Park Home Insurance Buyer's Guide

It is a specialist insurance, designed specifically for the ‘non-standard’ construction and legislations relating to park homes. However, similar to ‘bricks and mortar’ standard home and contents insurance, it provides financial protection for your home and contents.

Your standard home and contents insurance wouldn’t cover you for a park home as it is deemed of ‘non-standard’ construction. That’s where park home insurance will differ: it recognises the specific construction of a park home, for example, being built on a timber and steel chassis vs foundations for a regular house. It also recognises that ownership of a park home is more complex, such that you can own the home but will rent the pitch, which in itself has associated responsibilities and restrictions.

Should your park home be damaged beyond repair, your insurance also covers you for alternative accommodation, re-siting of a new unit including site clearance, and connection to utility services.

What are the benefits of park home insurance?

Firstly, it is specific to, and recognises the unique needs of park home owners. Park home insurance protects your home and contents against most types of loss or damage, with straightforward replacement or repair, carried out promptly.

Essentially, we aim to provide peace of mind with our policies, knowing that should you suffer loss or damage of your property, we will repair or replace any losses, including re-siting a new park home.

• New for old replacement for life – our policies, regardless of the property age, offer new for old cover on your home. So, in the event of a total loss your park home will be replaced with a brand-new equivalent. This also includes all associated costs such as site clearance, re-siting, delivery, reinstatement of skirting, steps, outbuildings and your garden.
• New for old replacement on contents too – if you’ve chosen to include contents with your policy, again, we’ll replace any household items with new equivalents if they are damaged beyond repair. With any clothing and linens, the final value will take into account wear and tear.
• Temporary alternative accommodation - if your home is badly damaged, to the point it is no longer habitable, your policy will cover the costs of staying in temporary alternative accommodation up to a value of £25,000 or up to £15,000 if the home is lent or rented out.
• Blanket cover – included as standard with your park home insurance. It is there to give you peace of mind that should you have a valid claim, you will be covered up to the amounts of £500,000 for the home, and if you’ve selected cover, £75,000 for the contents of the home.

Optional additional park home insurance products available

• Key protection – if your keys are lost or stolen, we can cover you for replacing the external locks on your vehicle, park home or office. You can choose to upgrade your cover to extend to immediate family members, including named drivers for motor keys, cover for lost, stolen or damaged keys, including lock smith charges and replacement keys limited to £50 per claim, and onward travel expenses up to a maximum £300. Simply select key protection as an additional cover when taking out your policy.
• Excess protection – choose excess protection as an optional cover, and should you need to make a claim your excess will be reimbursed, for your park home policy up to £250 a year, plus motor, travel and pet insurance policies.
• Homecare emergency – there’s never a convenient time for a pipe to burst or your washing machine to flood the kitchen. With Homecare Emergency Assistance, you can call our emergency helpline anytime of the day or night, who have access to a network of engineers able to carry out any emergency repairs. If your home becomes temporarily uninhabitable, you are also covered for emergency overnight accommodation for one night, up to £200.
• Legal protection – you can choose to include legal protection cover with your park home insurance policy. It is designed to provide assistance and cover legal expenses, for disputes and misrepresentation relating to use and enjoyment of your home, the site and facilities. Plus, other personal legal protection against consumer disputes, personal injury and other legal disputes.

How to get the best value from your park home insurance

Towergate offer a blanket cover amount on your home and contents sums insured, up to £500,000 on home and £75,000 on contents, should you select this cover as well. Blanket cover is designed to give you cover up to the value of replacing your home and contents as new.

Review your insurance cover at renewal - Perhaps you have stopped playing golf and taken up cycling and have changed your sports equipment? Have you made any home improvements or upgraded your doors and windows? If you think you’ve made some changes which might affect your insurance, give us a call and we’ll adjust your cover accordingly.

Think about any items you may wish to insure away from your park home – items such as watches and laptops that will need to be covered whilst you’re out and about. Again, you’ll need to tell us which items you want covered under this feature. 

What is park home blanket insurance for your home and contents?

To ensure you have adequate cover in place for your park home and are not under insured when considering additional costs such as re-siting, Towergate provide a new for old blanket cover value of up to £500,000 for your property.

This is also the case for your park home contents. Unlike knowing your property value, your contents can be a little harder to accurately estimate the total value, and to keep track of. This is why Towergate provide a blanket cover value for your contents. It also means not having to keep updating your insurance cover every time you make a new purchase.

To find out more about sums insured and blanket cover, give us a call and speak to one of our advisers.

Insurance jargon buster

Here’s our run down of a few words and phrases which may be a little confusing.

• Unoccupied is classified as the below:

a)      Insufficiently furnished for normal occupation, or
b)      Your primary residence, furnished for normal occupation, and has not been occupied for more than 30 consecutive days, or
c)       Not your primary residence, furnished for normal occupation, and has not been occupied for more than 72 consecutive hours.

• Specified and unspecified personal possessions - separate to your contents cover, these are described as property which is normally worn or carried on or about the person in and away from the home, and that belong to you or for which you are legally responsible. Any unspecified items are limited to the maximum claim amount per item stated in your policy schedule.
• Excess - a payment you make towards a claim on your policy.
• Public liability - your liability to other members of the public. We cover the legal costs and compensation payments resulting from injuries or property damage to others, caused by you or your property.
• Residential park - a park that holds a residential license and is likely to be open all year round.

Park home insurance from Towergate

As a specialist insurer of caravan and park home insurance for 20 years, we’ve worked with our customers to understand what they want from their insurance. We’ve developed our product to offer a flexible approach to insurance, giving customers the ability to select additional products to meet their needs. We’re proud of our staff and their expertise, with a strong emphasis on training, academies and first-hand visits to the park homes we insure. Our aim is to give you peace of mind for your park home.

Can we help you with anything else?

As one of the largest insurance intermediaries in Europe, Towergate offer a huge range of specialist insurance products. In the leisure department alone, we offer insurance for; touring caravans, leisure homes, beach huts, marine and small water craft, and our hire car excess brand insurance4carhire.com offers hire car excess waiver insurance.

Park home insurance myth busting

"The park owner says I must insure the base upon which my home is sited"

It is not the responsibility of you as a park home owner, to insure the base. On any licensed residential park the base is owned by and the responsibility of the park owner.

"The park owner insists I must use the insurance he recommends"

There are no legal or contractual restrictions that mean you are obligated to use the insurance recommended by your site owner. Some parks will have preferred insurance partner agreements in place to recommend an insurer, but you are under no obligation to insure with them. It’s your right to shop around to find the best product for your needs.

"I don’t need park home insurance"

Although it’s not a legal requirement, you will often find that your park site rules require you to have a minimum of third-party insurance.

With Towergate you are covered for public liability up to £5 million, if someone suffered an accidental bodily injury on your property and looks to seek compensation. The public liability element of your insurance would support you financially through the legal process and any resulting court ordered compensation.

It’s also important to protect yourself and your home against damage and losses, to put you back in the same financial position you would have been before the insured event