Conditions for renting out a narrow boat

[Moisha]

Hi all,

 

I am hoping to rent out my narrow boat to someone who wants to live on it for a year, continuous cruising. Does anyone have any experience of doing this?

 

Looking at the CRT website, I think renting out my narrow boat for someone to live aboard for a year counts as "Business Boating".

 

According to the CRT website, I will need a Business Licence, a special Business Boat Safety and Gas Safety inspection, and commercial insurance.

 

The CRT website also gives the impression that you can only rent your boat out if it has a permanent residential mooring.

 

Is this true?

 

Thanks,

 

Jon

 

[RLWP]

Yes. Mind you, that's for a proper hiring arrangement, maybe you could come to some informal arrangement - sell it to them perhaps?

 

Playing Devil's advocate, once the 'hirer' has moved your boat, repainted it, changed the fit out and disappeared, what will you do to try and get it back?

 

Richard

Edited June 11, 2015 by RLWP

[Alan de Enfield]

You also need to provide car-parking, a bin emptying and toilet emptying service.

 

If he intends to CC and doesn't CC in accordance with C&RT's expectations, C&RT & sieze your boat, who will be responsible for paying the bill ?

 

You could lose your boat.

[Paul C]

Probably better to sell the boat to him, whether you want to buy it back at a later date is some other issue.

[Jess--]

surely a lease agreement would be better, similar to how cars are leased

 

an agreed monthly lease fee (in other words rent) with an agreed final payment at the end of the year if the lessee wishes to own the boat outright

[Bettie Boo]

I know of a couple of hotel boats who do not have a home mooring and are able to operate as long as they have a published schedule and stick to it whether they have guests on board or not.

 

So, with that in mind I don't see that you "must" have a home mooring; but might need to give them some kind of idea where your "tenant" would be cruising over the course of the year but they would need to stick to the schedule you give crt

 

ETA - yes you would need the business license, the proper insurance, section 10 of the BSC and a landlord gas safety cert.

 

Since they wouldn't be producing anything other than normal household waste there is no need to provide a waste disposal point, you/they would use the crt provided facilities and there is also no need to provide a car parking facility.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Bettie Boo

[Lady Muck]

Even if you considered doing it on the sly, I wouldn't bother, most people I know who are doing 'dodgy rentals' are selling up.

 

Because tenants usually aren't interested in cruising the boat over a 20 mile range - they want to live onboard in Hackney, or Central London and you will keep getting threatening letters from CRT and/or shortened licenses. So it's not viable anymore, certainly not worth the hassle. Even my mate who ran a legit rental has packed it in and sold up after barely a year. Tenant just not interested in cruising the boat.

 

And seeing as the rumours are that this range will be increased to 40 miles next year, I think you can forget it, people who rent are mostly not that bothered about the actual boating, for them it's a short term, 'lifestyle experience', because after six months or a year they will be off doing something else and they won't care about your license terms.

Edited June 11, 2015 by Lady Muck

[RLWP]

ETA - yes you would need the business license, the proper insurance, section 10 of the BSC and a landlord gas safety cert.

 

Since they wouldn't be producing anything other than normal household waste there is no need to provide a waste disposal point, you/they would use the crt provided facilities and there is also no need to provide a car parking facility.

 

How much of that is based on your own knowledge, Bettie? It certainly isn't what CRT told us last time we looked into turning our boat into a hire boat

 

Richard

[bigste]

It's a cheap way to get a boat. like it's been said, how would you go about getting it back when it doesn't turn up at the end of the hire or they miss a monthly payment.

[Bettie Boo]

First hand Richard, we looked into it last year. Also have some friends who run one of the Hotel Boats.

 

Mind you, I am assuming renting out your boat would follow the same guidelines/restrictions as running it as a Hotel Boat, which is a form of "renting" it out in my assumptions.

[Moisha]

Hm. Thanks folks. It's not that easy, I reckon. Maybe it would be better to try to get a mooring for it and rent it that way...

 

j

[Arthur Brown]

There are few if any ways round the CaRT distance travelled requirements, and their "no return within... days" signs. ONLY if you are certain that the boat user will actually comply with the cruising rules should you even start to think about a term hire, whether so called or not.

[zenataomm]

First hand Richard, we looked into it last year. Also have some friends who run one of the Hotel Boats.

 

Mind you, I am assuming renting out your boat would follow the same guidelines/restrictions as running it as a Hotel Boat, which is a form of "renting" it out in my assumptions.

 

I don't see the relevance BB, if you were to rent out your house would you need to comply with all of the requirements of registering a hotel?

Booking a place on a hotel boat isn't the same as renting a boat to live on.

 

I do think though it's such a grey area that a boat owner going down that route would as Lady M described go to an amazing length trying to comply with everything and even then find themselves to blame and their boat at risk due to the actions/inactions of tenant.

[Bettie Boo]

 

I don't see the relevance BB, if you were to rent out your house would you need to comply with all of the requirements of registering a hotel?

Booking a place on a hotel boat isn't the same as renting a boat to live on.

