It’s a home that almost certainly cost you a significant sum, it looks pretty well just like a house, it’s your permanent place of residence, despite also having wheels, its not a vehicle – it is, to all intents and purposes a house like any other.
You might be forgiven, therefore, for wondering whether to compare car insurance or standard home building and contents insurance – as taken out by just about every other homeowner – for your residential static home insurance.
But that is likely to prove a costly and mistaken decision if your park home suffers loss or damage and you need to make a claim.
Here’s why:
Construction
- standards of design and manufacture of static homes is improving all the time – with the result that, in terms of appearance at least, there is little to choose between a so-called park home and a conventional house;
- despite their robust build – typically to standards achieved by a BS3632 Kitemark – a static home lacks the brick or stone walls and tiled or slate roof of a conventional house and therefore remains an example of non-standard construction as far as insurers are concerned;
- the park home – or even a residential lodge – is a particular example of non-standard construction and, so needs a specialist form of purpose-designed insurance, known as park home or main residence leisure home insurance;Plot
- unlike the freehold enjoyed by the owners of many conventional homes, your park home occupies a site – sometimes called a pitch – which you lease from the owners of the park on which it is located;
- you are the owner of your permanent static home, but it occupies ground which you lease from the park;
- your lease agreement covers all the respective rights and responsibilities of you and the park management and determines the manner in which your home is used, the condition in which it must be maintained, and even its age – conditions which might be said to restrict your freedom to make use of the home and, therefore, its value;
- these factors are crucial as far as insurers are concerned and a further reason why standard home insurance is unsuitable as static home or main residence leisure home insurance;Licensing
- not only are you a tenant of the static home park, with a lease on the pitch on which your home is situated, but the park itself needs to have planning permission and must be licensed as site on which residential static homes may be pitched;
- homeowners are advised to check carefully that the site has the relevant planning permission, since they might be forced to move if that is not the case;
- the park’s licence from the local council also determines matters such as the number of static homes it is possible to pitch on the park, the services and amenities provided by the management, and the measures taken to ensure the health and safety of residents;
- once again, the rules and regulations which shape the relationship between homeowners and park management also inform the type of insurance used to protect the static home – namely, static home main residence insurance and not regular home insurance;
The park’s insistence on insurance
- a condition of your lease is likely to be that you hold suitable park home insurance at all times – particularly the inclusion of public liability insurance (for the protection of other users of the park);
- the requirement recognises only purpose-designed residential static home insurance and not standard home building and contents insurance.
There is a host of reasons, therefore, why you may not use home insurance for your residential static home – but need specialist park home insurance. To find out more and arrange the cover you need at a competitive price simply contact us here at UKinsuranceNET. We’d be delighted to help.
