Caravan Insurance: Touring Against Static, Towing, and Storage Grading

A touring caravan spends its life being towed and stored; a static spends it in one place on a site. Those are different risks with different failure modes, and a policy written for one is not an approximation of the other.

Touring caravans: theft and towing are the two exposures

Theft is the dominant claim, and it is almost entirely about where the caravan sits when it is not in use. Insurers grade storage: a road, a driveway, a locked compound, a rated storage site, and the difference between the grades is large.

Security conditions follow. A hitch lock, wheel clamp, tracker or alarm to a stated standard is a term rather than a discount, and it must be fitted and in use. A caravan stolen from a driveway with the hitch lock in the boot is generally not a claim.

Damage while towing is the other exposure, and it is the one owners underestimate. Snaking, a clipped kerb, a low branch and a badly judged reverse are the ordinary claims of caravanning, and they are damage to your own property rather than a motor claim.

Towing limits sit on your licence, not on the caravan

What you may legally tow depends on when you passed your test and on the combined weight of car and caravan. Drivers licensed after a certain date face a combined weight restriction unless they have taken an additional test.

Separately from the licence, the towing vehicle has a maximum towable mass, and exceeding it is both an offence and a problem for a claim. The often-quoted guidance about staying below eighty-five per cent of the car's kerbweight is a stability recommendation rather than a legal limit, and worth following for the reason it exists.

Nose weight is the detail people skip. Exceeding the towball limit is the usual cause of snaking, and it is a loading decision rather than a specification problem.

Static caravans are rated as a small building

A static on a site faces storm, flood, escape of water and impact rather than theft in transit, and the premium reflects the site's exposure, coastal and low-lying sites price higher for obvious reasons.

The site agreement frequently specifies insurance, sometimes including a minimum liability limit and occasionally a requirement to insure through the site operator. Read the agreement before buying, because it can remove the choice.

Winter conditions are the ones that decide claims. Many policies require water systems to be drained during a closed season, and a burst-pipe claim on an undrained unit is commonly refused.

Contents, awnings and decking

Contents cover is separate and usually limited, and a static that is fully furnished can exceed the default figure comfortably. Count the contents rather than accepting the standard limit.

Awnings, decking, sheds and hot tubs generally need declaring individually. Decking in particular is frequently excluded unless specified, and it is a substantial value.

Anything left outside overnight tends to be excluded or separately conditioned. On a touring caravan the awning is the classic example.

Liability, which applies to both types

Public liability covers injury or damage caused to others by the caravan or by you while using it: a gas incident, an awning coming down on a neighbouring unit, someone tripping on decking.

Site agreements commonly require a stated indemnity limit, and it is worth checking the figure rather than assuming the policy default satisfies it.

Gas and electrical safety certification is often a policy condition on statics, and it is checked at claim time. Keep the certificates.

Before you buy

Establish which type you have and price it as that. Check your licence against the combined weight if towing, and check the towing vehicle's limits separately. Read any site agreement for insurance requirements before shopping.

Then declare the real storage arrangement, fit exactly the security the policy names, and count contents and outdoor structures properly. See the driven equivalent, the clauses common to every policy and liability cover in detail.

Depreciation, and why new-for-old runs out

Caravans depreciate steadily and settlements follow. Most policies offer new-for-old only for the first few years and only if the caravan was bought new, after which cover reverts to market value — and market value on a fifteen-year-old touring caravan is a fraction of what it costs to replace with something equivalent.

That produces a decision point people miss. Once a caravan has aged out of new-for-old, the premium is buying a market-value settlement, and if that figure is close to the annual premium plus the excess, comprehensive cover has stopped making arithmetic sense. Third-party and liability cover still does, because the liability exposure does not depreciate.

The related detail is how the insurer establishes value. Caravan valuations are less standardised than cars, so keep the purchase invoice, the service records and a few dated screenshots of comparable units for sale. That is what a valuation dispute turns on.

For anything older, restored or unusual, ask about an agreed-value policy. It fixes the figure in writing at the outset and removes the argument, provided you review the figure periodically rather than setting it once.

Frequently asked questions