My Touring Caravan Has Been Stolen, What Should I Do?

The shock of having your touring caravan stolen whether from your home or storage site can be rather distressing, but below are a few procedures you must follow to be able to claim through your touring caravan insurance.

Police report

  • as with any crime, you should report the theft of your caravan – whether it has been stolen from your home or a storage site – to the police as soon as possible;
  • the Police UK website offers an online form with which you can report the crime but it warns that not every police force currently operates online reporting, so you might need to contact the police station nearest to where your caravan was stolen;
  • either way, once the crime is reported, the relevant police force will issue an all-important incident reference number – a unique identifier for all future dealings about the theft, with the police, your insurer, or any other third party;

Inform your insurers

  • as soon as you have made your call to the police and obtained the incident reference number, immediately call your caravan insurers;
  • this is best done directly to your insurance company – their contact details, together with telephone lines specifically dedicated to reporting claims, will be found below or on your policy documents;

Ring your Caravan Insurance company

Amtrust Europe (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm) 0115 9349818
Chilli Underwriting (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm) 01444 817060
  • alternatively, if you arranged your caravan insurance with us here at Cover4Caravans, you might want to contact a member of our team on telephone number 01702 606301 – where you can be assured of our help throughout the claims process;
  • either way, you will need your caravan insurance policy number – which can be found on your policy schedule – and you will be asked to provide details about what happened, when, where, and at approximately what time of the day or night;
  • you will be asked to provide brief details of what has happened such as when, where, and approximately what time, together with the incident reference number given to you by the police;
  • as with any insurance claim, the more details – including photographs, for example, of the site from which the caravan was stolen – will be useful to your claims handlers;
  • you may also be asked to produce documentary evidence of your ownership of the stolen caravan;

Central Registration and Identification Scheme (CRiS)

  • every touring caravan manufactured in the UK after 1992 is registered on this database and since 2016, registration has also incorporated a VIN Chip in the caravan itself;
  • when you bought your caravan, you will have been sent the registered details, your unique VIN number and your CRiS registration document identifying you as the registered keeper;
  • that registration with CRiS is an important deterrent against theft, helps the police track down and recover your caravan, and – as far as any insurer is concerned – helps to confirm you as the registered keeper;

Tracker devices

  • if you also have a tracking device fitted to your caravan, you should notify the company of the theft;
  • some of these companies – such as the leading specialist Tracker – then work in close partnership with the relevant police forces to trace and recover your stolen caravan;

Formal submission of your claim

  • once all these notifications have been made by telephone, you will also need to complete a formal claims form from your insurer;
  • all the information you have submitted then forms the basis of your claim, which is processed by your caravan insurance company, a settlement figure determined, and that amount paid out to you;
  • during the process of settling your claim your caravan might have been recovered and returned to you but in a damaged state – it is important that you do not dispose of any damaged items until your insurance company has had an opportunity to inspect them.

As you might appreciate, therefore, it is a major inconvenience but not the end of the world if your caravan is stolen. Your insurance company is there to help indemnify any losses and, at Cover4Caravans, we are here to help steer you through the entire claims process.