Insuring a home built caravan.

Hi Keith,
I can not answer your question but that link points to a site that needs to be logged into.
William

Keith, you need to find an insurance broker who specialises in insuring plant, machinery, equipment and vehicles.

That broker is best positioned to advise you on which company is likely to be interested in insuring your homebuilt rig, and he is the one you need to "talk up" any company interested in the deal.

Brokers have good relationships with numbers of insurance companies in the fields they deal in, and a broker is effectively a middleman acting on your behalf, to get you a satisfactory insurance deal.

I seriously doubt any company would insure a small homebuilt caravan for $140,000, but if they do, I'd imagine the insurance premiums would be steep.

The problem for the insurer, is that the owner and the manufacturer are the one and the same - and if any repairs are needed after a damage event, then who does the repairs, would need to be agreed on.
I would imagine you would want to do the repairs.

The fact remains that this is a severely limiting factor for the insurance company - because with a factory 'van, they have the ability to negotiate with the original manufacturer, be confident of parts availability, and the availability of the original designs, and the availability of the manufacturers employees (who might have even built it).

The insurance company also has the ability with a factory van, to negotiate with independent, skilled and qualified caravan repairers, to carry out repairs.
They also have the ability to supply a replacement 'van of the same or equivalent model from the manufacturer, if the 'van is written off.

All these things need to be hammered out, prior to a quote for insurance being assessed. Good luck, I trust you find a competent broker.

Cheers, Ron.

While I have not built a caravan I did build a sailboat from scratch.
This was required to be surveyed by a licensed boat surveyor before my insurance company would even consider it.

I should imagine something similar would apply to a caravan. Perhaps some kind of engineer's certification which shows what you have built is fit for its purpose and the workmanship is satisfactory.

You might also have to show that when the time comes to road license it.
Then, if it has gas appliances, they need to be certified by a licensed gas fitter.
Ditto for anything running on mains electricity.

I had my custom built motor home insured with CIL who wanted photos and didn’t ask any other questions.

Thanks everyone.
Keith

Keith
Have built several slide-on campers for myself & others & have had no problems getting insurance

A couple of things make sure you do

1) make sure its agreed value NOT market value, as they will not be able to market value it if you have a claim (& they will go to the lowest thing that they think is close & from experience they will claim that E.G., that great wall is the same value as your Rolls Royce) A costly fight in court & 11 months later finally I one but you still loose
2) Take plenty of photos & make sure they are date stamped
3) Keep all invoices
4) keep the Gas & Electrical tests sheets (do not rely on the plates fitted to the van)
5) Keep the engineers certificate safe
6) As your van is at the $140,000.00 mark, Pay a licenced valuer to value it
My claim was on an agreed value & I had all the documentation & still went thru hell on a total loss that was caused by a drunk, unlicensed, unregistered 16year old with 2 kids the insurance company knew they would never recover their money from the girl so they did not want to payout & tried every trick in the book not to pay me the agreed value, had I had a market value I would have got less than a 3rd of the insured premium