If you’ve bought a park home or static caravan, you’ll find that many of the specialist insurance companies offer policies for both. Make sure you buy the right type of insurance cover to meet your needs.
Being a residential type of cover, park home insurance by necessity offers much wider policy benefits than static caravan insurance. For instance, a good quality residential policy will replace a your home if damaged beyond economic repair with a brand new one regardless of its age. Whereas ‘replacement with new cover’ for static caravans is often limited by the age of the caravan be it five, ten or fifteen years.
Bear in mind under a residential park policy, you’re likely to need cover for all your worldly possessions whereas under a static caravan insurance policy you’re only likely to need to insure equipment kept at the holiday home such as gas bottles, pots and pans, bedding and garden furniture.
Also the amount you can claim per damaged or stolen item is often much higher on a park home policy – a park home policy should cover high risk items such as laptops and jewellery, whereas a holiday home policy in most cases will not pay out for these – instead a static caravan owner would keep these insured under their separate bricks and mortar household insurance policy.
A park home insurance policy can also pay out for longer term alternative accommodation for you and your family if you cannot live there due to an insured event occurring. A static caravan insurance policy will payout for emergency alternative accommodation if a caravan can’t be used for a planned holiday but only for shorter periods such as a few weeks.
Both types of policies are likely to offer cover for debris removal and resiting if the park home or static caravan need to be replaced, though you may find the limit of cover on a park home policy is much higher as the process can be more complex and costly. There are many more similarities and differences in cover between the two types of policies and of course between different insurance providers. The most important thing is to do your research and ensure the policy you sign up to meets your needs.
Leisuredays (a trading name of Caravan Guard Ltd) specialises in static caravan insurance and park home insurance. Leisuredays also provide insurance for holiday homes, lodges and chalets, including residential lodges and chalets throughout the UK and Northern Ireland.