VATLP21600 - Caravans and houseboats: definition of a houseboat

The question of what is a houseboat was considered when DM & PJ Roberts (VTD 7516) appealed against a ruling that their mooring fees were standard rated as their vessel was not a houseboat:

In dismissing the appeal the Tribunal concluded that the vessel “was not designed solely as a place of permanent habitation and has not been adapted as such. On the contrary any work of adaption in the last 7 years has tended to make the [vessel] more suitable for use as a cruising yacht. The fact that it has up to now been used as the Appellants’ home while work proceeds would not be sufficient to bring it within the Schedule 8 definition of a houseboat.