occur, all 'official' needs will be provided by using daughters address.

 

U r so right

 

Us 2 we kept a house for 3 years and rented it out but finally got rid two years ago it was an uncessary bit of unused kit. If we become too ill to look after ourselves on the boat we would also be too unwell to look after ourselves in a house as for dentists, doctors banks etc etc etc etc etc etc etc they ALL accept we live on a boat and do not care one jot !!! Some others out there scare monger over these things and it is simply NOT TRUE that you ever need a land address. True boaters need no land ties, thats not to say that if u feel you need to keep a house it is wrong I am only saying that a house and address are absolutely NOT necessary for our way of life................it is NOT a legal requirement to have an address in the uk so go with your heart.....