A park home, also referred to as a mobile home is a detached bungalow-style home usually set within a park with other lodges, for example, a residential park.
When it comes to purchasing one of the many available park homes for sale, you will be buying the mobile home itself. However, the plot of the land in which the home is situated on, known as the pitch, remains in ownership to the site or park owner.
Furthermore, park homes built on a steel chassis and using a timber-based frame isn’t classed as conventional brick and mortar built properties. For this reason, the type of insurance that you need for the park home will be slightly different to the traditional brick-built property.
If you are looking to purchase a park home, ensuring that you are correctly insured is very important. Should you find yourself in a position where something might have happened, getting the correct insurance is essential.
Taking out insurance is not necessarily regarded as being compulsory, it is strongly advised. Insuring a park home will help protect your home safely and securely should damage or anything else happen to your home and its contents.
Park home insurance
When looking to take out park home insurance, you will be faced with having to choose what insurance your park home needs. With several different packages available to cover your park home, knowing what protection your home will and won’t need may feel a bit rather overwhelming!
Therefore, to help ensure that a park home is covered in the best way possible, take a look at some of our suggestions when assessing your park home insurance options.
Non-Standard Risk
The first point to be made with park home insurance, is that by insurance standards, mobile homes (another name for park homes) are regarded as being a non-standard risk.
To clarify; non-standard risk is one that your typical home insurance will not be able to cover.
This doesn’t necessarily apply just to park homes. Non-standard risk may also apply in instances in which your home may have previously been affected by flooding.
Perhaps a home has displayed signs of subsidence; this would also qualify as non-standard risk. There are further details about non-standard risk and what constitutes this at the Confused.com guide. Also read Towergate insurances’ page on ‘Non-standard property explained‘.
This is important to take note of as the type of insurance you will be looking for is a non-standard insurance policy that will specifically cover the requirements of your park home. Therefore always check that any insurance packages you are looking at are non-standard.
Types of Park Home Cover
Another point that you need to be aware of searching for park home insurance is the type of park home you will be purchasing and what you will be using it for.
For example, you may have bought a residential park home and intend to live on the premises permanently. On the other hand, your park home may just be used for holidays and consequently be situated on a different type of park.
Depending on what type of park you are located on or the specific category of your park home, this could affect the type of cover you need. For instance, our partners Towergate Insurance protect both park homes and leisure lodges.
Insurance Packages Can Vary Widely
As we already mentioned, there are lots of different insurance packages available for park homes and may vary widely from company to company.
While getting the cheapest deal possible isn’t probably the best way of going about getting the right insurance cover, equally this doesn’t mean that you have to opt for a package including everything under the sun which could be unnecessary and cost a hefty price, therefore do your research. You do not be sucked in by an attractive -looking deal or the extravagant salesmanship lingo.
So let’s now take a look at some of the features that insurance companies are offering and that you might want to look out for comparing insurance covers.
- Liabilities, including public and employer’s liability
- Cover for accidental loss or damage
- Fire, flood and general storm damage cover
- Accidental damage cover
- Vandalism and theft cover
- Contents cover
- Legal expenses cover
- Alternative accommodation cover
- Replacement locks
- Money and credit card cover
Tips For Getting The Best Insurance Deal For Your Park Home
As different insurance companies offer a variety of features included in their packages, a number of them shown in the list above, this can make it challenging to know which to go for.
However, the right research and the correct advice can go a long way in making the process of choosing the proper insurance for your park home that bit easier.
Please take a look at some of our top tips for ensuring that you get the best deal possible for your park home and that you are appropriately covered.
Compare Quotes and Packages
Although this may require a bit of time to research, it will help you to see what various packages are out there, and what types of features companies are offering with their insurance covers.
Research as many park home insurance companies as you can, and compare the quotes and packages that they offer.
While doing this, try and get a feel for the company and how they work. Do they look as though they genuinely care about protecting your park home? Are they making sure you have the correct insurance for your park home? Or are they just trying to get you to sign up and make a quick buck?
Check Your Specific Policy
As highlighted by Parksure Insurance, every insurance claim will be based upon the ‘specific policy’ being discussed. Therefore the type of insurance someone else uses doesn’t necessarily mean that this is also the case for your park home.
Therefore ensure that you have checked your contract thoroughly so that you understand what it entails and how this might affect the insurance cover you opt for.
Check The Wording Used By The Company
As briefly touched upon, it is essential when choosing insurance for your park home that you do not get distracted by a flashy sales pitch and or a money-saving deal that doesn’t end up quite being what you thought it was.
Amongst all of the wording used by the insurance company and their website, make sure that they are discussing your insurance in terms of a ‘residential park home’ or ‘mobile home’, as well as ‘non-standard insurance policy’.
Although this may sound pretty obvious, you may potentially be misled to believe that your insurance covers a park home when in fact the insurance policy only covers you for a bricks and mortar property. If your park home is not insured on the correct basis, then you run the risk of not being covered at all.
It is up to the customer to make sure they have chosen park home insurance, therefore doing your homework will definitely pay off.
Ask Questions
When assessing what type of park home insurance to cover your park home with, one of the best pieces of advice we could give you is to simply ask as many questions as you can!
Speak to the insurance companies directly, face-to-face may be beneficial, and do not be afraid to ask anything to do with covering yourself correctly and the insurance policy to the company.
Testimonials from other park home owners could be another great way of finding out what type of insurance would be best for you to go for.
Ask them what their park insurance policy covers and what experience they have had with using their company, as you might be able to find out some useful advice that the insurance company may not have made you aware of.
Lastly…
Do not just accept the insurance cover suggested by the site owner or office. Although the site may recommend a company or package for you to use, unless specified in the contract, the decision really is up to you.
Insurance really is an important element of purchasing a park home to get right in order to keep your park home protected in the best way possible, should anything happen whilst you are living there.
The type of package that you choose may cover you in a variety of ways. Therefore, it is essential that you have carefully consulted your individual policy and have understood all of your options.
It is the park home owners responsibility to ensure the park home has been insured correctly and using the appropriate cover.
Research and advice are the best ways to find the correct insurance for a park home. This is done through insurance companies and owners of park homes themselves.
Careful and thorough research will help to ensure a park homeowner is covered in the best way possible. You can see a list of Sell My Groups recommended service providers here.