The motorhome insurance market is changing – we reveal how and why in this year’s in-depth survey and find out who now offers the best deal on cover for your ’van
Words Richard Dredge
You don't need us to tell you that it's been another tumultuous year, so, unsurprisingly, it's been just the same within the world of insurance, which is why there's plenty to report on in our annual insight. Those taking part this year are Caravan Guard's Craig Thompson, along with Stuart Craig from A-Plan (Club Care and Shield Total). Nick Long from Lifesure and Mike Powell of Defaqto were also interviewed, alongside Ben Cue from Comfort. Ben's parents founded Comfort and, just like everybody else who I spoke to this year, Ben has many years of working in motorhome insurance. Thanks are due to everyone who gave up their time to share their expertise with us.
Every year in this feature there's at least one theme and this time around it's how the industry is shrinking in terms of the number of insurers in the market, despite the fact that motorhome ownership is booming. That might seem like a paradox, but the growing popularity of motorhoming is part of the reason why insurance companies and underwriters are withdrawing from the market; too much of the business is not profitable.
In last year's survey it was clear that insurers are under a lot of pressure from various quarters: poor parts and vehicle supply, an increase in the volume of theft claims, plus a sharp increase in parts and repair costs for an array of reasons (more on this later) are all problems that show no sign of going away.
Ben Cue says, "Underwriters are starting to pull out of the motor market, because of mounting losses. It's easy to think of motorhome insurance as a large and important sector, but in the grand scheme of things it's tiny. Many people assume that insurance companies posted huge profits during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, but they didn't. Motorhome thefts started to rise and there were lots of weather-related claims. When the weather did improve, as the lockdowns were lifted, everyone went out in their motorhomes and the collision rate rose sharply, leading to further claims. As if all this isn't enough, many underwriters invested in Government bonds to shore up their finances, but the value of those has plummeted. It really is a perfect storm, so you can see why some underwriters are pulling the plug on motorhome cover; they just can't make the sums add up, at an affordable price for the consumer."
To put things into persp
