Motorhome Insurance – a fully comprehensive guide

One of the most important additional costs of owning a motorhome is your insurance. You are legally obliged to pay an insurance premium to meet the requirements of the law. You cannot avoid this cost, so finding the right insurance cover for your vehicle and your specific situation is very important. Getting motorhome insurance quotes is an easy enough process, and almost all insurers offer cover for this type of vehicle.

Types Of Motorhome Insurance

There are various types of motorhome insurance, similar to the different levels you will have encountered when you got insurance for your car or motorbike. You must choose between them when the time comes to buy your policy. Cost is often a factor, but it is always worth considering the highest level of cover that you can, to cover all eventualities. The types of motorhome insurance are:

Third Party

This is the most basic form of motorhome insurance (or any vehicle insurance) that you can get. It only covers you to provide compensation to third parties (ie. other people) for injury or damage you cause to them or their vehicle in the event of an accident.

Third Party, Fire & Theft (aka TPF&T)

This is a basic but often adequate form of motorhome insurance cover. It means that you’re covered if you cause injury to others and you are covered if there is any damage to a third party’s property. Additionally, you are covered if your motorhome is damaged by a fire, or if it is stolen.

Fully Comprehensive (aka Fully Comp)

This type of insurance covers you in the event of traffic accidents. It will cover the costs of repairing damage to your motorhome or to other vehicles (though there may be an agreed ‘excess’ involved, which is an amount you will have to contribute per accident). Fully Comp will also cover you for damage caused by fire, plus injury to you and your passengers, to pedestrians, and to other drivers and their passengers. Fully Comprehensive also protects you against damage caused by break-ins, and theft of the vehicle.

Laid-Up Cover (aka SORN cover)

Laid-Up Cover is for when your vehicle is legally decommissioned (ie. off the road for a significant length of time) and never driven on public highways. You must apply for SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) through the government’s website. If you drive your vehicle on public highways after you have SORNed it then you are breaking the law and your Laid-Up Cover is invalid, meaning you have no insurance cover at all – and the financial consequences of any accident will be totally yours to bear. Additionally, you will also be liable to prosecution. Dependent on the exact terms of the Laid-Up Cover you apply for, it should mean that any windscreen, vandalism and fire covers included in your original motorhome insurance policy (which would have been either TPF&T or Fully Comp) remain valid.

Additional elements of motorhome cover

There are often additional specific elements of cover built in to motorhome policies which would not be appropriate for car or motorbike insurance. They are things like personal motorhome contents cover (which protects you from the cost of the theft of any belongings kept in your motorhome), and awning cover (covering you for any damage caused to, or loss of, an awning in the event of freak weather events like storms).

There is windscreen cover too (covering the cost of chips, cracks or breakages to the windscreen), though this is also often also included as part of certain car insurance packages.

How much is motorhome insurance?

This is not so easy to answer as your specific motorhome insurance costs will depend on a variety of factors. We’ve briefly explained some of them here…

Fulfilling your obligations as a motorhome owner includes complying with the law which requires you to have motorhome insurance. This guide has explained things simply for you, but don’t forget that there are other costs involved in ownership, too (including road tax). Here at Spinney we are proud to stock a fantastic selection of top quality motorhomes – browse our website or visit us to check out your next dream vehicle. We’ve got you covered!