Thinking of hiring out my cali ?

Martin · Dec 3, 2017

I would avoid the pay as you go policies, try Alan Boswell

Fab · Jun 7, 2018

I'm looking into sharing the California with friends and family and am checking out insurance options. Dayinsure looks just the job - I would need to ask the hirees to buy their own insurance.

For those who have used Dayinsure, how do you describe your Calfornia. Is it a 'van' - and then you pick the right Transporter model. Or is it a 'motorhome' - where you only get an option to specify make, engine size and year?

They don't have 'California' listed on their vehicle types. Also breakdown cover appears to be only available for vans not motorhomes (it wasn't offered to me when I generated a quote for a 'motorhome').

reserves · Jun 7, 2018

Fab said:
I'm looking into sharing the California with friends and family and am checking out insurance options. Dayinsure looks just the job - I would need to ask the hirees to buy their own insurance.

For those who have used Dayinsure, how do you describe your Calfornia. Is it a 'van' - and then you pick the right Transporter model. Or is it a 'motorhome' - where you only get an option to specify make, engine size and year?

They don't have 'California' listed on their vehicle types. Also breakdown cover appears to be only available for vans not motorhomes (it wasn't offered to me when I generated a quote for a 'motorhome').

If you are truly just lending them your Cali then just add them as extra drivers to your policy.

Fab · Jun 7, 2018

Fab said:
For those who have used Dayinsure, how do you describe your Calfornia. Is it a 'van' - and then you pick the right Transporter model. Or is it a 'motorhome' - where you only get an option to specify make, engine size and year?

I got a reply from Dayinsure. They said

California should be listed as a motorhome, not a van
They cannot offer breakdown cover

This is disappointing as breakdown cover would be useful, and they do provide it for Transporters. So if a California breaks down, how might that make it more difficult to fix than a Transporter? Also a quote for a motorhome is roughly double that for a van.

Is there anyone else offering day insurance for Californias - and including breakdown?

Fab · Jun 8, 2018

reserves said:
If you are truly just lending them your Cali then just add them as extra drivers to your policy.

Thanks for the tip. I checked with my insurers and while they do offer this option, they charge an admin fee for each change of £19.50. They also recommended drivers are named permanently rather than temporarily. Each driver could affect the premium, and any claims will affect me, my policy and NCD. I therefore carry all the risk. Of the options available, this is therefore my least favourite.

reserves · Jun 8, 2018

Fab said:
Thanks for the tip. I checked with my insurers and while they do offer this option, they charge an admin fee for each change of £19.50. They also recommended drivers are named permanently rather than temporarily. Each driver could affect the premium, and any claims will affect me, my policy and NCD. I therefore carry all the risk. Of the options available, this is therefore my least favourite.

I added 4 family members at once, I think they charged me an extra £20 + admin fee, they are now on permanently, didn't realise about the NCB

paul-thompson · Apr 13, 2019

Hi all,

Reference

RealMrPorter said:
Given that some people in this thread are thinking about renting their Cali out I thought I’d share some of the things we learnt from renting our converted van out:

1 The cleaning between hardback and handover can be a pinch point (for back to back rentals, which you will probably have in the summer if you promote it well. We made it much easier by having two sets of ‘van-kit’ (bed covers, pans and cooking stuff, utensils etc) and simply emptied the van into one box and filled it again from another. The kit could then be cleaned ‘at our leisure’ so it was just a case of cleaning the van inside & outside.

2. Gumtree, AirBnb and similar local sites are great for low-cost advertising

3 Renting to the weekend crowd can be better for several reasons (most other rental companies only want to rent for a week in peak season, you can rent for a weekend and but almost as much for a shorter period. We even did a couple of mid-weeks in-between two weekends and so the weekly yield was better). The weekend crowd seem to look after things better, mostly they’re going somewhere to do something like climbing, riding, walking etc. They eat dinner in a pub and just make cups of tea in the van. The weekly or longer rental crowd seem to get more comfortable in their surroundings and take less care.

4 It was a pain in the backside for us when people returned the van empty (we’re some way from a petrol station). So we introduced a hefty surcharge for returning the van less than full. It came back full every time after that which saved us almost an hour driving to get it filled up and then back again.

