It might be called a mobile holiday home, but mobility is probably one of the last things on your mind.
Once the static caravan you have chosen as your holiday home has been delivered to its pitch on a site of your choice, or if you have bought it already onsite, your “mobile” home is unlikely to be going anywhere.
To that extent, it has a lot in common with a holiday lodge or chalet – examples of which might even be neighbours of yours on the same holiday caravan site.
Leisure homes such as this need specialist mobile home insurance – or perhaps more appropriately titled holiday leisure home insurance or holiday lodge insurance.
Your mobile holiday home is not a park home
To all outward appearances, your holiday home might look just like other mobile homes you see permanently parked on sites where owners live in them the whole year around and not just for their holidays.
Unlike your holiday home, however, a park home that serves as a permanent place of residence, 12 months of the year, must be berthed on a park that has planning permission for such use and carries a licence granted by the local authority.
Whilst your static caravan, mobile home, lodge, chalet or leisure home, on the other hand, requires no such licence, you may use it as a holiday home only – living in it for no more than a maximum of 11 months in any one year.
That important distinction is reflected in the specialist holiday home insurance policies that we arrange here at UKinsuranceNET.
Features of holiday leisure home insurance
Whether it is holiday caravan insurance or holiday lodge insurance, you expect pride of place in any cover to be given to the dwelling itself – and this is precisely the case with the policies we issue.
Static caravan insurance safeguards your holiday investment against such major risks as fire, flooding, impacts, subsidence, vandalism and theft.
In the event of a total loss, you may choose between cover that offers settlement based on the current market value of your mobile home or, for a slightly higher premium, rest assured in the knowledge that replacement is as new (for a similar make and model, provided the insured mobile home was no more than 15 years old).
Cover for the contents of your holiday home is also included in such static caravan insurance – with a maximum insured value of up to £500 for any one item, up to £500 cover for the contents of your freezer, £500 for personal belongings and up to £250 of cash.
You are also indemnified by occupier’s public liability insurance for claims of up to £2 million made by visitors to your holiday home, neighbours or members of the public who may hold you liable for injuries – including fatal injuries – they suffer or damage to their property.
Your unoccupied holiday home
It is the very nature of a holiday home that no one is going to be living in it for – potentially quite lengthy – periods of time. The park on which it is located might in any case close for the whole of the winter season, so your holiday home remains empty throughout that time.
Recognising the heightened vulnerability of an unoccupied holiday home and the frequency with which it might be left vacant, leisure holiday home insurance typically provides protection during these periods of unoccupancy too.
