The owners of this Arkup houseboat say, “Our house is really a boat.” But officials in Miami say the boat is really a house, and are taxing it accordingly. Now, the owners are suing to prove the boatness of their houseboat, as the Miami Herald reported.
The houseboat in contention is an enormous rectangular structure that is docked off of Star Island in Miami Beach. It has floor-to-ceiling (hull-to-hardtop) windows and a deck (both in the house sense and the boat sense). It floats and it moves, albeit very slowly. It’s solar powered and has two stories. Arkup markets their “livable yachts” as combining the “best attributes of yachts, floating houses, and waterfront villas.”
“All the government has going for it is the shape,” the owners’ lawyers say. They claim the stakes of the case are high: “If this boat is a floating structure, that means all the other yachts docked around Palm Island and Star Island that are not used every single day to go cruising are subject to taxation.” (The horror.)
Is it a boat or a house? Tell us what you think in the comments.
