By now you have probably heard all about our market leading coverage for your fourby. With tailored benefits such as off-road recovery, Australia-wide coverage, accessories cover and more – but what about insuring your home-away-from-home?
This week we will be talking about the way that we develop a sum insured for your caravan/camper trailer. You may think it is pretty straight forward – just insure it for what you paid for it, or what it is currently insured for now. No worries right?
Here at Club 4X4 we like to tinker. We’ve noticed our customers are the same! So ask yourself, does your current insurance policy cover for any accessories or modifications you’ve made to your trailer? Does it cover your camping gear and personal effects inside? Does it cover my annexe walls? If you’re not sure, read on to see how we do it.
- Determining a value for the caravan/camper trailer
This can represent the purchase price if you bought it in the last 12 months, a current sum insured with another insurer or a written valuation from an authorised dealer/repairer. This can be in an agreed or market value format.
- Factoring any non-standard accessories/modifications into the value
Have you added extra jerry can holders? Gas heating? A storage box? If yes, we will ask you to note the replacement cost (including labour!) ON TOP OF the value of your caravan/camper trailer.
- Do you have additional annexe walls?
If you have opted for an annexe as an extra for your home-away-from-home, each policy comes with an automatic $2,000 of coverage towards this. You can take out larger options up to $7,500 for your annexe if you got “tick happy” at the dealership! Even though most people will agree that the annexe will spend most of its life packed up and tucked away, this is important to have covered on your policy!!!
- What items may be inside the caravan/camper trailer?
When travelling you are likely to take camping gear, clothing, cameras, fishing equipment, bicycles and all sorts of other essentials with you. For this reason, you get $1000 of coverage for your contents in the basic policy form. If you’re travelling heavy then you can opt to increase this to $5,000 or $10,000 in value at an extra cost.
So, going back to our question earlier in the piece – would you be adequately covered if you simply insured your van for market or agreed value? You could be a fair way off the mark when it comes to replacing your trailer if you don’t consider the above inclusions. See below for a case study:
You have purchased a new caravan for $50,000. At the dealership you opt for the full annexe with an extra room for the kids valued at $3,500. As you are planning to do the High Country in the colder months you go and spend $2,500 to have the gas heating installed for those frosty nights. On top of all of this, you have $4,000 worth of camping gear inside the caravan.
As you can see, the initial $50,000 for the standard Caravan can get blown out of the water fairly quickly with an additional $10,000 of value added on, or into the caravan by the time it is loaded and ready to go for a trip.
And then… the unthinkable. Your brand-new caravan, all packed and ready to go for your first trip gets written off or stolen. But that’s not all, you realise that your sum insured only enables you to replace the caravan in its original state – not the additional $10,000 you have spent on top.
This is why it is important to factor ANYTHING non-standard into your sum insured and ask your insurer if they will give you the extra value. After all, the idea behind insurance is to put you back in the same or a similar position that you were prior to the event occurring.
To get a quote, click the link here or give us a call on 1800 CLUB4X4.
Until next week,
Happy touring!
