You’re about to buy that great new caravan for which you’ve been saving for months. But before you start choosing colour schemes and layouts there’s something far more mundane but just as important you need to think about: storage. Finding room for a car is difficult enough, but a van can be an even bigger headache – with space being short, neighbours grumbling, and all too often thieves playing a major part in your decision.
You have a number of options. Keeping your van on your driveway is cheap and convenient, but if you don’t have the luxury of space you can always park your van on someone else’s doorstep.
Farmers with a bit of land are starting to realise just how popular caravanning has become, so they are offering their space to be used for storage. The Camping and Caravanning Club and the Caravan Club also provides areas on selected sites. And then there are specialist storage compounds that have been graded by either the Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association (CaSSOA) or by the police’s own storage-assessment scheme, Secured by Design.
Your choice will be guided by financial, logistical and security considerations. You should consider whether or not you have space for your caravan on your drive, which storage compounds are available nearby, and how far you want to travel to pick up your van. You should also speak to your insurers to get an idea of what issues and costs are involved.
Despite the availability of all these alternatives, you should remember that home storage does have its benefits: you can keep an eye on your van yourself, and it is close at hand should you need to carry out maintenance or clean it after your holiday. Home storage also means you can load up your possessions straight from house to caravan, without having to lug them over to the compound before you set off on a trip. Perhaps most important of all is the freedom we caravanners enjoy so much: hitching up at a moment’s notice and heading off for the weekend without being restricted by complex signing-out processes at the compound.
However, if you do decide home storage is for you, you must check the deeds of your house. Covenants – legal clauses – became common in the deeds of new property developments from the ’60s onwards, and they may stop you from keeping your caravan at home. That means you must check your paperwork, otherwise a neighbour or the property developer could take action against you for ignoring the rule. Even if you find no covenant, you should consider your neighbours’ feelings towards your van if it is within their view. A brief discussion in advance is preferable to rows or legal battles after the event.
If you do have the space and desire to keep your van at home, you will need to take precautions to keep it secure. Your insurance company will almost certainly insist on some basic measures such as a hitch lock and or wheel clamp. You can lock your rear-corner steadies with simple devices, which will make it more difficult for thieves to lift your caravan on to their towing vehicle. Anything that costs thieves time and is noisy to remove will work to your advantage, so to some extent the more devices you fit the better.
Gates that lock and/or security posts also make effective deterrents as they are designed to stop thieves getting onto your driveway in the first place. Remember that security posts are only as safe as their mountings in the ground, so make sure you seek professional advice when you install them.
If thieves are really determined, then an alarm may help put them off. The most comprehensive systems use a combination of passive infra-red (PIR) detectors and motion sensors, either of which will cause a siren to sound if a thief enters or tries to move the caravan. The noise should be enough to alert you or your neighbours, and deter a thief. However, bear in mind that an alarm system is not guaranteed to deter a committed thief.
Despite the popularity of storing your van on the drive, one factor often puts people off this convenient option. Your van is not only a temptation to thieves in its own right, it can also jeopardise the security of your home. “A caravan can be a significant indicator for thieves,” says Alan McInnes of police-backed scheme Secured by Design. If this point worries you, and buying all the extra security needed for home storage seems daunting, you could leave it up to someone else to protect your van.
CaSSOA, the Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association, is the only organisation solely dedicated to the assessment of caravan storage. Sites on the CaSSOA register are graded gold, silver or bronze depending on the level of security measures used. To find out about CaSSOA-graded compounds, you can visit www.cassoa.co.uk or call 01670 359586. CaSSOA-graded sites employ a number of tactics to keep thieves at bay. The first is stopping the thief getting into the compound by having the right type of fencing and entry gate. Heavy-duty steel palisade or weld-mesh fencing are the best. Also, the space between any two fence posts should be less than the width of a caravan. There should be only one gate, which should be fitted with a high-security padlock such as a Mul-T-Lock series C or any lock graded between three and six under the British Standard BSEN12320. Ask the site owner what sort of lock they use on the gate and see if it meets this standard. Security lights, alarms and CCTV surveillance should be used as supplementary systems that come into play once the thieves have got into the compound. They shouldn’t be the first line of defence.
