First time owner insurance advice

[G&E&FamCalifornia]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

 

[Mr T]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

Congratulations on getting a California.
For the correct answer you should ask Admiral what they cover based on the policy you have.
This question comes up quite regularly with varying answers depending on insurance companies and policies taken out at any given time.
Good luck and enjoy your new California!

 

[WelshGas]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

Welcome.
There are 2 elements to Campervan insurance you should check.
1. In the event of a RTA, road traffic accident, not only will the base vehicle be repaired but ALL the fitted furniture, gas, water, electrical and elevating roof be repaired as well.
2. When camping all the above should be covered in the event of storm or fire when camping.
I don't believe there is any policy available to cover damage caused by water leaks or gas leaks etc as in a Household policy.

 

[Californication69]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

Welcome.
Admiral. Don’t, is my advice, the stress and hassle of trying to arrange payment for a break in at the daughters house. 1 month on and they are asking for box’s and manuals of a Makita drill.
The drills 4 years old.
Who keeps cardboard boxes these days.
I’ve had insurance with LV for 23 years on and off.
They were excellent in a few claims I’ve had to make over the years. No fuss. No bother.
They are great. IMHO.

 

[scottk]

We have admiral multi car but they wouldn't insure the Cali as it was over 70k replacement value. I went with NFU Mutual in the end with their campervan insurance. Just about the same price as Admiral were going to charge me (until they couldn't) and 2 years new for old.

 

[RockinNRollin]

Surely the insurance should cover the repair or replacement of everything that's standard in the vehicle? If you crash (or are crashed into) and it causes damage to the cupboards for example, that's part of the standard fit of that vehicle - I'd see that being no different to the boot trip being damaged in a car. If it was a converted transporter, clearly that's a different matter, but the Cali is a standard factory model.

 

[WelshGas]

Surely the insurance should cover the repair or replacement of everything that's standard in the vehicle? If you crash (or are crashed into) and it causes damage to the cupboards for example, that's part of the standard fit of that vehicle - I'd see that being no different to the boot trip being damaged in a car. If it was a converted transporter, clearly that's a different matter, but the Cali is a standard factory model.

Ask them and get it in writing. You may be surprised.

 

[RockinNRollin]

Ask them and get it in writing. You may be surprised.

I would be very surprised if the Ombudsman wouldn't support the consumer in this case though; I think it would be reasonable under consumer law for a purchaser of insurance to expect that insurance to cover the named item. Unless the policy wording specifically excludes certain things, I think the insurance company would have a hard time wriggling out of that one. Of course, they might try but that's a different matter (I unfortunately have experience with home insurance of such wriggling, once the Ombudsman was involved they very quickly played ball).

 

[Steve1]

I would be very surprised if the Ombudsman wouldn't support the consumer in this case though; I think it would be reasonable under consumer law for a purchaser of insurance to expect that insurance to cover the named item. Unless the policy wording specifically excludes certain things, I think the insurance company would have a hard time wriggling out of that one. Of course, they might try but that's a different matter (I unfortunately have experience with home insurance of such wriggling, once the Ombudsman was involved they very quickly played ball).

I know when I was looking I was suprised by some of the wording in the more car orientated policies.
One example is esure I looked at their policy document

https://www.esure.com/sites/esure/files/inline-files/es_motor_policy_booklet_0.pdf

page 30
says

12. Motor caravans
Your policy does not cover: •
The contents of the motor caravan, except for its permanent fixtures and fittings. •
Loss of, or damage to, the permanent fixtures and fittings, unless the bodywork of the motor caravan is damaged at the same time. •
Loss of, or damage to, the motor caravan by fire or an explosion caused by the cooker, heater, lights or refrigerator or any gas or electricity supply to those appliances.

There were other similar ones which I had gone down the campervan route on their webpage (so not just quoted as if it was a car). I thought perhaps it has a different meaning but when I phoned I was told the wording was correct and if you had a cooking fire there was no cover at all !

For this reason I started to get quotes from specific motorhome companies and when I checked the wording was what you would expect. Like perhaps it said that equipment not installed by a competant gas installer wouldn't be covered etc.

 

[RockinNRollin]

I think that's probably fair from a motor insurance perspective and I probably wouldn't expect what is effectively accidental damage while in use as a habitable area to be covered by default as that is outside the usual scope of motor insurance (which I guess is your point!). My angle was if you crashed and it caused damage to the interior that it would be covered and the wording of that example does seem to imply that.

 

[Steve1]

I think that's probably fair from a motor insurance perspective and I probably wouldn't expect what is effectively accidental damage while in use as a habitable area to be covered by default as that is outside the usual scope of motor insurance (which I guess is your point!). My angle was if you crashed and it caused damage to the interior that it would be covered and the wording of that example does seem to imply that.

