Cannot insure my caravan

Seasonal pitch insurance may be an option. Try NFU. 

As you can only stay on a site for 28 days (unless you find a friendly CL owner - look for builders vans) you are touring.  Will you be going home at weekends?

Personally I would not say I was living in it and just insure as normal

When at 'Commons Wood' recently there were quite a few vans with caravans, two were signwritten 'Murphy' so more than likely construction workers and could well have been working on the demolition of the adjacent hospital. Most probably insured as touring and no mention of work related business, so keep quiet and enjoy 

If the sign written caravans are insured under a standard policy any claim is likely to be turned down when the insurers see the caravan. Using it as a base for work is not covered and you need the policy extended to cover this.

I've had a busy day and so not been able to respond to any messages. I really do have to say thank you for all the helpful comments. I took delivery of my new (2014) caravan and have been slowly learning about it. I'll probably wait until closer to Spring before selling my old caravan. In the meantime, thanks again. I think my solution is to invest heavily into the Phantom Pro 3 Tracking System.

I have read my policy document as supplied (currently) by the CC.

General Condition 1 on page 14 states...."The Caravan must not be used for business purposes"

This is in my opinion a very ambiguous wording and very unsatisfactory. PeterT7 will not, afaik, be using the caravan for business purposes at all but using it for recreational purposes, ie living in it, shopping from it, cooking in it etc. but not using it as an office or selling goods from it or making products in the awning etc. So one could easily argue that the caravan is not being used for business purposes. What do Household insurers do with exactly the same exclusion? Do they state that as you are using the house to commute to work from then this is business related? No they do not. If you re using it as an office etc. then you have to tell them and they may or may not choose to accept the situation.

The CC need to explain their intentions fully with this wording as I cannot see anywhere in the policy where it states that the insurance only applies if you are touring. People like Malcolm do not use it for business but to commute to their place of work, albeit that he and Mrs.M are actually living in the caravan but moving it in accordance with CC rules.

My thoughts too.

I have read my policy document as supplied (currently) by the CC.

General Condition 1 on page 14 states...."The Caravan must not be used for business purposes"

This is in my opinion a very ambiguous wording and very unsatisfactory. PeterT7 will not, afaik, be using the caravan for business purposes at all but using it for recreational purposes, ie living in it, shopping from it, cooking in it etc. but not using it as an office or selling goods from it or making products in the awning etc. So one could easily argue that the caravan is not being used for business purposes. What do Household insurers do with exactly the same exclusion? Do they state that as you are using the house to commute to work from then this is business related? No they do not. If you re using it as an office etc. then you have to tell them and they may or may not choose to accept the situation.

The CC need to explain their intentions fully with this wording as I cannot see anywhere in the policy where it states that the insurance only applies if you are touring. People like Malcolm do not use it for business but to commute to their place of work, albeit that he and Mrs.M are actually living in the caravan but moving it in accordance with CC rules.

 

Would you want to risk having to argue that sucessfully if you were faced with the loss of your caravan. Having told them what you do with it and been told no it is not covered then it is not. You might get away with it if you had not asked but I would not take the risk and but doubt you would. You have to look at legal interpretations.

Wildwood, nowhere in  my post did I say that I would take "the risk". I wouldn't but the CC haven't made the position clear and I'm not even arguing in my post that the OP should take a risk, merely pointing out the ambiguity of the wording. I think the CC need to clarify their position, that is all

Hello PeterT7. Welcome to the Club and Club Together. As others have said, we have been living in our caravan all the year round but have a home address through a family relation which is a permanent address. As our family relation lives there all the year round, the house is always occupied. So we are classed as using our caravan for leisure purposes. We have work on a self-employed basis doing fast food deliveries but we don't use the caravan for business purposes. We use it when we are not at work i.e. in between deliveries, so it's used for leisure purposes. The time we spend in the caravan is effectively holiday or leisure time because we are not at work when we are in the caravan.Your situation seems similar to this so you should be able to get insurance through the Caravan Club like we do.

I hope that helps.