As part of the overall security of the compound, access to your caravan is likely to be restricted at certain times of the day. For instance, it is extremely unlikely that you will get your own key to the compound. Instead, you can expect to sign in and out, and the site will be closed at predetermined times each day. CaSSOA-graded sites are not the only places that will store your caravan; you could use the storage facilities of the Caravan Club or the Camping and Caravanning Club. These sites are not registered under the CaSSOA scheme, but they meet many of the same requirements and insurance companies are often more than happy to cover vans stored there – though, only after they have checked perimeter fences, access control and CCTV.
The Camping and Caravanning Club has storage compounds on 11 of its sites, but it is not keen on steel fencing, floodlighting and barbed wire because of its effect on the local environment. “We try to make sites as pleasant as possible, so clubs tend to use landscaping as the first line of defence in security,” says C&CC spokesman Peter Frost. “Earth banks are a pleasant surrounding to a campsite or storage compound, and they can be just as effective as a more obvious security barrier.”
The Caravan Club has storage facilities on 35 of its 200 sites, and they are all listed in the club’s directory. On the club website, the members-only area gives useful information on selecting a storage compound. Unfortunately, both of these clubs admit they can’t find space for all those who want it, especially on popular sites. In some cases you will need to go on a waiting list until space becomes available.
The shortage of storage sites has led many farmers and landowners to see a potential profit. They offer storage that is often less secure, but they charge far less. A specialist compound is likely to cost about £10 per week; a farmer might charge half that. Some owners believe the savings outweigh the risk.
When you consider these approaches to storage, remember that saving money on your storage fees can cost you money on your insurance premiums, which can vary massively depending on where your van is stored. Donna Kershaw of insurer Shield Direct offered us some revealing statistics. Vans stored at places that are not CaSSOA-registered account for about 50 percent of all van theft claims. After that comes home storage, which accounts for 40 percent. Finally, ten percent of claims are made for theft of vans that were in transit, on sites or parks, or on a CaSSOA-registered compound.
Those statistics impact directly on your wallet. Bakers of Cheltenham, Caravan Guard, Caravan Rescue, Coyle Hamilton, Drewe Insurance, E&L Insurance, Groupama, IGI Insurance Ltd, Insurance Brokers, Motor Caravan Insurance Agency, Saga, and Shield Direct all endorse CaSSOA-registered sites – and that means lower premiums. For instance, Shield Direct gives a ten percent discount to any customer who stores their van on a CaSSOA site.
The statistics also dictate the level of extra security conditions your insurer may impose – if they are willing to insure you at all. A hitch lock and/or wheel clamp is the most common condition. Shield Direct insists that users of CaSSOA bronze- or silver-level sites fit one or the other. Gold-level requires none – though the company points out that if you own the locks it makes sense to use them even on a gold-level site.
However, not all insurers rely completely on CaSSOA approval. Tourer Select has a different set of criteria that it demands you meet before it will cover your caravan. If your van is within 50 feet of your home it will merely need a hitch lock and wheel clamp. This reflects the importance the firm places on having the owner close at hand. And it will not cover caravans stored on farms or business premises. Tourer Select spokesman Graeme Hamilton says that while CaSSOA is a useful guide to a site’s security measures the company will always call up a CaSSOA site and check specific details over the phone.
And both hitch lock and wheel clamps would be required to be fitted.
Tourer Select believes the ultimate endorsement of security is the Secured by Design standard. This scheme is managed by the Association of Chief Police Officers and backed by the Home Office, and was devised to encourage sites to develop designs which incorporate anti-theft devises, as set out by the police. These include ensuring that compounds are set away from public footpaths. “Paths provide reasons for people to ‘graze’ near storage sites, on the look-out for potential crime targets,” says Alan McInnes of Secured by Design. Hamilton says it is almost a case of ‘no questions asked’ when it comes to Tourer Select considering whether to insure a van that is to be stored at a site approved by Secured by Design.
Storing a van is a major part of ownership. We all take our time choosing the design and layout of a tourer; you need to devote just as much thought to where it will be stored. That way you can be sure it’s still there when it’s holiday time again.