As a holiday and caravan park owner or manager, the quieter winter season is often used as an opportunity to run annual maintenance checks and undertake refurbishment to interiors and exteriors where needed.
This is also a time when it is important to make sure that your park and all its assets are properly protected against any eventuality. Holiday park insurance can help you to identify what your park insurance needs are, and to make certain that these are provided for with a cost-effective policy.
Here we look at some of the typical ins and outs of holiday park insurance.
Park Protect provides tailor-made insurance for the specific needs of your business
Insuring your caravans and property
Whilst Holiday Parks present similar risk to many businesses there are significant differences. Holiday Parks rely on the infrastructure on the park in the form of underground pipes & hook ups, access barriers, on site lighting etc and it is important that your insurance policy can cater for this.
Many holiday parks will also have holiday home hire fleet and holiday home stock and as such it is important that a parks insurance policy is able to cater for such units and also the debris removal and re-siting costs associated with replacing holiday homes.
These are just 2 of many areas to consider when insuring holiday parks and it is important that your needs are professionally assessed.
Covering yourself for loss of revenue
In addition to recouping the actual financial cost of rebuilding or buying new holiday homes and buildings, it makes financial sense to obtain insurance which will provide you with a cover for the loss of revenue or profit incurred following a material loss.
It is important that you seek professional advice in this area to make sure the sum insured and indemnity period are sufficient for your business needs and the period your business could be affected following a serious loss, such as a fire or flood.
Insuring yourself against compensation claims
Having members of the public stay in your caravans and spend time in your park on a daily basis also exposes you to other financial risks. We live in an increasingly compensation-based culture, in which some people are willing to sue for the smallest things. Though some compensation claims may be for fatuous reasons, there are also very real risks within any holiday park that could result in injury or loss.
Slips and trip type claims are possibly the most frequent examples of claims against holiday parks and they would be covered under a Public Liability section of your insurance arrangements.
One area holiday parks do need to consider is the limit of indemnity under this cover as the levels of very serious losses has increased exponentially in recent years and claims well in excess of £5m are no longer unusual. Crucially the limit of indemnity is set at the time of the incident but the ultimate settlement amount can fluctuate depending on the calculators used for such claims at the time of settlement. It is not possible to buy additional cover after the event and if your limit of indemnity is exhausted you would be responsible for the shortfall.
Fulfilling your insurance obligations as an employer
All businesses with Employees are required to have Employers Liability Insurance arrangements, which usually has a £10,000,000 limit of indemnity.
As with Public Liability, all Holiday Parks should consider higher limits of indemnity as it is no longer inconceivable that a very serious injury to an employee could exhaust this cover. The cost of arranging such Excess Liability cover is relatively small and should be discussed with a specialist Insurance provider.
Health & Safety
Reduce slips and trips in your park by observing good housekeeping and carrying out regular inspections. The quiet season could present an opportune time to review your health and safety procedures, processes and documentation, especially if you have refurbishments going on during this time which can present additional risk.
If any works are being undertaken by contractors, make sure the contractor is competent and can complete the work safely. In advance, ensure to obtain the relevant information from potential contractors such as risk assessments & method statements.
Size matters
Each holiday park will have different insurance needs, depending on size and a variety of other factors. A large-scale park with hundreds of caravans will have different policy requirements to that of a smaller family run park.
Park Protect provides tailor-made insurance for the specific needs of your business. We insure over 200 Caravan & Holiday Parks across the UK. We also work closely with our colleagues at PIB Risk Management who are able to provide the latest risk management and health & safety advice for your park. For further information and advice get in touch with our team. Park Protect – Dave Moffat, telephone: 01422 398610. PIB Risk Management – Russell Hatton, telephone 01422 398670.
24.01.2022 PIB0146