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If you own a touring caravan you may be interested to know what makes up the main elements of a touring caravan insurance policy. The main elements are: Damage and Loss; Contents; Liability to the public; continental use; Excess; general exclusions. This article will give you an overview of each of these different parts of the policy.

Damage and Loss of a caravan are covered, normally up to the value of the caravan itself. New For Old cover means that you will get a new caravan replacement caravan, but this is normally only for caravans up to 5 years old. Market Value cover means that if your caravan needs replacing, you can claim the prevailing market value for your old caravan.

Contents and personal effects is often an optional extra, and is generally quite limited in coverage, so check what is covered. Normally excluded are money and credit cards, valuables, audio/video devices, bikes, phones, documents and computers. Forcible entry is also required to be able to make a claim, and also policies differ in whether they cover theft from awnings, trailer and toilet tents.

Liability to the public is to protect the owner in the case of injury or loss to the general public resulting from use of the caravan. This will often cover people the caravan is leant to, as long as it is not for business purposes or hired to them. The level of cover is normally between 1 and 2 million pounds, sometimes including costs, sometimes plus costs.

You must make sure you have continental use coverage if you are going to mainland Europe, as this doesn’t always come as a standard. Some policies will also offer repatriation of the caravan (up to its insured value) and roadside assistance (up to a maximum amount). A number of the former Soviet block states are not covered, among them Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

When you make a claim you will have to pay the first x amount yourself, this is what is called the excess. Should you make a 1000 claim and have a 300 excess, you would receive a 700 payout from the insurers (i.e. 1000 – 300). If you want to save some money on your policy, this can be achieved by increasing the amount of excess on it.

General exclusions are a feature of all policies, and are generally very exceptional circumstances, however you should still be aware of them. Terrorism, pressure waves from supersonic aircraft, and hostilities to name a few, but be aware that use other than social, domestic and pleasure is excluded also. Often the general exclusions are fairly consistent between the different available caravan insurance policies.

Carl Way is a founder of Caravan Insurance Cover, the UK’s premier website for touring caravan insurance uk.