Looking for Motorhome Insurance?
The world of motorhomes is a diverse one, from hugh American RVs to space saving Japanese imports, as well as coachbuilt, converted, ‘A’ class and home-built models, the choice is impressive, as is the range of motorhome insurance options.
Whether you use your motorhome as your main form of transport, for spontaneous weekends away or it sits on your driveway for most of the year ready for your annual family holiday, this guide explores how to get the right motorhome insurance for your vehicle and how to get the most out of your policy.
Types of motorhome insurance
As with all vehicle insurance in the UK, you have three choices of policy when insuring your motorhome, each offering different levels of cover.
This is the minimum level of cover required under UK law and only covers damage or injury caused by your motorhome to third parties.
This protects against third party claims and as the name suggests, damage to your motorhome caused by fire or theft.
The highest level of cover available, fully comprehensive insurance provides the same cover as third party, fire and theft and crucially also covers your motorhome against accidental damage that's not your fault.
What’s not covered
Clearly all insurers are different, but typically damage caused by the following are excluded from most motorhome insurance policies:
- General wear and tear
- Infestation e.g mice, insects
- Mould and mildew
Similarly standard motorhome insurance will not cover you to race your motorhome, hire it out in exchange for money or to charge for carrying passengers. All of these will require specialist policies.
Ways to save on motorhome insurance
Common ways to reduce your motorhome insurance policy premiums include:
Things to consider when insuring your motorhome
The sensible approach to motorhome insurance is to tailor your policy to your motorhome and usage. This is a good idea, firstly because it insures you are only paying for the cover you need and secondly because it means you have to check the small print.
Motorhome insurance can differ greatly between insurers, especially when it comes to what is offered as standard and what is considered as an optional extra. Taking the time to find out what’s included, what you don’t need, and making sure you have any necessary additional cover in place can save you a lot of aggravation in the event of a claim.
What to look out for:
- Cover for contents, personal effects and belongings
- Breakdown cover – does it include Europe or a replacement vehicle?
- Separate window and windscreen cover
- Cover for non-standard fittings such as fixed awnings, gas bottle and generators
- Medical cover
- European travel – does a timeframe apply e.g. 60 or 365 days?
- Legal cover
- Cover for modifications – is this like-for-like?
- Agreed value cover
Specialist motorhome insurance
If your idea of the perfect motorhome is the latest RV from the US or an amateur conversion you’ve built yourself, you will need to arrange cover through a specialist motorhome insurer.
High-spec European motorhomes and American RVs are increasingly popular in the UK. Japanese imports, for example the Mazda Bongo have always had a healthy following in Britain and so motorhome insurers should be able to extend cover for these with minimal fuss.
Whether you’ve bought a converted motorhome or converted it yourself, if your motorhome used to be a van or even a bus, it’s still possible to insure it easily with the right insurer.
If your motorhome is left hand drive this shouldn’t be a problem, just let your insurer know.
Motorhome Insurance – Useful FAQs
Yes.
Many insurers will allow this if you’ve just bought your motorhome, however it’s unlikely you can use a no claims discount on two policies at once, so your motorhome would have to be your primary mode of transport.
Yes
There are no laws against living in your motorhome, just on where you can park it. However you must tell your insurer if your motorhome is your main residence and be prepared to pay more for your insurance as a result.
Motorhome insurance and campervan insurance is very similar. Typically motorhomes tend to be larger than campervans and very often purpose built rather than converted. Generally motorhomes have more onboard facilities than campervans but there’s an exception to every rule.
Yes.
Since June 2011, under Continuous Insurance Enforcement law (CIE) it’s illegal to keep an uninsured vehicle unless it’s been declared SORN with the DVLA. This applies even if it’s on your property and you have no intention of using it, you don’t even need to be caught driving it, simply owning it without insurance is enough to be fined.
Don’t forget that the details of whether or not a vehicle registered in your name has been taxed, will be held on the Motor Insurance Database (MID).
This depends on the size of your motorhome and when you passed your driving test.
No.
Sadly not. Multi car policies can be a great way of managing your family’s vehicles and reduce insurance premiums and headaches. However it’s unlikely you’ll be able to mix vehicle types on one policy.