05-16-2021, 11:08 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-16-2021, 11:10 AM by PaulOnLongIsland.)
Ok, this is one of main reasons I joined this forum the other day. I need to pick your brains. 
Way back when, around 20 years ago, I did what I call a "controlled descent" into homelessness(see my intro post for more details).
Anyways, before I wound up buying an old RV, I had seriously considered just buying a full size van to live in. Problem? I had called
several insurance companies, and none of them would insure the van for me to live in, telling me that it was technically illegal to live in your vehicle, UNLESS it was an RV. OhhhhKayyy, so much for THAT idea.
I then looked into RV insurance, which turned out to be no panacea, either. First off, I was told I HAD to have a 2nd vehicle, that I CANNOT have the RV as my ONLY vehicle. Again, OhhhhKayyy, inconvenient and expensive, but not an insurmountable obstacle, in and of itself.
But WAIT! There's MORE!
I told the insurance company that I planned to live in it F/T(ok, no problem), and just leave it parked at work, (PROBLEM). They said I cannot take it to work or even just park it at work unless I got *commercial* RV insurance.(ok, I was willing to pay the rather substantial increase in insurance premium, if that's what it took). Problem? There was NO SUCH THING as *F/T* commercial RV insurance. Talk about a Catch-22!
So, not wanting to get into even a whiff of potential allegations of insurance fraud, here's what I did: I got regular F/T RV insurance, picked up the RV near Buffalo, drove it back to Long Island, parked it in my employer's fenced-in yard, took the plates off, turned them in to DMV, mailed the receipt to my insurance company, and took the RV off the road - about 1 month after I bought it. A few weeks later, a spot opened up in a commercial storage yard next door, and I parked the RV there so my employer could no longer hijack me on my day off. I wasn't allowed to live in it at the time there, but by that time, I had sold my moped, and bought a Ford conversion van - you know, not an RV, but had a comfortable electric bed in the back, so I lived in that on the street for a few weeks.
That was about 20 years ago. Has anything changed? Has the insurance market adapted by offering a specialized product tailored to non-RV van dwellers? You know, like insurance companies now offer reasonably-priced add-ons to your regular car insurance if you're driving for Lyft and Uber? And if you're F/Ting it in your van, what do you use for a garaging address?
Way back when, around 20 years ago, I did what I call a "controlled descent" into homelessness(see my intro post for more details).
Anyways, before I wound up buying an old RV, I had seriously considered just buying a full size van to live in. Problem? I had called
several insurance companies, and none of them would insure the van for me to live in, telling me that it was technically illegal to live in your vehicle, UNLESS it was an RV. OhhhhKayyy, so much for THAT idea.
I then looked into RV insurance, which turned out to be no panacea, either. First off, I was told I HAD to have a 2nd vehicle, that I CANNOT have the RV as my ONLY vehicle. Again, OhhhhKayyy, inconvenient and expensive, but not an insurmountable obstacle, in and of itself.
But WAIT! There's MORE!
I told the insurance company that I planned to live in it F/T(ok, no problem), and just leave it parked at work, (PROBLEM). They said I cannot take it to work or even just park it at work unless I got *commercial* RV insurance.(ok, I was willing to pay the rather substantial increase in insurance premium, if that's what it took). Problem? There was NO SUCH THING as *F/T* commercial RV insurance. Talk about a Catch-22!So, not wanting to get into even a whiff of potential allegations of insurance fraud, here's what I did: I got regular F/T RV insurance, picked up the RV near Buffalo, drove it back to Long Island, parked it in my employer's fenced-in yard, took the plates off, turned them in to DMV, mailed the receipt to my insurance company, and took the RV off the road - about 1 month after I bought it. A few weeks later, a spot opened up in a commercial storage yard next door, and I parked the RV there so my employer could no longer hijack me on my day off. I wasn't allowed to live in it at the time there, but by that time, I had sold my moped, and bought a Ford conversion van - you know, not an RV, but had a comfortable electric bed in the back, so I lived in that on the street for a few weeks.
That was about 20 years ago. Has anything changed? Has the insurance market adapted by offering a specialized product tailored to non-RV van dwellers? You know, like insurance companies now offer reasonably-priced add-ons to your regular car insurance if you're driving for Lyft and Uber? And if you're F/Ting it in your van, what do you use for a garaging address?
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