5 You can increase your weekly yield nicely by offering driveway awnings - but just be aware that showing people how to put it up / attach, detach it and how to take it down and fold it up can be a time-consuming exercise … especially if they’re not seasoned campers

6 Including a couple of head torches is a low-cost way of making the experience a bit more premium - hardly any of our renters had their own and had not thought about needing them for walking back from the pub etc.

7 Another nice add-on is selling payg wifi dongle things. I’ve forgotten the company but there are several you can buy from wholesale and make another £20/30 per week.

8 If you have a bike rack on the back, put a couple of hefty bike locks in the van - this might just mean a potential bike thief moves on to another van rather than breaking the locks on the VW bike rack (which would be a pain to sort)…

9 We fitted the van with a dash-cam, under the rational that it would help our customers out if they were in a any kind of accident. I'm pretty certain this also had the effect of making them drive more carefully.

10. We also had a reversing camera fitted - useful if you're not used to reversing this size of vehicle

Great Tips - thank you.

Who do you take out the insurance with and how does that bit work? Do you get their name, details etc before hand.

Thank you

RealMrPorter · Apr 13, 2019

paul-thompson said:
Hi all,

Reference

Great Tips - thank you.

Who do you take out the insurance with and how does that bit work? Do you get their name, details etc before hand.

Thank you

Alan Boswell Insurance 01603 216346

At that time the headlines of the cover were:

· THE POLICY COVERS A MINIMUM AGE OF 23
· THE MAXMIUM AGE IS 75 (79 ON REFERRAL TO INSURER)
· THE DRIVER MUST HAVE HELD THERE LICENCE FOR A MINIMUM OF 2 YEARS
· 23/24 YEARS OLDS HAVE A £750 XS
· 25+ YEAR OLDS HAVE A £500 XS
· UNLIMITED EU USE IS INCLUDED
· NO GLASS COVER IS INCLUDED AT ALL
· EXCLUDES TEMPORARY VEHICLES
· EXCLUDES CROSS HIRE
· NO REFUND FOR DELETED VEHICLES MID TERM UNLESS PROOF OF SALE/ SCRAPPAGE/ END OF LEASE
· OFF HIRE DRIVING FOR COMPANY EMPLOYEES ON A NAMED BASIS IS INCLUDED
· COMPANY EMPLOYEES ARE RESTRICTED TO SDP USE OTHER THAN COMMUTING TO THIS PLACE OF WORK
· A MAXIMUM OF 4 DRIVERS CAN BE NAMED ON THE POLICY (COMPANY EMPLOYEES)
· WEDDING AND PROM HIRE IS INCLUDED
· LEGAL COVER OF UP TO £100.000 IS INCLUDED
· VEHICLES MUST BE OFF ROAD WHEN NOT ON HIRE

And the rules regarding Drivers / Drivers ID were:

THIS POLICY ONLY ALLOWS DRIVERS WITH A MAXIMUM OF 2, THREE POINT CONVICTIONS

For example 1 SP30 (Standard speeding fine) AND 1 CU80 (mobile phone offence)

If a client has more than this then please refer to us. We can do convictions such as DR10 IN10 etc. however this is normally subject to a higher excess

THIS POLICY COVERS HIRERS WITH UP TO 1 FAULT CLAIM IN THE LAST 3 YEARS

Again we can cover with more fault accidents but you must refer to us.

THERE MUST BE A RENTAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND THE CUSTOMER

KEYS MUST BE RETURNED FACE TO FACE OR IN A DROP OFF BOX

A VEHICLE INSPECTION MUST BE CARRIED OUT BEFORE AND AFTER RENTAL

A CLEAR AND TRACEABLE DEPOSIT MUST BE TAKEN FROM THE CLIENT (NO CASH)

2 FORMS OF PHOTO ID MUST BE TAKEN FROM THE HIRER
-----------------------------------
My suggestion is that you should be over cautious, Cali's are not throwaway bits of kit so if you have doubts then refuse the rental. It only takes one careless hirer to create masses of hassle (and maybe cost) for you, especially if you have rented your van out for back-to-back weeks.

