Two liveaboard boats were seized by CRT in Limpley Stoke on Wednesday 27th April.The two occupants are now homeless and are believed to be sleeping rough.
It appears that the owners of the boats either did not receive or did not realise the significance of any court documents that they may have been served with.
It is unlawful for a navigation authority to seize a boat that is used as a home without obtaining a Court Order. The Human Rights Act 1998 entitles citizens to have the proportionality of removing their home assessed by an independent court and to defend themselves in a fair trial.
CRT has powers under Section 8(2) of the British Waterways Act 1983 to remove boats from its waterways that are sunk, stranded, abandoned or “moored therein without lawful authority”. CRT deems that a boat is “moored therein without lawful authority” in cases where CRT has terminated or refused to renew the licence or where the boat appears to be unlicensed.
When a notice under Section 8(2) of the 1983 Act is served by CRT, it also serves a notice under Section 13 of the British Waterways Act 1971; this section enables CRT to remove and also demolish a “houseboat”. Many boats that CRT seizes are destroyed because they are not valuable. Those that are valuable are sold by CRT, often for less than their true value. Section 8 of the British Waterways Act 1983 also specifies that if the owner of a seized boat pays the costs of the boat removal to CRT, the boat can be returned to the owner. Normally CRT claims the owner must pay a sum of around £5,000 for return of the boat. Some former owners of seized boats report being chased by CRT’s debt collection team for CRT’s claimed costs of removal up to six years after the event.
The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law. Article 6 of the ECHR provides the right to a fair trial, and Article 8 of the ECHR provides the right to respect for one’s home. If a boat that is someone’s home has been seized unlawfully without a court process, the owner may be able to bring a Judicial Review to force the navigation authority to return it, and if they are on a low income they are likely to qualify for Legal Aid.
Most boats that are seized by CRT are taken by their contractor Commercial Boat Services to its yard at Greenwalls Farm, Dodleston, Chester, CH4 9NG.
Tags: 1983 British Waterways Act, Article 6, Article 8, boat seizure, British Waterways Act 1971, Commercial Boat Services, enforcement, European Convention on Human Rights, homelessness, Human Rights Act, liveaboards, Section 8
To report the above as the seizure of a boat, or boats, pursuant to the C&RT’s statutory powers under S.8 of the British Waterways Act 1983 is both misleading and factually inaccurate.
Neither S.8, nor any other Section of the 1983 Act, contains anything amounting to or resembling what the Law or the Courts define as a “seizure power”. C&RT’s well practised pretence that this is so, and every one of it’s numerous, frequent, and unlawful boat “seizures” is in fact in itself a contempt of both statute and the Courts.
S.8 of the 1983 Act empowers C&RT to do nothing more than simply to remove an offending vessel from the location where it is or has been sunk, stranded, abandoned, or left. S.8 does not empower the C&RT to either remove the vessel from the waterways under its control, or to dispossess a known rightful owner of it.
C&RT’s statutory powers to remove FROM a waterway or reservoir under its control are limited to ‘objects’, rather than ‘vessels’ or ‘craft’, as specifically defined under S.9 of the 1983 Act.