My Static Caravan Has Been Damaged In A Storm – What Do I Do?

The very first piece of advice is don’t panic! That’s exactly why you have static caravan insurance – to put things as they were before, with the minimum of fuss and expense.

The second reason for keeping calm is that storm damage to caravans is a relatively common occurrence. Just before Christmas 2020 at a large caravan park in Northampton, for instance, 1,000 residents had to evacuate their homes in the face of freezing floodwater following heavy rain.

As a result of incidents such as these – and every autumn and winter sees them – your insurer or insurance provider – including those of us here at Cover4Caravans – have developed a suitably professional and business-like approach to handling just these types of claim.

Action stations

Having avoided any suggestion of panic, your next step is to contact your insurer or insurance provider as soon as possible to report the damage to your caravan.

At this early stage, you are unlikely to know the full extent of the damage, but it is nevertheless important to file an initial report just as soon as you can – you will put the claims handlers on alert to hear from you in due course with the full details.

Ring your Caravan Insurance company

Amtrust Europe (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm) 0115 9349818
Chilli Underwriting (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm) 01444 817060

The easiest way to contact your insurance company, of course, is by telephone and you will find their number on the policy documents of your caravan insurance.

If you arranged your insurance with us here at Cover4Caravans, you may remember that you already have your own dedicated account handler. You might therefore want to report the damage to your static caravan to ourselves in the first instance. We will help you to initiate your claim and follow it through with you every step along the way.

Sometimes, the claims process can become quite complicated and our sole objective throughout is to ensure that you end up achieving a full and fair settlement of your claim – in a way that returns you to the position you were in before the damage was caused. We will help you to do just that.

What you will need

To start the ball rolling when making your claim you will need to have your caravan insurance schedule to hand since that bears the all-important policy number that will be used throughout your exchanges with the insurance company.

You will be asked for the details about exactly what happened and the extent of the damage you have so far managed to ascertain. How bad was the storm, for example, what time did it hit your caravan site and what time did it reach its peak? Were you in the caravan at the time or, if you had evacuated to a safer place, when did you discover the damage?

In the best of all possible worlds, you will be able to illustrate your written descriptions of the events and the damage caused with plenty of photographs taken on your smartphone or camera.

Your report is invariably filed by way of the claim form you are asked to complete and return to your static caravan insurance company.

Repairs

To prevent any further loss or damage to your static caravan, arrange for the necessary temporary repairs to make it secure – by boarding up the windows, for example, and blocking fanlights and skylights.

Make sure not to dispose of any damaged items until the insurance has had an opportunity to inspect and has given you the go-ahead to let any such items go.

For your claim to be processed further, you will need to obtain at least two estimates for repairs and the replacement of essential items. The estimates should be forwarded directly to your insurer or to ourselves here at Cover4Caravans.

During the assessment of your claim, the insurer might appoint a loss adjuster, who will arrange to inspect the damage sustained by your caravan and report back to your insurers.

When the final assessment has been made, you will be notified by your insurers of the amount of the settlement reached.