Liveaboard insurance without a residence?

[free4all]

Here's an interesting one folks. We are looking to purchase a brand new yacht to live on permanently and want to get insurance.
The thing is, we have no residence anywhere in the world. Does anyone know a company who would look at us? The few I have checked out seem to want you to be a resident somewhere.....
We are 'based' in Europe and will be on the boat there.

[avb3]

Does anyone in Europe have a similar service as St. Brenadan's Isle in Florida?

Mail Forwarding Services at St Brendan's Isle

Many North American cruisers use it as their 'land address'. It may even serve your purpose for your insurance.

[Stu Jackson]

This looooooooong, but helpful

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...le-132838.html

[Akka]

"Residence" is in the eye of the resident. That is to say, you can declare yourself to be a resident of practically anywhere. That won't let you work there, or even go there without a visa, but it doesn't stop you from declaring it to people like insurance companies. To be on the safe side, I'd recommend you stick to countries where you're either a citizen or have official Resident status.

The only problem with having no residence is that insurance companies and such require a street address for your residency. When we first applied for boat insurance, the company insisted on a street address, which of course we didn't have. We called them and the Customer Service Rep said, "Well, where are you right now?" We told them where we were anchored for the night and she said, "So, give that address." We did, and no further problems ...

until they wanted to mail something to us. Most insurance brokers (such as our current one, Al Golden, al@imiscorp.net) will happily scan and e-mail anything you need, like the policy; but they also want to send it somewhere by mail. Most full-time cruisers have a mail drop somewhere, such as St. Brendan's in Florida, USA. We have a very long-suffering friend who lets us use her home address. She throws away all the junk and tells us about the rest. Urgent stuff, she scans and e-mails; less urgent, she saves until we fly back to the States or a friend comes to visit us. We highly recommend this approach!

Anyway, time to declare yourself a resident of your favorite country. Good luck!

[free4all]

Thanks for the replies. if proof of residence is simply a matter of giving them an address then no problem. We have plenty of friends willing to oblige. But if they want PROOF of residence (utilty bill, etc) then that is another matter.
Is just giving them a mailing address enough?
Also, any insurance companies you can suggest?
Thanks

[FSMike]

For utilities just have your cell phone bill sent to whatever address you want to use. Same for driver's license, bills, etc.

[pcmm]

When we were livingaboard (exclusively) we used a PO box business that let us substitute "Suite 227" instead of "P.O. Box 227" for all our mail. never caused an issue with anyone and made insurance simpler as we were "long term cruisers" not liveaboards. getting liveaboard insurance where I am is impossible if you tell them that you are livingaboard!

[DanDanDan]

This can be a trick with financial companies lately. Sometime since congress decided to save us all from the big evil banks they've cracked down on using mailbox services.

I've used a ups store as my address for years. I moved a lot for a while and it was just easier. It's never been a problem and it's even the address on my drivers license. Just recently I tried to open a new credit card for better points and they had a problem with the address. I just didn't open the new account, but that was the first time in 7 years it's been an issue.

However for boat insurance they didn't have any problem with it (took out a new policy this week) so I think it's just limited to financial companies. Until congress decides to save us from the big evil boat insurance companies that is. Then all bets are off.


Sent from an undisclosed location aboard my zombie avoidance vessel.