Travel Tips

What to Look for in a Caravan Insurance Policy

Getting your caravan is insured is a vital step to take in order to protect you from any costs that may be incurred by accidental damage to your caravan, or by damage from theft or bad weather.

For most caravan insurance policies, you would have cover for normal damage caused to your caravan due to fire, bad weather, flood, accidental or malicious damage and theft.

Your removable possessions stored in the caravan will also be covered up to a limit defined in your policy (typically 300).

The possession cover will not cover small valuables such as jewellery, money and credit cards; these should be covered under all the risks section of your household contents insurance policy. The caravan contents insurance is intended for possessions that you cannot be expected to take with you such as furniture, curtains cutlery etc.

Insurance is there for circumstances out of your control, however you do have a responsibility to take care of your property to the best of your ability, for example by locking the caravan up at all times you are away from it. There will be no cover if you leave it open or if you leave your belongings out in the open.

By the same token, if you do not fit your caravan with a wheel clamp and hitch lock and it gets stolen, you will not be covered.

Check for restrictions due to the security on the caravan site. There may be different requirements for security, for instance an insurer might insist that a static caravan may only be stored on a registered holiday park (i.e. HPA or British Holiday Home Parks Association graded sites). In addition the insurer may insist that the caravan site is protected by hedging or fencing at its periphery.

If you wish to have you awnings covered for damage, then that is usually possible at a small extra fee, but usually depends on how old the awnings are. Typically, if your awnings are more than seven years old then insurance companies will not cover them.

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