Liveaboards and Tenants

[nikkim]

i'm looking for advice about live-aboard tenants and the tenants rights. Any info will help

[xymotic]

Depends on what state you are in, but in general live-aboards have NO "tenants rights"
99.9% of the time the lease agreement is all that counts, and the Marina wrote that

[webejammin]

Were not suspost to be liveaboards but do live aboard a lot, I always say were recreating lots and have been keeping a small apt that I own to keep extra stuff in keeps us legal untill we head out crusing in a year. It doesn't make sence to have a boat on the water and not stay aboard

[Unicorn Dreams]

Welcome Aboard

[Minggat]

Welcome aboard.

You have the right to:

Walk in the rain to the showers and laundry facility,
Enjoy/endure the wake of passing boats,
Have undesirable neighbors too close,
An expensive learning curve,

...........

[denverd0n]

This is a legal question, and the first thing to remember is that internet legal advice is worth exactly what you pay for it... NOTHING!

Having said that, the laws are going to depend entirely on your location, so telling us exactly where you are would help. Any other details about your situation would probably help, also. The question, as posed, is simply too general for anyone to provide a really useful answer (although xymotic got about as close as possible with the statement that, most of the time, it is all about the lease agreement).

[Bash]

Originally Posted by nikkim

i'm looking for advice about live-aboard tenants and the tenants rights. Any info will help

Welcome to the forum.

This is an international forum. Giving us a clue as to the continent where you are living aboard would be a good first step toward hooking up with useful information.

[nikkim]

I'm located in Oakley California and we never received nor signed any agreements. But we do have every rent receipt from day one. Plus the only improvements done to this place have been done by me at no charge only because I don't want the place where i live looking like crap. There's gotta be some rights i'm entitled too. Plus I've been here for four years. The harbor master has only been here for two and has done nothing to improve the place, just spends money on flowers when the owner is coming out.

[webejammin]

That's nice to live in a warm location like California where the pumpouts do not close because of cold weather. Were on the Columbia river and in a few weeks the marina ( which is the areas Port ) will shut down the pumpouts and the only advice the marina can give us is to go out in the middle of the river's current and dump.

[GeoPowers]

Originally Posted by nikkim

i'm looking for advice about live-aboard tenants and the tenants rights. Any info will help

I venture to guess that the majority of liveaboards on this forum are only concerned with one "tenant" right from marinas, and that is to leave us be.

The cool thing about boats is if you don't like your home's surroundings you can move to a new area really easily.

Or are you renting a boat that you live on? If so, do you get underway?

[hellosailor]

"There's gotta be some rights i'm entitled too. "
What an attitude! You are entitled to the rights granted you by your sovereign. In this case, by the State of California plus some federal "rights". If it isn't in the California "Housing" laws or "tenants rights" laws, in some Claifornia Statutes or other legal codes, you don't have any.

A boat isn't a house. The same laws are not applied, regardless of who thinks otherwise. If you can start to change the mindset of the courts--any courts--good on you.

But as for having rights? You're joking, aren't you?

[mjwarner]

Well, first we need to know what you mean by tenants rights. Not that it will really matter here. 1. If you are renting a boat that you live on, there is no such thing as tenant rights. I mean, under land based rentals, you would have to be guaranteed things like running hot water or a toilet. But a boat? What if the boat you rent doesn't have a head? No tenant rights can fix that one, so no you have no rights under law in regard to renting to live-aboard a vessel. 2. slip rights? Only that which is stated in the slip contract, and you say you never signed one. Since you have been there four years, any court in the land will say that you have demonstrated that you are content with things as they are. So, no rights to get anything changed would be enforceable, especially since there is no form stating what those, if any terms would be. You do have one right under the law if you are not satisfied with your marina. Move.

[nikkim]

I own the boat i live on and and the harbor master is going by HUD rights witch are totally different from floating home laws or maritime laws.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by nikkim

I own the boat i live on and and the harbor master is going by HUD rights witch are totally different from floating home laws or maritime laws.

Then consider yourself extremely lucky. As stated normal conventions do not apply. And they don't have to go by ANY housing convention. If they kicked you out because you weren't purple enough for their liking, they could probably do it.

FWIW, I've been on the other side of this as well when I had a commercial tenant try to sue me for violating his 'tenants rights'

(I'd entered his 'open to the public' business without an appointment and taken pictures of some damage)

The judge literally laughed the guy out of court.

[mjwarner]

Well alright-y then, since the harbor master observes the HUD rights, you need to contact HUD and find out just where you stand. Unless we maybe have a housing and urban development expert on-board here? Anyone???