What Is Your Address if You Live on a Boat?

Residential Moorings

If you have a residential mooring at a marina or along the towpath, you will usually have a fixed address attached to it. The marina or mooring provider may give you a postal address where you can receive mail, and some even offer individual post boxes beside your berth.

Check whether your mooring is recognised as a permanent address by looking at the electoral register. If it is not listed, you can apply to have it added through your local council.

A fixed mooring makes official paperwork straightforward. Banks, the DVLA and HMRC will generally accept a residential mooring address in the same way as a house address. You will also be liable for council tax, usually at Band A for houseboats.

Continuous Cruisers

Things get more complicated without a permanent mooring. The Canal and River Trust requires continuous cruisers to move at least every 14 days and cover a genuine range over the course of a licence: generally at least 20 miles. Shuffling back and forth over a short distance does not count.

Without a fixed mooring, you have no automatic postal address. The main options are:

• Virtual mailbox services such as CanalPost, Boatmail or Expost provide a real UK street address in your name. They receive your post and either forward it or scan it so you can read it online. A street address is more useful than a PO Box because some banks, government departments and retailers like Amazon will not accept PO Box addresses.
• Royal Mail PO Box lets you collect mail from a delivery office, but you need a permanent UK address to set one up.
• Family or friends are the simplest fallback. Using the address of someone you trust works well for banking, official documents and everyday post.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

Banking, Voting and GP Registration

Opening or keeping a bank account without a conventional address can be awkward. Many banks insist on a fixed residential address for identity checks. The Canal and River Trust can provide a letter confirming you hold a boat licence without a home mooring, but banks are not obliged to accept this. Using a virtual mailbox with a real street address tends to work best. Some boaters also find building societies and online banks more flexible than high street banks.

You can register to vote from a boat by making a declaration of local connection with your local electoral registration office. The connection needs to be somewhere you have a genuine link to: a place you spend time regularly, a former permanent address, or a boatyard you use for maintenance. The declaration lasts 12 months and needs renewing. Postal or proxy voting is often easiest if you move frequently.

For NHS services, you can register with a GP using a temporary address or even the address of the surgery itself. Some practices may be reluctant, but they are not supposed to refuse you simply because you lack a conventional home address. If you are turned away, the NHS website has guidance on your rights, and organisations like Friends, Families and Travellers can help.

Council Tax

If you have a residential mooring, you will normally pay council tax on it, typically at Band A. The mooring provider should be able to tell you whether your berth is banded.

Continuous cruisers with no fixed mooring are generally not liable for council tax. In practice, only those with a permanent mooring and a fixed address are expected to pay. Some councils still send bills to boaters who may not owe anything. If this happens to you, challenge it through Citizens Advice or the National Bargee Travellers Association.

If you are on a low income, universal credit can cover mooring fees and long term licence costs through the housing element. Pension age boaters may be able to claim housing benefit for the same costs.

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