Caravan Parking...

[Dinger2]

Can a car owner with a valid tax disc displayed park his caravan (not hooked up to a car)a free-standing caravan on a public road ? (no yellow lines).To put it another way,does the tax disc on a car cover the car owners caravan to be parked outside the owners house for months on end? can a person (maybe a lodger) sleep in said caravan? I am not bothered by any of this I am a pedestrian who lives nearby, I am just curios about how the law stands.

[bhg481]

https://www.justpark.com/resources/parking-guide/caravan-parking/

[EDDIE51]

No it is not legal a caravan or any other trailer it can only insured if it is connected to a towing vehicle which has insurance to cover the vehicle and the trailer/caravan. No trailer / caravan can be on a road unless it is insured . I have the same problem. A house near me has a trailer that they use as storage , it blocks the dropped curb that is designed to give access to the children's play area across the road, this makes it dangerous for kids to cross the road
I have asked them to move it but they ignore me, I reported it to the police but they take no action.

[Baldric]

Bottom Line, NO!

[EDDIE51]

Read this
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080516041757AAsghG4
it seems just parking a caravan on a road is not illegal , BUT it is illegal if it causes an obstruction. It must also be insured, if not connected to a towing vehicle it needs its own insurance policy to cover any damage in an accident ( it could be argued that the caravan contributed to the accident due to it narrowing the road) or if someone was to be injured by not seeing traffic as the caravan blocked their view of the road when crossing for example.

[ToraToraTora]

not legal to sleep in it. Any trailer must be attached to a legal vehicle.

[Arrods]

EDDIE51 - Unless things have changed in the last 5 years, I cannot see that third party insurance is compulsory for an unattached trailer kept on the road.

[EDDIE51]

^^ not road vehicle insurance but it should have some insurance to cover a possible claim in the situations I mentioned. There are insurance policies to cover that type of claim. Suppose for example someone ( a child?) was daft enough to get underneath it and it collapsed on top of them or the brakes failed and it rolled out into the path of a car? who would pay the insurance claim? it would not be covered under household insurance.
Unlikely I know but stranger insurance claims have been made.
Just thinking about it I remember a caravan near me was set on fire by vandals a few years ago, it was not insured and they lost the lot.

[Arrods]

EDDIE51 - I fully agree with you about the desirability of taking out insurance for the very reasons you have cited. Similarly with mobility scooters, especially the 'road-going' ones. They (or rather their drivers) can be responsible for serious accidents and yet the take-up of third party insurance is relatively low, despite the low cost of cover.

[bhg481]

Arrods - The same argument applies to cyclists.

[Arrods]

Yup - and even pedestrians can cause vehicle collisions.