Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

[Murfee]

I have an opportunity to transfer to the Southeastern area of the county, any of five states. My wife's company may offer a transfer to the Atlanta area. The problem is we want to live aboard a houseboat. We were looking at a nice marina up around Cartersville and came across a comment on a blog that is was illegal to live aboard in Georgia. A number of marinas in Michigan have a don't ask
don't tell policy and some openly welcome live aboards. What's up with that, is it the property tax issue?

Thanks for any info

 

[Jerryh3]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

I have an opportunity to transfer to the Southeastern area of the county, any of five states. My wife's company may offer a transfer to the Atlanta area. The problem is we want to live aboard a houseboat. We were looking at a nice marina up around Cartersville and came across a comment on a blog that is was illegal to live aboard in Georgia. A number of marinas in Michigan have a don't ask
don't tell policy and some openly welcome live aboards. What's up with that, is it the property tax issue?

Thanks for any info

Wow. Seems like Georgia is pretty strict about the houseboat laws.

 

[drrpm]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

That's the first time I've heard of that law though it seems like it would only cover lakes managed by the Corps of Engineers since they're public property. All the big lakes in Georgia are created by dams. Traffic in the Atlanta area is insane. I wouldn't want to make the commute from Cartersville to Atlanta anyway.

 

[Jerryh3]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

Looks like they may be considering easing up on the law:
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgi...lorida+Times-Union)&utm_content=Google+Reader

 

[Murfee]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

Atlanta is actually my last choice, but due to my wife's company policy we may be stuck with the location. Biggest problem we have is
that she's too young to retire and too old for job change. We're hoping that the powers that be will allow her to have a remote office at home. If that happens, then we could pretty much go any where in the Southeast and probably wind up in southern Alabama or Northern
Florida

 

[eavega]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

If Atlanta is your destination, be very careful about the area you choose to live in. I have had commutes living in different parts of atlanta that can be as bad as an hour to go 10 miles, to 20 minutes to go 18 miles. Traffic is bad, but the patterns are very consistent.

As to living aboard, I can't say as I've seen anyone making a permanent residence on the lakes I frequent (Lanier and Allatoona), but I do know that they will rent the houseboats for a week at a time at the marinas I use. Another alternative would be a lake house. Real Estate is hurting here in the ATL area, and you could pick up a 4-bedroom lake house with a dock for less than $350K. The southen part of Lanier is close enough to the city to make a commute somewhat reasonable depending on where you are going. There are some properties that are little more than trailers with a super fancy dock, where the "homeowners" actually live on their very fancy docked vessel, and the "residence" is used for storage.
Good luck with the move. If you do move to the ATL area, we may have to plan an Atlanta Meet-up
Rgds

Eric

 

[lkbum]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

The "law" is a Corp of Engineers regulation and only applies to Corp lakes which for the most part are most of the larger lakes in Georgia. Other slightly smaller lakes are owned and managed by utility companies, Georgia Power (like lake Oconee, Sinclair) and TVA (Blue Ridge Nottely), I'm not sure of restrictions on their use (but are a little too far out to commute from). Buying a house in North Georgia is currently the chance of a lifetime including lake front places as people are dumping 2nd homes.

 

[dailysailor]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

The DNR has passed a new law on liveaboards in Georgia.

As of January 1, 2012, if you wish to stay aboard your boat in a marina with sewage pump out facilities for longer than 30 days, you may apply for an extension beyond the 30 days. The notice doesn?t seem to have any limit on the length of time you can stay aboard, just the regulations relating to the boat and also to the marina ? you have to have a mechanism to secure your holding tank, the marina has to have adequate pump-out facilities, etc.

You can read more information at Georgia Liveaboards - Find the best marina to dock your boat

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Live Aboard illegal in Georgia?

The DNR has passed a new law on liveaboards in Georgia.

Welcome aboard, dailysailor. The changes proposed by the DNR are only for coastal waters. So it won't make a hill of beans for lake live aboards, which the OP is looking at.