Life Afloat
Can you legally live on a canal boat?
Yes — you can live aboard a canal boat legally, provided you hold a valid Canal & River Trust licence and either a home mooring or a genuine continuous-cruising pattern that keeps the boat moving.
Living aboard a canal boat full-time is legal and common across the network, provided the paperwork is in order: a current licence for a narrowboat, a valid Boat Safety Scheme certificate, and insurance. Beyond that, how you moor matters. Most liveaboards either hold a residential mooring — a fixed berth, sometimes needing separate planning permission depending on the site — or cruise continuously, moving the boat genuinely and regularly rather than settling in one spot, under the terms the Canal & River Trust sets for continuous cruisers. There's no separate register of "liveaboards"; CRT licenses the boat, not the lifestyle. What stays constant through every mooring and every move is the boat's identity — the name painted on the side. Mark it properly with our canal boat gifts.
Written by Craig Fearn, Narrowboat Gifts.