Static caravan insurance quotes relate to the provision of financial protection for the significant financial investment that your static caravan may constitute.

A static caravan

A static caravan is relatively commonplace and therefore definitions between insurance providers may be broadly similar.

They may typically see it as a caravan used for a few weeks a year for holidays and other forms of recreational pastime.

The caravans may be theoretically mobile in that they have wheels, however, they will typically be semi-permanently anchored and secured to a single location on the caravan site.  Some policies may require that they are fully jacked up off of their wheels and anchored using specified methods and materials.

In some cases, insurance providers may also require that the caravan be connected to mains services.

It is worth being aware that static caravan insurance quotes are typically not applicable in situations where you are living in your caravan on a permanent basis.

You may also need to make additional insurance arrangements in situations where you are considering letting out your caravan to others for commercial reasons.

The cover required

Each individual caravan owner needs to ask him or herself the question as to how they see the risks and what insurance cover they regard as being the minimum to enable them to sleep easily at night.

The caravan cover provided by insurance providers may come under certain generic headings that are broadly familiar (the caravan, its contents and third party liability) but within those headings there may be significant variations and subtleties meaning that one policy may prove to be more suitable for you than another.

For example, policies may adopt quite different approaches to the subject of discounts.

These discounts may be available for a number of different things but some insurance providers may be more flexible than others.  Some, for example, may offer the caravan club insurance discounts if you are a member.

Shopping around

A major indication of the different approaches adopted by different insurance providers is that it typically pays to shop around and to examine a number of different static caravan insurance quotes.  There may be no obvious reason why you should jump to accept a single quotation from a single insurer.

If you are getting static caravan insurance quotes it may be easier if you have all the information you need before you begin. You may find that insurers will typically need to know:

• your name;
• your address;
• your telephone number;
• the make, model and age of your caravan;
• whether you have an alarm fitted;
• where the caravan is kept; and
• the value of the contents of your caravan.

Some owners of static caravan sites may try to insist that you purchase caravan cover from them, but it is not obligatory. Before you are tempted to buy your cover from them, you may wish to shop around first. Looking around for other quotes may not take you very long, but may save you money in the long run.

Do note that if you do choose to buy your static home insurance elsewhere, the site owner may ask for sight of your insurance schedule and may charge you a fee. Even if you are charged a fee by your site owner for not taking his caravan cover, you may find that by taking cover elsewhere, you still save money overall.
So it is worth investigating all your options.

What are you looking for?
Now that you have a few static caravan insurance quotes, how do you compare them? You may wish to weigh up a number of considerations before you make your final decision, based on cost, service and cover.

Cost
You may wish to check that you are taking advantage of as many discounts as possible. In particular, have you told the insurer about all the security features you have installed? Is your site a member of any scheme that recognises secure sites? These are factors that insurers may take into account when deciding what to charge for static caravan insurance.

Service
After a successful claim, how long does the insurer typically take to pay for repairs or replace missing items? How helpful have you found their staff when you have been investigating insurance? An insurer that looks after you before you are even a customer may make a good impression when you are collecting static caravan insurance quotes.

Do you have any obligations under the cover?
A full static caravan insurance quote may come with a draft policy attached. When you are checking this for details of the exclusions and limitations, you may wish to check also whether there are any obligations on you as an owner.

For instance, the insurer may expect you to maintain the caravan in good order. And, some static caravan parks close for the winter. While static holiday home insurance cover may typically continue throughout the colder seasons, you may as an owner be obliged to drain any central heating system in the van to minimise the risk of damage caused by burst pipes.

Cover
Finally but perhaps most importantly there is the issue of cover. What risks does the insurer cover? The exact list may vary between providers but the perils that usually crop up may include things like fire, storm, flood, theft etc. Some providers, such as ourselves, provide cover for malicious damage – note that this is not commonplace and may be a valuable element of cover to have.

Static caravan insurance quotes may typically be given for a combination of structural and contents cover. For contents cover, you may wish to make sure about whether any valuable items are included, as some insurers have limits on single items.