motorhome insurance and secure parking (by Gill, August 2024)

We pick up Miss Daisy this week which means we need to sort motorhome insurance and secure parking ASAP!

Did you know that there are dedicated caravan & motorhome storage sites across the country where you pay a reasonable fee (circa £500 p/a) to park your beloved vehicle? I didn’t! In fact, some insurance companies offer discounts to customers who store their caravans at CaSSOA sites.

CaSSOA stands for Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association. It’s a trade organisation that regulates the caravan and motorhome storage industry in the UK. CaSSOA’s goal is to reduce caravan theft by promoting security standards for storage sites.

CaSSOA was founded in 1999. They work with storage sites across the country and independently assess each site for security, access, and amenities (if anyone knows me well, I love a certificate for passing an assessment!)

Insurance companies regularly assess members, and CaSSOA uses the results to assign a rating to each site. The rating includes recommendations for improvements, and the site is awarded one of four levels: Associate Ungraded, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.

When choosing a CaSSOA site, you can consider things like:

security features: Whether the site has perimeter fencing, CCTV, and security lighting
access: Whether the site has a single entrance and exit, and if access is controlled 24 hours a day

We’ve got a space for Miss Daisy here at Marsh Farm Caravan Storage. It was easy to sort. Luke found the place, I contacted them, we went for a walk around the site, reviewed the allocated space for Miss Daisy (and considered whether I’d be able to maneuver her in ok… in fact, our space is near on perfect for easy access / egress), and went through all the security aspects and signing up arrangements while we were there. Marsh Farm Caravan Storage is a CaSSOA gold site. It was a relief to have that sorted.

Now for the vehicle insurance…

We all know that car insurance has gone up a lot recently. If we deal with sorting our own insurance every year, we’re finding our renewal is going up around £200 for seemingly no reason at all (thanks inflation). So I was dreading what it would cost for me, with 3 points, and no experience in driving motorhomes to date.

I tried a compare the market style comparison website first, dedicated to motorhomes. I wasn’t surprised. Quotes were coming in at around £1300 for UK and European comprehensive & breakdown cover, plus legal. Remember, I’m also parking her in a CaSSOA site.

When you add in slightly lower mileage (as you’re not driving your beloved MOHO everyday), and security features such as a tracker, an immobiliser, and a reversing camera, this reduced the quote by approx. £300. OK, cool. But I’m not a fan of just going with the first option, so I had another look.

Dear Google, motorhome insurance companies… enter Caravan Guard, stage left.

Well. They wouldn’t actually cover me at all without knowing the security features on Miss Daisy, so I quickly got in touch with the sellers, they passed all the relevant information over within what seemed like seconds (thank goodness for email) and I continued with my quote online. £742 pa. All in. Everything. UK cover & breakdown, foreign cover & breakdown (subject to exclusions), protected no claims, legal cover, and emergency cover. Because they offer various discounts for security conscious people, including up to 15% discount for secure home storage. These are openly listed on their website.

All in all, it’s been a productive few days!

I hope this helps if you ever need to play out a childhood dream of owning and touring around in a motorhome xx

https://www.caravanguard.co.uk/
https://www.cassoa.c o.uk/
http://marsh-farm.co.uk/