Good luck !

Martin · Apr 13, 2019

Also a good tip is to keep a spare set of wheels as we once had a van come back with a slow puncture that was going back out again the same day.

Martscali · Jul 20, 2019

reserves said:
If you are truly just lending them your Cali then just add them as extra drivers to your policy.

Fab said:
I'm looking into sharing the California with friends and family and am checking out insurance options. Dayinsure looks just the job - I would need to ask the hirees to buy their own insurance.

For those who have used Dayinsure, how do you describe your Calfornia. Is it a 'van' - and then you pick the right Transporter model. Or is it a 'motorhome' - where you only get an option to specify make, engine size and year?

They don't have 'California' listed on their vehicle types. Also breakdown cover appears to be only available for vans not motorhomes (it wasn't offered to me when I generated a quote for a 'motorhome').

Try under "car" or "motorcar"

Martscali · Jul 23, 2019

RealMrPorter said:
Alan Boswell Insurance 01603 216346

At that time the headlines of the cover were:

· THE POLICY COVERS A MINIMUM AGE OF 23

· THE MAXMIUM AGE IS 75 (79 ON REFERRAL TO INSURER)

· THE DRIVER MUST HAVE HELD THERE LICENCE FOR A MINIMUM OF 2 YEARS

· 23/24 YEARS OLDS HAVE A £750 XS

· 25+ YEAR OLDS HAVE A £500 XS

· UNLIMITED EU USE IS INCLUDED

· NO GLASS COVER IS INCLUDED AT ALL

· EXCLUDES TEMPORARY VEHICLES

· EXCLUDES CROSS HIRE

· NO REFUND FOR DELETED VEHICLES MID TERM UNLESS PROOF OF SALE/ SCRAPPAGE/ END OF LEASE

· OFF HIRE DRIVING FOR COMPANY EMPLOYEES ON A NAMED BASIS IS INCLUDED

· COMPANY EMPLOYEES ARE RESTRICTED TO SDP USE OTHER THAN COMMUTING TO THIS PLACE OF WORK

· A MAXIMUM OF 4 DRIVERS CAN BE NAMED ON THE POLICY (COMPANY EMPLOYEES)

· WEDDING AND PROM HIRE IS INCLUDED

· LEGAL COVER OF UP TO £100.000 IS INCLUDED

· VEHICLES MUST BE OFF ROAD WHEN NOT ON HIRE

And the rules regarding Drivers / Drivers ID were:

THIS POLICY ONLY ALLOWS DRIVERS WITH A MAXIMUM OF 2, THREE POINT CONVICTIONS

For example 1 SP30 (Standard speeding fine) AND 1 CU80 (mobile phone offence)

If a client has more than this then please refer to us. We can do convictions such as DR10 IN10 etc. however this is normally subject to a higher excess

THIS POLICY COVERS HIRERS WITH UP TO 1 FAULT CLAIM IN THE LAST 3 YEARS

Again we can cover with more fault accidents but you must refer to us.

THERE MUST BE A RENTAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND THE CUSTOMER

KEYS MUST BE RETURNED FACE TO FACE OR IN A DROP OFF BOX

A VEHICLE INSPECTION MUST BE CARRIED OUT BEFORE AND AFTER RENTAL

A CLEAR AND TRACEABLE DEPOSIT MUST BE TAKEN FROM THE CLIENT (NO CASH)

2 FORMS OF PHOTO ID MUST BE TAKEN FROM THE HIRER
-----------------------------------
My suggestion is that you should be over cautious, Cali's are not throwaway bits of kit so if you have doubts then refuse the rental. It only takes one careless hirer to create masses of hassle (and maybe cost) for you, especially if you have rented your van out for back-to-back weeks.

Good luck !

Good of you to give so much information about Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers. Much appreciated . I have spoken to them and they quoted £1960 to insure my 2018 California ocean. However, part of the conditions is that I would have to get a Thatcham approved cat 5 tracker installed. Who did you get to install yours, assuming they insisted on the same thing ? Are there any VWcaliforniacub discounts available for trackers out there ?