CARAVAN INSURANCE

[bunny]

Has anyone who has or is renovating a property in France found a UK

insurance company who will cover a caravan kept at the French property

site.

[TheVicar]

We insured a mobile home through K Drewe of Bewdley, although they may

have changed their name to Spectrum Leisure. Having said that, we were

naturally on a camp-site whereas I presume you are on private land.

Having moved to France permanently our UK insurance had to be cancelled

as they could only insure UK residents, and we then found French

insurers much cheaper. If you can, it may well be worth investigating

the price through a French insurer (most any high street) but it is

possible that they can only insure French residents.

Good luck.

[Benjamin]

In the late 90's I used to insure a mobile home (static) on a French camp site for about £ 75 per year with the French insurer AGF. The mobile home was made by Willerby of Hull.

At that time I wasn't French resident. Presumably other French insurers offer similar policies.

Benjamin

[Esperaza]

Bunny,

Try Bakers of Cheltenham,  www.towergatebakers.co.uk , they used to cover UK caravans permanently on site in France.

If not, your car insurance will cover in transit 3rd Party insurance ( assuming that you will be towing with a UK registered car), but once on your property you would be uninsured but then with a French address you should be able to insure as a static with the likes of AGF without the need to register the caravan and getting French plates for it.

[bunny]

Thank you for answers. I will try Bakers and AGF.

Esperaza. Yes we are covered third party for towing the caravan down so at least there is no worry there, however do you know how high theft is of caravans in SW Fr? Where we are in UK the type of caravan we have just bought is difficult to insure because of the popularity of stealing them by the traveling community (according to several insurance companies).

Bunny

[Esperaza]

Theft of caravans in France is pretty much unheard of, mainly due to them having their own registration.

My Knaus has been permanently on-site in Beaune for 5 years, no incidents in that time.

Unlike the UK where my Fendt was stolen despite 2 Bulldog Titan wheelclamps, an Alko hitchlock and alarm system.

My present Hobby caravan in the UK is protected by a Tracker, 2 Titan wheelclamps, Robstop hitchlock, Supermule, conventional alarm system, sodium lighting during darkness and 3 cctv cameras to a time-stamped video recorder, oh! and roof marking. But the scum will still try to relieve me of it.

Never felt the need for this level of security in France.

[Frederick]

I gave up trying to insure my tourer...its now in the garden of the house in the Vendee un covered....Generalis  who covers the house would not touch it as its a UK  built van and the " door is on the wrong side ." as they said ...A  French broker could not find me cover and the UK brokers would only cover me out of the UK for  no longer than 30 days........my van has been in France a year now with no problem....  I now accept that no Frenchman would be daft enough to want to pinch a UK built caravan  .  

[Esperaza]

Frederic,

That is why I suggested insuring it as a static that will not be used on the road unless it is towed by a UK registered car, when the car insurance covers it for 3rd party risks,

Bakers were the last company that I knew to insure UK vans permanently on site in France but they have had a name change and may no longer offer this.

[Frederick]

 Hi Esperanza     Can you please post here if you manage to get cover.....I would love know who will do it ......I may want to use my van to visit other parts of  France and  it would be nice to know the van and importantly the contents can be covered ..

[Miki]

You wil not get insurance cover for a British van until you put it through DRIRE and they give its certificate of conformity..

It is illegal to tow a British caravan with a car on French plates unless you have had it passed at the DRIRE.

Forget the door on the wrong side, that is another error that always

gets mentioned. One can get a caravan through DRIRE with the door on

the "wrong" side.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Frederick"]I gave up trying to insure my tourer...its now in the garden of the house in the Vendee un covered....Generalis  who covers the house would not touch it as its a UK  built van and the " door is on the wrong side ." as they said ...A  French broker could not find me cover and the UK brokers would only cover me out of the UK for  no longer than 30 days........my van has been in France a year now with no problem....  I now accept that no Frenchman would be daft enough to want to pinch a UK built caravan  .  [/quote]

How strange... Generali  (though my broker Cabinet Moitier in Pornic (44)) insured my Swift Challenger without a murmour about 5 years ago for permanent  siting in France.  And still do. Expensive, though, about 350E/yr

p

[paul]

We moved to france in April this year and we are living in our tourer caravan.  We have insured a car and a van with english plates and our bailey caravan with Generali insurance.  we went through an advert in either the FPN or living france magazine.  We have since taken our health insurance with them.  We use the office in Paris and found an excellent lady called Maartje Schallk who speaks fluent english.

 

hope this helps