Downshifting to canal boat or park home maybe

pineapple

Just wondered if anyone had done either.
I'm tempted by a residential site near me (proper year round residential) but I'm put off by the average £100 a month ground rent, the fact that the site owner controls the electricity supply and he gets 10% commission if you sell :eek:
Another option was a canal coat but last year I saw boats frozen in the ice and it wasn't a pretty sight! Plus there are the upkeep/mooring costs.
The upside of both however is that I would be able to free up capital from the sale of my house. Aside from just renting - there is not much else I could downshift to .
Just wondered if anyone had done either and what your experiences were - or if you are considering it.

missindecisive

ive had no experience of either but i did serve a lady a few times at work who lived on a canal boat. She had a personal hygiene problem..she stank. I think the problem was that there were no showering facilities...at least you would have a bathroom in a caravan.

pineapple

missindecisive wrote: »

ive had no experience of either but i did serve a lady a few times at work who lived on a canal boat. She had a personal hygiene problem..she stank. I think the problem was that there were no showering facilities...at least you would have a bathroom in a caravan.

Ha ha
Must depend on the boat - some are beautifully kitted out.
The park homes I have in mind are actually a bit up from a caravan - many are 2 bed wooden chalets for example.

lincroft1710

Most park home parks have minimum age restrictions (usually 55 yrs old) and £100 pm site rent is probably average to low. Also the home is a wasting asset, unlike a house.

BigAunty

missindecisive wrote: »

ive had no experience of either but i did serve a lady a few times at work who lived on a canal boat. She had a personal hygiene problem..she stank. I think the problem was that there were no showering facilities...at least you would have a bathroom in a caravan.

Nobody needs to stink, even without a shower - one can wash at the sink and it should be easy enough to collect water on the canals.

My friends live on a canal boat and have a shower and loo, plus the moorings have more facilities like laundry.

However, yes, they were iced in for weeks on their mooring one winter (which are hard to secure and are getting increasingly expensive).

There are a couple of Canal boat owner forums that can help a newby understand the expenses and issues that come with living on a canal boat.

Once you are off the housing ladder, it can be really hard to get back on.

The Shelter website has basic info on park/mobile living and houseboats, too.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/finding_a_place_to_live/mobile_homes

Have you considered living in a motorhome? Stealth camping or boondocking as it's known in America? (i.e. not living in a formal park but just parking up in quiet places). There are forums/websites where people who live this way post the best places to live undetected (wild camping).

Gets over your issue with ground rent, lack of control over utilities and owner commission. Introduces new issues such as potentially things like cold/ damp, harassment, being moved on and the usual expenses associated with owning a vehicle.

Some people buy normal commerical vehicles and kit them out in such a way that they don't look like campervans, just ordinary vans from the outside (stealth campers), so this means they are less vulnerable to theft and being moved on than a conventional RV/motorhome.

Other cheap ways to live include property guardianship (Camelot) which has insecure tenure, housing coops/communities (not for everyone), social housing (hard to get and can be in deprived places).

witchy1066

I live in a mobile home on a residential park, and to be honest and shouldn't say this because I will be selling in a few months , but here goes , I can not wait to move , its not cheap living, we pay council tax, water rates, ground rent , and top wack for electricity, and gas bottles, and yes £100 a month ground rent is a little on the low side ,
also some sites charge you a grounds maintenance fee,

but if you are looking to retire and don't mind stupid rules and have in excess of 50k doing nothing then I would say go for it , but don't do it if you are thinking it will be a cheap way to live ,
or you will sell on in a few years and make a profit because that will not happen,

I have lived in mine for 17 years and for the most part loved it , I am 2 mins from the sea and the area is gorgeous but they is just so much one can take from arrogant, lazy, site owners , so its time for me to move on to a little house with my own large garden , where I can do what I want (within reason) without having to ask permission ,

the price you pay depends on the quality and age of the mobile home
but they are not cheap, mine will be , I already have a list of 10 people wanting to buy but as they have to pass the site owners check I am sure that will go down ,

sorry if I have gone on a bit , OP look into it very carefully ,its not for everyone, and remember you could buy a nice little freehold bungalow or semi somewhere for not much more than a mobile home, and the land it is built on is yours

if you think its for you ,go for it ,

DKLS

I could live on one of those dutch barges which are twice the width of our narrow boats it would be too small in a narrowboat for me.

witchy1066

DKLS wrote: »

I could live on one of those dutch barges which are twice the width of our narrow boats it would be too small in a narrowboat for me.

yeah me to but have you seen the price :rotfl:

only problem with a boat is getting stuck in the icy water in winter,

a friend of mine who lives on a barge, says no matter what she does , how much heating and layers of clothes she wears , its always cold
this year she plans on moving out over the winter but she still has to pay mooring costs and they have doubled over the last 2 years,

oh yeah and maintenance costs for a boat are expensive , always something needs doing , not that i know but this is what i am always being told by friend

cte1111

Basic costs for a 60 foot (18m) narrowboat:

Mooring fees: about £110 a month (many moorings don't allow live aboards, so could be higher)

RCT license: £925.97 a year (can get small discount if pay full year up front and early)

Insurance: £130 a year (may well be higher if you live aboard)

You also then need to include running costs, e.g. diesel, pump out (toilet emptying unless you have a capsule toilet that you empty yourself), gas cylinders for cooking.

Then there's the big one - maintenance. This may well be thousands a year, boats need a lot of upkeep.

G_M

Living on a narrow boat is a lifestyle choice, NOT an economic one.

Yes, there are some very comfortable ones:
* central heating (oil); log burners; rads; etc
* hot showers
* fitted kitchen
* etc etc

But there's a host of problems too
* loos: either you have a storage tank for waste, needing 'pump out', or, more often, it collects in a closed container you have to lug manually to a tip-out point (portapotty)
* muddy tow-path to negotiate in the dark, in winter!
* EVERYTHING has to be carried back. You ever wondered why many narrowboats have wheel barrows on the roof.....?
* winter is damp. Coldl, depends on how modern/insulated/well-heated. But damp....

Costs
* purchase
* bi-annual lift-out and repaint
* insurance
* Canal & Rivers Trust licence
* Safety certificate
* engine repairs
* fuel
*
* etc

Mooring
* Either you need a permanant mooring, or a 'Continuous Cruising' licence which means maximum 2 weeks in one location (no, you can't just go up/down the same half-mile stretch!)
* most permanent moorings are non-residential. You can'tlive there, just store the boat there.
* Residential moorings are highly sought after, especially in popular locations (towns, near employment), and expensive
* yes, you still pay Council Taxon a residential mooring

OK- that gives you a taste. Still interested? Read

http://www.justcanals.co.uk/forums/

http://livingonanarrowboat.co.uk/forum/living-on-a-narrowboat/

http://www.canalcuttings.co.uk/living-on-a-narrowboat.html

http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php?option=com_ccboard&view=postlist&forum=1&topic=447

etc etc

DKLS

witchy1066 wrote: »

yeah me to but have you seen the price :rotfl:

I regularly see them much cheaper than the english narrowboats of equivalent length for sale.