Caravan insurance:

1Agreed Value vs Market Value - the Setting That Decides Your Payout

Agreed value or market value decides what a total loss pays you, and you set it when you take out the policy.

• Agreed value locks in a payout figure when you buy the policy. If the van is written off or stolen, that's what you get (less excess), regardless of what the used market says it's worth that week.
• Market value pays what the insurer assesses the van would have sold for at claim time. Caravans lose value fastest in their first years - our depreciation guide shows a typical van shedding 10-15% in year one - so a market-value policy on a nearly-new van can pay out well below what you owe on the loan.
• The gap risk: if you financed the van with a small deposit, a market-value payout can be less than your loan balance. You'd be paying off a caravan you no longer own. If you have finance, agreed value (or checking the policy has a shortfall/gap feature) is the conservative play.

Agreed value usually costs a little more, and insurers typically step the agreed figure down each renewal. Check what the renewal notice does to the number - a policy that quietly drops your agreed value 10% a year converges on market value anyway.

The premium is one line of a bigger annual figure, and the rest of it is set out in our guide to what a caravan costs to run.

2Where the Van Lives: Touring, Onsite and Annex Cover

Policies price and pay differently depending on how the van is used, and the defaults don't fit everyone:

• Touring cover is the standard product - the van is towed, parked at home, and taken on trips. Check the policy covers the van while being towed (nearly all do) and note any conditions about leaving it unattended at rest stops.
• Onsite/permanent cover is a different product for vans parked long-term at a holiday park. Some insurers won't cover onsite vans at all; others require it to be declared. Touring policies can refuse claims on a van that's clearly living onsite.
• Annexes and awnings are the most storm-damaged parts of a setup and the most commonly sub-limited. A policy might cover the van for $90,000 but the annex for $2,000 - less than a good annex costs. If you run a full annex setup, find the sub-limit before you need it.
• Storm positioning clauses: some policies exclude awning damage if the awning was out and unattended in wind. It sounds petty until it's a $4,000 claim.

3Contents Cover: the Sub-Limits Game

A modern touring setup carries serious value inside the van: lithium battery upgrades, inverters, TVs, e-bikes, drones, fishing gear, Starlink kits. Contents cover is where policies quietly diverge:

• Total contents limit - often $1,000-$5,000 by default, sometimes extendable. Add up what actually travels in your van; most people are surprised.
• Per-item sub-limits - a $5,000 contents limit with a $500 per-item cap pays $500 on your $2,500 e-bike. Sub-limits matter more than the headline number.
• Fitted vs carried - gear permanently fitted to the van (solar, batteries, aftermarket suspension) is usually covered under the van sum insured, if you declared it. Undeclared modifications are a classic claim-time dispute. Tell the insurer about upgrades when you make them, rather than after the hailstorm.
• Theft conditions - contents theft cover commonly requires forced entry. Gear stolen from an unlocked van or from outside the van (chairs, generators) may not be covered at all.

4What Actually Voids Claims

Insurers rarely refuse claims for exotic reasons. The common ones are mundane and avoidable:

• Towing overweight. If the van was loaded over its ATM, or the tow vehicle over its rated capacity, an insurer can deny the claim - and after an accident, weights get checked. Know your numbers before you load: our tow calculator covers the vehicle side.
• Unlicensed or non-compliant setups. Unrated hitches, missing breakaway systems on heavy vans, expired rego - anything that makes the tow illegal gives the insurer an exit.
• Undeclared use - renting the van out (even once, on a sharing platform) under a private policy, living in it full-time under a touring policy, or leaving it onsite year-round. Each has a correct product; using the wrong one risks the whole claim, not just part of it.
• Poor maintenance. Insurers routinely exclude water damage from a slow, long-term leak, treating it as a maintenance issue rather than an insured event. Reseal inspections aren't just for resale value.

5Insuring a Used Purchase - Before You Tow It Home

The riskiest tow of a caravan's life is often the first one after purchase: unfamiliar van, unfamiliar weight, long trip home. Get cover active before you hook up, not the following Monday. Most insurers can bind a policy over the phone the same day with the VIN and your details.

• Buying privately? The seller's policy does nothing for you - cover doesn't transfer with the van.
• On agreed value for a used van, insurers will ask for the purchase price and sometimes photos or an inspection. A written contract of sale (see our used buying guide) makes this painless.
• Check the van's modifications are declared from day one - you inherit the disclosure problem for whatever the previous owner bolted on.

6The Seven Questions That Sort Quotes Fast

Premiums are easy to compare; payouts aren't. Put these to every insurer you quote with, and the field usually sorts itself:

1. Agreed or market value - and what happens to the agreed figure at each renewal?
2. What's the annex/awning sub-limit?
3. What's the total contents limit and the per-item cap?
4. Are my fitted upgrades (solar, lithium, suspension) covered at declared value?
5. Is there gap/shortfall cover if my loan balance exceeds the payout?
6. What's excluded while the van is unattended - at a rest stop, at a storage yard, onsite?
7. What's the excess, and does it change for storm/hail claims?

Common questions about caravan insurance