Renting a Houseboat

Renting a houseboat to live on would seem like a useful alternative to buying a boat outright, especially for those that are either unsure whether or not boat living is for them although they’re still attracted enough to the idea of, at least, wanting to try the lifestyle for a while with the idea of buying a boat later if they take to life on the water.

Alternatively, some people may have definitely decided that they want to live on a boat but cannot afford to buy one outright or cannot raise the money through a mortgage or loan for whatever reason.

How To Go About Renting a Boat

Unlike the housing market where getting a place to rent is rarely a problem, renting a boat to live on is not as simple as you might think. One of the main reasons for this is that people who tend to buy boats do so because they want to live on them themselves. Those who do buy one as an investment tend to only rent them out over the short-term as a holiday boat rental, for example where, especially in the summer months, they can charge a premium rate for doing so.

That’s not to say that it’s impossible to find a boat rental for a longer-term and the internet is probably one of the best places to look. You may have to do a bit of delving around but there are many sites devoted to boat living in general some of which will contain forums or message boards where boating enthusiasts can exchange information and you may just get lucky and come across somebody who’s looking to rent out their boat on a medium to long term basis.

Otherwise, you could be proactive and post a message on the forum or message board, stating that you’re looking to rent for at least ‘X’ amount of months and the specifics of what you’re looking for and you might find somebody gets back to you who can help or posts a response on the forum. Boating magazines will also contain classified ads so you may want to keep checking those or placing an ad yourself.

Things To Bear In Mind

If you do get lucky and have the opportunity to rent a boat for living on it’s important that you establish certain issues. Firstly, you’ll need to make sure that the boat comes with residential mooring rights as many mooring agreements prevent boat owners from letting their boat. If all the paperwork is in order in that regard, you’ll also need to find out whether or not you’re liable for council tax.

The chances are you will be liable with a residential mooring so don’t simply assume that because you’re living afloat with no residential ‘address’ as such that you’re exempt from council tax as you’re likely to end up in trouble with the local authority. If you’re eligible, however, and you’re able to obtain a live aboard rental, you’d still be able to claim the likes of housing benefit to cover the full or partial cost of the rental, the mooring costs and the boat licence.

Tenancy Agreements

You should normally be looking to obtain a common law tenancy and it’s crucial that you carefully read through any tenancy agreement first. These will obviously differ depending on the boat’s owner but things like security deposits, liability issues if there is any damage to the boat, your responsibilities regarding any general maintenance and who’s responsible for what as well as the length of the tenancy are all issues you’d need to look at carefully.

Be prepared to hunt around, however, and to be both patient and pro-active in your approach as residential boat lettings are not as common as you might think.