Buying a Static Caravan
Once you find a site, that you think you want to buy a caravan on, you need to do a few basic checks before you take things forward. When you call in to see what caravans are available ask the site owners if there has ever been any flood or storm damage on the site. This will affect your ability to get insurance at a reasonable cost.
Check the flood map
Next check to see if the site is in a flood risk area. This is easy to do if you have the postcode of the site. Ask the owner for this and then go to one of these sites and do a search on the flood map.
For Scotland The Scottish Environment Protection Agency flood map. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the mapping system.
For England and Wales use the Environment Agency flood mapping system here.
From time to time these URLs change so if you find a broken link we would be very grateful if you would let us know so that we can keep the links live for other users.
If you are unsure exactly where the site is on the map you could try a search on http://www.multimap.com. Here it is possible for most of England and to a lesser extent Wales and Scotland to look at an aerial photograph with an OS map overlaid. You can then see individual caravans and see exactly where they are on the map. If you then refer back to the flood map you will be able to judge if your proposed site is at risk.
Low lying coastal areas of North Wales, Lincolnshire and Norfolk together with sites close to major rivers such as the Severn and Avon are particularly problematic from an insurance point of view.
You can easily check to see if Caravanwise is able to provide cover for a particular site by using our postcode system here.
Buyer Beware
The vast majority of static caravan - holiday homes are sold sited either by the site owner or in the case of second hand caravans sometimes by the owner of the caravan with the permission of the site owner. It may be possible to buy your caravan away from a site and arrange with a site owner to have it sited but they will require a significant payment for allowing this as they would expect to make a profit on the sale of the caravan and may charge a significant premium if they have a sought after site.
The price that you pay for a sited caravan will therefore be many thousands more than the un-sited caravan. You need to bear this in mind when you are buying static caravan insurance. The amount you insure it for should represent the true un-sited retail price of the caravan plus the cost of re-siting the replacement if it is destroyed or badly damaged beyond repair. Some policies require that you include an amount for site clearance.
Your site owner will have rules, written into your contract on what is to happen in the event of the caravan being destroyed. Some insist that you only replace it with a brand new equivalent model. If that is the case then it is important that you cover your caravan on a new for old basis to ensure that you are financially able to comply with this requirement in the event of a serious claim.
Virtually no one would consider signing a contract to buy a house without using the services of a solicitor but many sign up an equally onerous contract for a static caravan without even taking the time to consider its implications. Clearly you need to be careful and take time to consider if you do need professional advice before signing on the dotted line. In particular, though not exclusively, you need to make sure that you have security of tenure, that you are happy with what will happen if you ever want to sell the caravan and look out for rules that force you to buy a new caravan after a period of years. If you ensure that you fully understand what you are getting into then you can be assured that there will be no surprises and your caravan ownership will be a happy one.
The Office of Fair trading has produced a guidance document on Unfair Terms in Holiday Caravan Agreements which you can download by clicking the link.
"Buyer beware" is an old adage but very pertinent when buying a static caravan.