 

I do think though it's such a grey area that a boat owner going down that route would as Lady M described go to an amazing length trying to comply with everything and even then find themselves to blame and their boat at risk due to the actions/inactions of tenant.

 

Your right of course, renting ones house is completely different to opening it as a hotel and therefore the requirements would obviously be completely different.

 

However, we aren't discussing bricks & mortar.

 

I'm just passing along the info we were given by crt a year ago along with some knowledge friends have provided us with, which is actually relevant if you are looking to rent your boat out whether it be for short term or long term and are trying to do it legally in the eyes of crt.

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Your right of course, renting ones house is completely different to opening it as a hotel and therefore the requirements would obviously be completely different.

 

However, we aren't discussing bricks & mortar.

 

I'm just passing along the info we were given by crt a year ago along with some knowledge friends have provided us with, which is actually relevant if you are looking to rent your boat out whether it be for short term or long term and are trying to do it legally in the eyes of crt.

 

But with a Hotel Boat is the owner still, not only in 'occupation' of the boat, but also still driving it and deciding how far it goes ?

 

When you rent out your boat, you get off, the renter drives of into the sunset and you don't see him again for 12 months, or until C&RT tell you they have found your boat abandoned on a weir.

[matty40s]

some people think they are really clever and go the "share boat" ownership route.

 

They sell a 1% share of a boat to a tenant and can circumvent the landlords responsibility aspects, such as enhanced BSC etc.

 

We did some work last year for someone taking this route, the boat is now over 9 days cruising and 100 miles by car, every time they get a problem, we get the first call, batteries are flat, engine overheating, water tank leaking(we fitted new batteries, bathroom and painted roof) apparently alternator is knackered, 2nd nothing to do with us, but we did arrange a replacement at cost, 3rd, they had overfilled tank and it was pouring out of the overflow.

The owner of the 99% is NOT taking responsibility, and expecting the newbie boat dwellers to cope or another boatyard to fix issues.

 

I have seen a couple of "share"boats in London Central which I thought were not safe from stove and gas installations,, and know another couple who rented a share in a boat and were not allowed to move it (even when enforcement said they had to)which had no fridge/proper sanitation (the boat was pumpout so they bought a portapotti) and no windlass or mooring pins.

[Bettie Boo]

arghhhh just lost a long reply to the "fatal error bug"

 

suffice to say renting our boat out long term is not something we would consider for all the reasons already given.

 

I was simply trying to let the OP know what was needed in the eyes of crt if he was planning on doing it above board.

 

The criteria is virtual the same whether it be for a short term rental (hotel boat style) or long term. Not all of the hotel boats have the owners/operators on board for the entire rental - there are many different set ups available.

[Lady Muck]

some people think they are really clever and go the "share boat" ownership route.

 

They sell a 1% share of a boat to a tenant and can circumvent the landlords responsibility aspects, such as enhanced BSC etc.

 

We did some work last year for someone taking this route, the boat is now over 9 days cruising and 100 miles by car, every time they get a problem, we get the first call, batteries are flat, engine overheating, water tank leaking(we fitted new batteries, bathroom and painted roof) apparently alternator is knackered, 2nd nothing to do with us, but we did arrange a replacement at cost, 3rd, they had overfilled tank and it was pouring out of the overflow.

The owner of the 99% is NOT taking responsibility, and expecting the newbie boat dwellers to cope or another boatyard to fix issues.

 

I have seen a couple of "share"boats in London Central which I thought were not safe from stove and gas installations,, and know another couple who rented a share in a boat and were not allowed to move it (even when enforcement said they had to)which had no fridge/proper sanitation (the boat was pumpout so they bought a portapotti) and no windlass or mooring pins.

And share boats still get enforced, I know someone who did all of the work, landlord gas cert, commercial BSS, but the tenants wanted to remain in Central london. They just sold up as the boat ended up on a 3 month license. Not worth the risk of a new tenant who would probably not cruise it either. Of course, when they originally decided to do it, I said to them, 'don't do it, it's not worth it' but they didnt listen.

[pipistrelle]

Reviving this thread as I, too was advised to consider renting out my boat. I have a very nice home mooring, right in the centre of Oxford and it's been suggested by several folk that a lot of the value in my boat is in its mooring, and thus it would be better to rent it rather than sell (I'm moving and -perhaps naively- I paid a premium on top of the boat's value when I bought it, such that it would be daft to move the boat and give up the mooring).

 

Digging into this further, it seems that what I have is an "L3" mooring (I pay CaRT for a mooring permit and pay landlords to access the land/for water & rubbish disposal). I'm fairly sure the mooring not being residential disqualifies me from getting a CaRT business license to rent and, while I'd be happy to consider an informal arrangement, it looks like it could risk being very costly/risky for me (I wouldn't abandon people if things went wrong - I can see that ending badly if the tenant accidentally damaged something expensive).

 

Posting in case it helps anyone who might be thinking along similar lines.

Edited November 11, 2015 by pipistrelle