Insurance for the base vehicle while converting

samih

Put a deposit and planning to collect a Sprinter from UK next week and convert it myself over the next few months. However, the insurance turns out the be headache.

Contacted Stuart's with whom I had my previous van insured but they said they couldn't temporary insure the panel van. Liberty doesn't do any private policies at all and the rep there claimed that he has never heard of such a thing as anybody converting a van into a camper, go figure. He suggested I contact some brokers.

Would anybody here have experience in getting a private van policy from somewhere. Would hate for the project to grind to a halt just because a small detail like this.

colm_mcm

Would you consider getting the van delivered to your door, do the conversion and then insure it after VRT was sorted?

autumnalcore

That or Insure it commercial and cancel the policy. I insured mine commercial while converting left side windows til ready to vrt then bolted everything in and dolmen gave temporary cover while sqi'ing, doe'ing.

samih

The problem is that I got many replies from insurance companies and basically several have claimed that no company in Ireland will provide an insurance policy to a privately used van. Transporting just the van to Ireland won't work as I will still need to drive it to get to the VRT inspection to get it registered as a van first, which is legally required. Yes, I'm also prepared to tax the van privately for 3 months on the cc rate.

Liberty, Dolmen, Stuarts told me no can do and some others didn't even bother replying. The latter two even insure campers but this is one of these...issues. You need to have a business or use the van as an employee to transport goods for somebody else.

I rang to motorcaravan club of Ireland and they were really helpful. Hopefully I can get a 7 day policy through them so that I can actually get the van imported. But the cover will need to be arranged every time the van is driven on public road.

If this fails I'm planning to contact the Insurance ombudsman to force one of the companies to quote me for this legal requirement.

Hooked

Tis some pain in the hole, isn't it.

I'm in the same boat, well van. Private car owner... tried buying a car-van last year and gave up on trying to get insured. Bought a friends 2 door Astra, dropped the back seats.., installed cage. DIY 'car-van'

Just bought me a LWB T5, and learned from my previous foray into van insurance to tell insurers as little as possible. Pretended to be borrowing a friends van when test driving the first VW T5 (ball of ****e). Charged 40 quid.

Got 2 days temporary cover to drive the next one (that I actually bought) home - wasn't charged, go figure! All with Axa.

Allianz will cover me privately on a van BUT I have to give up my car to transfer over my no claims discount. Buy as I've my windows in and conversion started... what's the point! I'd have to cancel my car, insure the 'modified' van, then after its converted I'd have to reinsure my car to get my camper policy separate, after insuring / cancelling the 'van' policy.

What a joke!

The van is sitting in my drive, uninsured, until I'm done converting (which will be ASAP). It's a bloody disgrace, Joe!

samih

Based on the previous experience it will be worth it in the end and you'll be hooked, Hooked. Lucky you, actually have the van on your drive already. Let's see how this turns out to be. When I converted the last van 11 years ago I had only medium difficulty with this first step.

Edit: So looks I'm sorted with the motorcaravanclub.com for a temporary policy. It will be strictly arranged every time I need to move the van but at least it allows me to take the van back to Ireland and start the process. I will also be charged the full price of insurance even when I can't drive it. I think the issue here is that many people have milked the system in the past to get a van insurance on cheap via the club and the insurance companies have put a stop to it. That suits me just fine and will ensure I will get the basic conversion done asap, again stopping me personally milking the system.

Going to collect the van this weekend. Can't wait to get back campervanning next year and it's an intersting winter project also until then.

samih

Confirmation for the insurance arrived today and I will collect the van this coming weekend. Can't wait to start the project.