Suppose you had a houseboat (or, any boat that one could rationally live in long-term) that was legally registered somewhere in your home country. You decide to anchor offshore, but within the territorial jurisdiction of your country. Could you establish a permanent residence there? E.g. if you anchored one mile off Atlantic City, NJ, could you establish a legal NJ domicile, and be pretty much allowed to live your life there so long as you didn’t interfere with shipping lanes? Would the Post Office establish a mailing address for you and/or deliver?
Does anyone actually own that “land”? Could you stake a real estate claim out there by anchoring and repelling invaders?
We’re assuming that you at least have the right to be in the jurisdiction you are in (e.g., in the hypothetical you would have the right to live in AC, NJ by being a US Citizen or having a resident visa)
This site talks about that a little. http://www.floatingneutrinos.com/
IIRC, they stated that it is in fact, legal to anchor a boat and live on it anywhere in U.S. waters, as long as it doesn’t interfere with boat traffic. (Or something like that.)
There are also other requirements/regulations that go along that. ie: waste water/trash disposal, etc.
You might claim to be “in transit” 365 days a year however in most parts of the world there are state and local laws that govern living on a boat, an overriding requirement is usually that the boat must be registered and to be registered you must have a street address and not a PO box.
And furthermore, the Post Office requires you to give (and prove) a home street address before they will give you a PO Box.
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(This is also one of the nuisances piled upon homeless people, who really need a PO box (if they can scrape up the money) just to receive any mail at all. It’s one of the many ways that homeless people are excommunicated from our society.)
[/digression]
In the bigger picture, everything at sea must have a “national character.” Anything lacking a national character can be seized. So you cannot (legally) go out to sea and be the master of your own fate.
But I’m talking about more or less permanently living within the territorial waters of a country, not on the high seas. E.g. for the US, living 1 mile off the Jersey Shore, 1.5 miles off Cape Hatteras, a half mile off Tampa, somewhere in the middle of Lake Michigan, In the middle of Lake Eire but clearly on the American side of the border, etc.
I’m especially interested to what extent a person could do that and live a normal life (e.g. vote, have relevant documents such as a driver’s license, keep their boat registration up to date, send their kids to the local public schools on shore, receive mail (PO box okay) etc.). We’re assuming that they can come ashore occasionally, but that there permanent residence (at least in fact) is on the boat and offshore
The usual stories you hear about this involve someone trying to live while in dock, and harbours have different rules than the high seas, I assume.
The problem with the high seas, even within territorial waters, are of course that they are high from time to time. An added complication would be what the Coast Guard rules are about boats that are parked in such a manner to put the occupants recklessly in danger (and their rescuers) during bad weather.
While that site may say that, you also need to actually check mooring regulations in the jurisdiction that you’re interested in. In many places it’s not legal to anchor overnight and/or unattended unless at a permitted mooring location.
There have been a number of questions about property ownership here on SD lately. People are coming up with clever ideas in an effort to sneak around the laws, rules, codes, restrictions, and ordinances.
As the old adage says, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Land ownership has been around for a long, long time, and just about all the loopholes have been tied shut.
Private property ownership in the United States says that when you own a piece of land, you own it from the center of the earth and extending to the heavens above. Nowadays, there are typically restrictions on that concept. Most subdivided land has had mineral and water rights removed, so you don’t own everything to the center of the earth. Utility companies have their easements for pipes and lines both under the ground and in the air above. Municipal codes may restrict your ability to extend your reach to the heavens, and if you are near an airport, the airspace doesn’t belong to you at all.
Go out to the middle of nowhere, and you are still located in some county, in some state. Both of those governments are very explicit as to what they will and will not allow. All land belongs to somebody. There will be a private owner, a corporation, the estate of a private owner, or a government entity.
~VOW
In Australia, Sydney Harbour there are various bays allocated as free public mooring, but you are only supposed to stay there for 3 or 4 nights. How much it’s enforced is another matter.
There is also permanent public moorings available with long waiting lists. If you get one of those there is nothing stopping you living on the boat. Some people do. In Australia you would get a PO box without too much hassle and if you needed it, list a friends or relatives address as your street address.
Here in Oregon you need a street address to get a drivers license. A PO Box won’t do. I imagine the same is true in most other states.
But Oregon would not be a good place to anchor a houseboat off-shore, especially in winter. The weather can be rather brutal. Keep the houseboats in the marina, which a number of people do around here.
It’s quite illegal to stay on your permanent mooring for more than a few nights,once again how much its enforced is the question, as long as your rego and safety equipment is in order the water police have better thing to do than try and evict you.
