If you have chosen to live in a park home, it may make sense to ensure that you have the most suitable park home insurance in place.

There are many reasons why you may need to consider insurance for a park home, and the least of these may be the fact that park homes are certainly not cheap.

People who may think that a park home is just a glorified caravan that just needs static caravan insurance may benefit from thinking again.

On the other side of the coin, if you think that traditional home buildings and contents insurance may be a suitable way of protecting your caravan, then you would be wrong. You do need specific insurance for park homes and trying to “make do” with a traditional home insurance policy could leave your home unprotected. This is because there are different risks that need to be covered.

What makes a park home

Although obviously built using different techniques and materials than a traditional house, a park home can offer just as much comfort and living space.

Another feature of park homes that makes them differ from more traditional homes is that they are sited on registered park home sites.

Permanent home

Park homes are permanent homes and so need specific park home insurance. This insurance will typically take account of the fact that your park home may be fitted out to a much higher standard than a caravan.

It may contain all of those expensive electrical items from washing machines and kitchen gadgets through to TVs, computers and the like. These are just as attractive to thieves in a park home as they are in any other house.

Static caravan owners are probably less likely to have this level of fixtures, fittings and contents and their insurance cover will reflect this in both the level of cover provided and price.

Location

As noted above, park homes have to be sited on registered park home sites.

Statics, on the other hand, need to be located on registered holiday sites. The two types of site are not the same and insurance for one site may not be valid for another.

This difference also gives rise to another major difference in the responsibilities of the owners. For example, as permanent residents in a park home, owners are liable to pay council tax.

Online caravan insurance providers such as ourselves may typically be able to offer park home insurance at the levels of cover you are looking for and at competitive rates.

New technology is generally wonderful as is anything which Apple make and launch! However trying to connect to my office PC from home is proving a very difficult task. Ii currently has not only got our IT department stumped but Microsoft as well. When you are running around at 100mph there is not much more frustrating than not being able to work when you want to, however I have faith in our team. Fingers crossed today is the day the problem is found and fixed.

The world of Caravan Insurance never ends, despite the onset of winter. This week sees us with an Audit from Lloyds followed by a mega busy Wednesday where I am trying to create some new exciting opportunities. The week only gets better though as we reach Thursday and Friday and a trip to Nottingham to see our good friends and partners at Amtrust. It promises to be a good two days for all sorts of reasons – especially for anyone who is involved with meeting up with me over those two days! New memories are bound to be created.

The new Phil DVD arrived on Saturday of his Going Back live gig in NYC. It is not a bad DVD but despite the passion Phil talks about it just doesn’t seem to transfer into the show itself. The music and performance are flawless but for me, as a real die hard fan, there just seems to be something missing. Perhaps its one of those shows where you just had to be present to get the real feeling. On the other hand as performers get older perhaps the raw energy just is not there anymore.

I could lend Phil come of mine – my batteries still recharge very quickly but as a 21 year old they should do shouldn’t they?

Have a great day and remember, absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Rich

Nobody doubts that anything claiming to be low cost or cheap has a tendency to catch the eye. There’s no reason to suspect that you as a caravan owner are any more immune to that when you see those great ads for cheap caravan insurance.

However, this may be something of a distraction from what may be really important – you getting the cover your circumstances require.

In fact, some questions need to be asked of any advertisement for cheap caravan insurance, including perhaps:

• given that what’s cheap for someone may not be cheap for someone else in a different caravan situation – who does the ‘cheap’ refer to;
• just what exactly is being provided for the money;
• how can something be considered as cheap unless you have been able to compare it in detail to an exactly identical product (and few insurance policies will ever be identical in terms of the cover they provide)?

There is no intention here to dispute sales language but rather to try and focus attention back to what may be really critical – making sure that there’s a good match between your situation and the protection the insurance is providing.

This is one of those things that may be better illustrated with examples:

• if you sometimes take your tourer abroad then cheap touring caravan insurance that doesn’t include European cover may not be of much use to you and paying extra for it may destroy any cost savings you thought you’d achieved;
• if the cheap policy doesn’t provide new-for-old cover on contents, then you may find yourself spending a lot of extra money if you ever have to replace them in the event of them being damaged or stolen;
• does the cheap policy cover as standard, the average annual mileage you may be doing?

Nothing of this is meant to imply that a bold advertisement for cheaper caravan cover should simply be ignored. What is important though is that its sales proposition is examined in detail and reviewed critically in line with your needs.

If you don’t, you may end up with cheap caravan insurance – or so it will seem until you need to make a claim!

With the leaves now falling thick and fast, it may be a convenient time of year to review your caravan insurance policy. You may even consider getting a static caravan insurance quote to make sure that your cover still represents good value for money in meeting your requirements.

Freedom of choice

If you have traditionally always bought your static caravan insurance from the owners of the site you may not feel that it is worth your while getting a static caravan insurance quote.

The fact is though that you are under no obligation to buy caravan cover from the site owners. You may find that even if they charge a fee to administer your own policy, in some cases you may typically still be better off buying from an independent specialist.

Winter checks

In any event, it may be worth having a quick flick through your caravan insurance policy to double check that you have taken all of the necessary precautions for the coming winter months.

You may find, for example, that your policy may ask that you keep your static in a good state of repair at all times. This is obviously especially important during winter when there may be an increased chance of damage to the bodywork from storms and high winds.

Draining down the heating and water systems in your static when you are not using it long term (particularly important in winter) may be another very simple but effective precaution against water damage from leaking pipes or from frozen pipes bursting, as well as an often mandatory part of your caravan cover.

Discounts

Some providers may offer premium discounts in certain circumstances and you may be able to benefit from these if you meet the requirements. For example:

• as you may be only too well aware, one of the main risks for static caravans is from flooding – insurance providers may typically recognise this and you may find that some will offer more attractive premiums if your chosen site has no history of flooding.
• with static parks typically closing over the winter month, thieves may become more of a problem – moving your static to a secure site may help keep it that bit safer.

Getting the right level of cover for your caravan is important. Getting a static caravan insurance quote may be the first step to making this happen.

Dear All

Well the weekend saw a family trip to purchase my son’s first shoes and what an experience it was!! I have to say that the Clarks staff are very helpful and made a difficult time easier. Regrettably my son was confused and would not move from his spot despite us trying dozens of old tricks. I felt sorry for him and it will be quite comical to look back on this in the next few years.

Dagenham certainly cheered me up with their first ever away win in League One with an excellent 3-1 success against Yeovil. Well done to John Still and the boys, and my loyal Mum, Dad and Sister who travelled down there. I feel relieved for them as they missed the Rochdale game stuck in traffic!

Arsenal also won and Chelsea losing made it a decent weekend for me football wise, we have Spurs next weekend though which is always huge!

Things are a little quiet in the office at the moment due to the time of year but we are working hard at helping out our customers and our renewals as they are equally important.

Have a great day

Mike