I agree, I think most have to cover all original fixtures and fittings if involved in a crash (perhaps not on a conversion but they should on manufacturer fittings) and the wording there definately implies that is true.
But for me the thought that a cooking fire or a mains battery charger fault could wipe out my whole van with nothing back in insurance at all was an unfeasibly high risk, so I paid up for a full on motorhome policy from a motorhome insurer (Comfort in my case).

 

[RockinNRollin]

my Cali is due to come with the VW insurance deal . . . it'll be interesting to see how comprehensive that is!

 

[Hawthorn37]

Many are happy with a standard car insurance from the likes of LV and report positive conversations with the insurer. We had a quote from LV which was about 60% of the specialist Motorhome companies. The main differences we found were, 1) New for old - 2 (or 3) years or 10,000 miles typically from specialists; 2) cover for camping equipment both in the van (not boot) or outside such as a tent provided; 3) valuables / possessions cover (our home insurance offered very limited cover, and standard motor insurance gave about £300 to £500 and only if out of sight). Given the high value of the asset, we went with specialist insurance, with Comfort (although several offered the same base policy from Aviva).

 

[trev0rk]

We have admiral multi car but they wouldn't insure the Cali as it was over 70k replacement value. I went with NFU Mutual in the end with their campervan insurance. Just about the same price as Admiral were going to charge me (until they couldn't) and 2 years new for old.

I was really impressed with NFU campervan cover (other than they don’t include free breakdown/recovery cover).
When I spoke to NFU they said that if you turned your van upside down and shook it, everything that didn’t fall out was covered as part of the vehicle, and everything else was covered by limited contents cover.

 

[scottk]

I was really impressed with NFU campervan cover (other than they don’t include free breakdown/recovery cover).
When I spoke to NFU they said that if you turned your van upside down and shook it, everything that didn’t fall out was covered as part of the vehicle, and everything else was covered by limited contents cover.

Yes, it was nice to speak to someone who seemed to know what they were talking about. I wasn't bothered about the breakdown cover as I have 5 years cover with the VW warranty.

 

[Peter Bucknell]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

I recommend talking to Comfort Insurance - they specialise in campervans and motorhomes and understand our needs - they also competitively priced, because if you are doing relatively low mileage, this is reflected in the premium.

 

[mikebravo]

Initially I found I could get lots of relatively cheap quotes but then I realised, despite specifying the make and model, that most of the insurers didn’t recognise it was a campervan and were just providing car insurance quotes. My advice is to take out a specialist campervan policy. It can be very expensive but I got the most favourable price from Adrian Flux and have been with them for three years.

 

[terrymulkerns]

I spent a lot of time trying to get quotes my fleet insurance would only insure the base van all others wanted it in locked garage when within 500m of home. Northern Ireland insurance market quite difficult to get uk company to quote ended up with a firm called caravan wise got a specialist policy at a very reasonable price it’s basically an LV product

 

[George Sharpe]

Hi All
We have just purchased our first California and took out insurance with admiral.
I am concerned that if something went wrong with the gas or electric that normal insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Does anyone have any experience of this / advice?
Thanks

I have used Comfort. Prices seem ok. They seem to understand campers. Easy to deal with

 

[BeachyBird]

We found the caravan and Motorhome club to be very competitive we are members but even if you have to join it still works out a lot cheaper than others and you do get other benefits of being members.

 

[Hawthorn37]

We found the caravan and Motorhome club to be very competitive we are members but even if you have to join it still works out a lot cheaper than others and you do get other benefits of being members.

Not in our case. CAMC was about the most expensive at over £1100 compared to £500 to £700 for the brokers offering the Aviva Motorhome policy (such Comfort, A Plan, etc). We are members too! The CCC were top of the pops at £1200. LV cheapest at under £300.

 

[G&E&FamCalifornia]

Thanks for all your replies and advice, think we’ll go with Comfort Insurance

 

[NessL]

Thanks for all your replies and advice, think we’ll go with Comfort Insurance

Check how many days your van can be left unattended in a location other than your home address. We had to pay for a separate policy to cover our van last year, when leaving for 10 days whilst on holiday.

 

[AndyP12345]

We are no longer Cali owners but still lurking fir good advice. Soon to be owners (tomorrow) of a 6M Burstner PVC. Just insured today with LV on their Motorhome Policy. Covers everything. Best to calm them to arrange. Price was very competitive. And you don’t need a tracker.

 

[Hawthorn37]

Check how many days your van can be left unattended in a location other than your home address. We had to pay for a separate policy to cover our van last year, when leaving for 10 days whilst on holiday.

The limit (without first notifying) with Comfort is 48 hours. However, I discussed this with them and they said that if you’re leaving your van in a secure car park (example airport long stay) then they’ll be okay to cover - but you do need to advise where you’re parking. If you leave it on a street etc they’ll have a problem. I couldn’t think of a situation when this would occur. If you leave in a hotel car park while staying there, again they’re okay and you don’t need to notify (They assume you’ll check on it each day). Seems reasonable to me.