If you own a touring caravan you may be interested to know what makes up the main elements of a touring caravan insurance policy. The main elements are: Damage and Loss; Contents; Liability to the public; continental use; Excess; general exclusions. This article will give you an overview of each of these different parts of the policy.

Damage and Loss of a caravan are covered, normally up to the value of the caravan itself. New For Old cover means that you will get a new caravan replacement caravan, but this is normally only for caravans up to 5 years old. Market Value cover means that if your caravan needs replacing, you can claim the prevailing market value for your old caravan.

You often have to pay extra for contents and personal effects cover, and beware that it is normally limited in the things it covers. You will often find the following excluded: valuables; credit cards; bikes; photographic equipment; computers; phones; valuables. Policies also differ in whether they cover theft from trailer and toilet tents, and from awnings, and will only cover theft from forcible entry.

Liability to the public is to protect the owner in the case of injury or loss to the general public resulting from use of the caravan. This will often cover people the caravan is leant to, as long as it is not for business purposes or hired to them. The level of cover is normally between 1 and 2 million pounds, sometimes including costs, sometimes plus costs.

You must make sure you have continental use coverage if you are going to mainland Europe, as this doesn't always come as a standard. Some policies will also offer repatriation of the caravan (up to its insured value) and roadside assistance (up to a maximum amount). A number of the former Soviet block states are not covered, among them Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

The amount of any claim you must pay yourself before the insurance company are willing to part with any money is called the excess. To illustrate, if you made a claim for 500 and your excess was 200, then you would get 300 from the insurance company. If you up the amount of excess that you have on your policy, you will find that your policy will get cheaper.

All policies have general exclusions, mostly to do with highly unlikely event, but still important to review. Things like hostilities (war, invasion…), terrorism, pressure waves from supersonic aircraft, but also be aware that use other than social, domestic or pleasure is excluded. You will find that by and large these exclusions are consistent between the different policies available.

Carl Way is a founder of Caravan Insurance Cover, the UK's premier website for touring caravan insurance uk.