In this article I am going to explain about receiving postal mail as a liveaboard together with some of the legal issues with regards to your home address.

OK, living in a house is easy when you need to receive post, every house in the UK has a post code and most are easy to find for the postman. Living aboard a boat can be more difficult but it really does depend on where you are moored and to some extent what type of boat you liveaboard.

If your boat can be reached easily from the canal or river bank and the mooring is a permanent residential mooring then you may find the postman will deliver directly to your boat. Many owners assist the postman by erecting a post box on the canal or river bank for mail to be placed into, a bit like the ones you see in the USA. Doing this makes sure the postman doesn't have to climb onto your boat, and of course many postmen won't due to safety and insurance issues.
An address like this may have a post code and if recognized as a permanent residential mooring you can use this on legal documentation such as passports and driving licenses. One sure way of finding out if your mooring is recognized as a permanent address is to check it out on the electoral role, if it's listed that’s great, if not you could have it added.

Having a recognized permanent address as above can make legal issues much easier such as bank accounts, schools and any other of the mountain of bureaucracy we have to go through.

Now on to other situations you may encounter.
We have covered bank side canal and river moorings but what if your mooring is within a marina or boatyard?

Generally, if you are moored in a marina or boatyard the postman will not venture down the pontoon or jetty to deliver your post. The usual way this is handled is that the marina will take all post and you collect your post from the marina office. Some marinas may have a collection point for each residential boat, this could be something as simple as a pigeon hole system.
Post is normally addressed to the boat name followed by the marinas address.

This form of address is generally acceptable for legal documents but if you have problems you could still register the boat name and marina address on the electoral role.

If you live in a marina or boatyard that doesn't have permanent residential status but allows liveaboards on a casual basis then you may find that you can not use the marinas address for post.
In this situation you will need to make other arrangements.

So what other alternatives are available to receive your post?

PO Box

You could pay for and use a PO Box. Your address is a post office box that is located as close to your mooring as possible.
The disadvantage of this is that you will have to physically go out and collect your post and legal documents could be a problem as a PO Box is not really a permanent physical home address.

Use a family or friends address

This can be a simple option if your family or friend does not mind. You simply have all post sent to their address and then you collect it. This should be no problem for legal documents either but do remember if you are classed as "living" there make sure it doesn't have an effect on them. As an example if your friend or family member lives on their own they may get a 25% reduction in council tax and if you are registered at that address they will have to pay full price.

Accommodation Address

There are companies that operate an accommodation address service where they receive your post and forward it on to a different address that you supply them. This could be your local post office if you want.

You have to pay for the service and it may not be that suitable for legal documents. Ask the individual companies about having there address on passports, driving licenses and bank accounts.

So that has covered the main options for receiving post as a liveaboard boater. There could be other options I haven't covered so if you have any suggestions or do something different that works well please leave a comment.