If you are considering buying a campervan, or creating your own from your existing panel van, then there are some legal requirements that you should be aware of before you get going. Let’s take a look at some of these.

Your Campervan Must Be Recognisable

If the DVLA, the vehicle registration authority does not recognise your campervan as a motor home, they will designate it as a ‘van with windows’. If, however, your application is accepted by the DVLA you will gain several benefits, including being permitted to travel at a higher speed on the motorway, accessing cheaper insurance and road tax. Your campervan must have motorhome graphics to indicate clearly to law enforcement, amongst others, the status of your vehicle.

You Don’t Have to Register Your Campervan

If you have converted your panel van into a campervan and don’t really want to go through the palaver of re-registering the vehicle from ‘panel van’ to ‘motor caravan’ with the DVLA, you don’t have to. And you will be able to use the ‘panel van’ as a campervan without any issue, as long as, however, you have campervan insurance, such as that from campervan-insurance.co.uk, even as you adhere to the rules of the road as they apply to panel vans.

Make Sure There are Seatbelts

If you are going to carry passengers in the back of your campervan, they should have seatbelts attached to their seats. This is not a legal requirement, but it is an official recommendation, except for children under twelve who must wear a seatbelt restraint at all times while the vehicle is in motion. For the most part, safety first is a sensible idea to have seatbelts fitted rather than not.

Everything Must Be Safe

When your campervan is on the road, there should be nothing untethered in the back of the campervan – no loose furniture, containers or unattached pets or children. This relates to Regulation 100 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 which insists that a vehicle (and anything in or attached to it) ‘cause no damage, or be likely to cause damage to any person in a vehicle or on a road’. This is another reason to fit seatbelts even though it is not a strict regulation: it is another layer of safety for you and your passengers.

Furniture and Fittings

For a campervan to be legally recognised as such by the DVLA, it should have, on the inside:

• Permanently fixed sleeping berths
• Permanently fixed table and chairs
• Permanently attached cooking facility: a microwave or gas-ring – note: the gas supply will require fitting and maintenance by a Corgi trained gasfitter
• Permanently fixed storage solutions. This can be a single small cupboard, but it must be present and fitted to the interior of the campervan

There Must Be Windows and a Door

Along with the interior details as mentioned above, the exterior of the campervan must feature a large door that allows people in and out, and there should be at least two ‘house windows’ in the back of the van (regular driving windows do not count for this purpose).

Any Van Will Do

You can legally convert almost any van (even ambulances or livestock vans) into a motor home: the previous body type or starting point doesn’t matter especially. It is the conversion work done before the application for re-registration that will allow the change of registration with the DVLA.

You Must Prove It!

No matter which type of van you begin with, the DVLA has strict criteria for accepting the request to change the registration of a panel van into a motorhome. Not only will you have to fill in a lengthy form, but they also ask for photographic evidence of the new interior and exterior of your new campervan, which should meet all the requirements and features mentioned above.