Becoming a full-time RVer: insurance basics

A recreational vehicle used for holidays is insured as a vehicle with some extra parts. A recreational vehicle you live in is a house that moves, and the standard RV policy assumes you have another house somewhere with a homeowner policy on it. Full-time living removes that assumption. The liability coverage a homeowner policy provided when a guest tripped, the contents coverage for everything you own, the loss-of-use payments that put you in a hotel after a fire: all of those were on a policy that ends when the house sells.

This guide explains what a full-timer RV policy does that a standard one does not, why the domicile state matters and how it is chosen, what to do with the auto, health, life and umbrella policies that were rated on the old address, the order of operations between selling the house and hitting the road, and the situations where the answer is a different policy altogether.

What a full-timer policy adds

Full-timer coverage is an endorsement or a distinct policy form, depending on the carrier, and it replaces the parts of a homeowner policy that a full-time RVer no longer has. Personal liability that follows you as a resident of the RV, rather than only as its driver, so a visitor injured at the campsite or a dog bite at a rally is covered. A higher contents limit for personal effects, because the RV now holds everything rather than a weekend's worth. Emergency expense or loss-of-use coverage that pays for lodging when the rig is out of service after a covered loss. Coverage for the attached and detached items that make the site a home: awnings, satellite dishes, screen rooms, a storage shed at a seasonal site.

Most full-timer forms also require, or offer, replacement cost on the contents and a stated or agreed value on the rig, which matters more when it is your only home and cannot be replaced from a drawer of savings after a total loss. A standard policy paying actual cash value on a ten-year-old motorhome leaves a full-timer with a cheque and no home; an agreed value policy pays the figure on the declarations page.

Carriers define full-time by days of use, commonly a threshold of months per year in the rig, and they ask on the application. Living in the RV under a standard policy is a misrepresentation that can void a claim, so the disclosure is the first step, not a detail.

Domicile: the state the policy is written in

Every policy is written under one state's rules, and for a household with no fixed address that state is the domicile: where the vehicles are registered, where the driver licences are issued, where taxes are filed and where mail is received. Full-time RVers commonly choose a domicile for its registration cost, its income tax and its rules on mail-forwarding addresses, and the insurance follows that choice. The carrier will ask for the domicile address, will rate the policy on it, and may ask whether the RV is ever garaged there.

Within the four states the agency serves, the choice changes the coverage. Utah is a no-fault state whose auto policies carry personal injury protection, so a rig and a tow car domiciled there carry it; Arizona, Nevada and Idaho are at-fault states where medical payments coverage is optional. Registration and the state's insurance verification requirements differ, and a domicile that requires an in-person inspection or a physical presence at intervals is a logistical problem for someone spending winters in Yuma and summers in Coeur d'Alene. The state's rules on residency for licensing purposes are the ones to read before choosing, and the choice should be made before the house sells so the policies can be written there from the start.

A mail-forwarding address is not a garaging address, and a carrier that discovers the rig is never near the domicile may reprice or rewrite. Full-timer carriers are used to this; a carrier writing a standard RV policy is not. Choose the carrier for the way you actually live.

The policies rated on the old address

Everything else in the insurance file was written for a house that is about to be sold. Each needs a decision.

• Homeowner policy: ends at the closing of the sale. Its liability and contents coverage must be replaced by the full-timer policy on or before that date, not after.
• Auto: the tow vehicle or the towed car needs a policy in the domicile state, with the same carrier as the rig where possible so a single claims department handles a crash involving both. A car towed behind a motorhome is a separate vehicle for insurance purposes, and damage to it while being towed is a claim on its own policy.
• Umbrella: it needs to know the home policy is gone and the full-timer policy has replaced it, and it will set a required underlying liability limit on the rig. Some umbrella carriers will not write a household without a fixed residence; ask before the house sells.
• Health: a marketplace or employer plan is tied to a service area, and a national network matters more than a low premium when the household is in a different state every month. Medicare-age RVers should check that any Medicare Advantage plan's network travels; original Medicare with a supplement does.
• Life and disability: unaffected by the move, but the address on file should be the domicile, and any beneficiary mail needs to reach you.
• Storage: possessions left in a rented unit are covered by a full-timer policy only up to a sublimit and often only against named perils. A separate storage-unit policy or a scheduled endorsement covers the furniture and heirlooms left behind.

Common exclusions and conditions on the road

Full-timer policies carry the exclusions of a vehicle policy and some of a home policy at once. Mechanical breakdown is not a covered loss; the roadside and towing endorsement is a service, not repair coverage. Rodent damage, mould and gradual water intrusion through a seal are treated as maintenance. Damage while the rig is used as a business, including renting it out through a peer-to-peer platform, is excluded unless the carrier specifically allows it. Damage while it is parked in Mexico is excluded by most forms, though some offer an endorsement for short trips across the border from Arizona.

Conditions are as important as exclusions. Weather-related losses in the Mountain West are the ones to plan around: a rig left at altitude in an Idaho or Utah winter needs its plumbing winterised or the freeze damage is excluded; a rig parked in a Nevada or Arizona summer needs tyre and roof inspections that some carriers require after a certain age. Hail on the Front Range side of a route, monsoon flash flooding in southern Arizona washes, and wind at exposed high-desert sites are covered under comprehensive, but the deductible applies per event and a season of small dents can be a series of claims that ends the policy at renewal.

The order of operations

Done in this sequence, the household is never without liability coverage and the domicile is settled before anything is written.

• Choose the domicile state and establish it: mail address, licence, registration. Weeks before the house is listed, because some steps require appearing in person.
• Ask the umbrella carrier whether it will continue with no fixed residence. If not, replace it before the home policy ends.
• Quote the full-timer policy with an agreed value on the rig, contents replacement cost, and liability at least equal to the old home policy's limit. Have it ready to bind, effective the closing date of the house sale.
• Rewrite the auto policy in the domicile state, with the same carrier as the rig where possible.
• On the closing date: bind the full-timer policy, cancel the homeowner policy effective the same date, and tell the umbrella carrier both have happened.
• Before the first long stop: check the health plan's network for the states on the route and set up the storage-unit coverage for what stayed behind.
• At each renewal: confirm the domicile is still accurate and the value on the rig still matches its replacement cost; agreed values drift.

A worked example

Suppose a retired couple in Mesa sells their house, buys a used fifth-wheel and a diesel truck, and domiciles in Arizona because they already hold licences there and their mail service is in Sierra Vista. Their full-timer policy carries an agreed value of $80,000 on the fifth-wheel, contents at $30,000 on replacement cost, personal liability at $500,000 and $3,000 of emergency lodging. The truck is written with the same carrier at matching liability limits. The umbrella carrier keeps the $1,000,000 umbrella in force above both. Their old home policy is cancelled the day the deed records. In their first winter a hailstorm at a Nevada campground dents the roof; the comprehensive claim pays $6,000 less a $500 deductible, and the emergency lodging covers a week in a motel while the roof is resealed. The numbers are invented; the sequence is the point.

How to use this

Tell us the rig, the tow or towed vehicle, the intended domicile and the house sale timeline. We quote full-timer coverage with agreed value and replacement cost across the carriers we represent in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Idaho, rewrite the auto and umbrella to match, and time the whole set to the closing date. A part-time traveller who keeps a house needs none of this, and if that is your situation the advice is a standard RV policy and a call to the home carrier about extended absences.