Floating home tenancy

Definition

The one moored structure whose owner is a tenant, and the test that decides which is which.

Why It Matters

A slip holder has no tenancy right that any state publishes; what the marina holds is possession and a lien, and a vessel unclaimed long enough is presumed abandoned and sold. A floating home is the exception and it is a full statutory tenancy: a berth in a marina of five or more, terminable only on listed grounds, with sixty days to remove the home and a year's notice where a change of use needs no local permit. The dividing test is physical, since the structure must be built as a stationary waterborne dwelling, have no mode of power of its own, and depend on continuous shoreside utility and sewer hookups. A boat that can move under its own power fails that test and stays outside the statute.