setting up davfs2 to mount properly

I am trying to set up my nextcloud account so that i can log in. When I try to log in with sudo mount -t davfs2 ... it keeps on asking for my next cloud credentials - it does not get them from the secrets file that i created. I have followed the tutorials online with the only difference being that the tutorials specify to update the /etc/fstab file. But i do not want to do this because i have this set up on my laptop where i only sporadically have access to the internet. I would prefer to use sudo mount.... and have the credential input automaticall from the secrects file (i understand that each time i will need to input my sudo password). I believe that what is happening is that when i use sudo mount .... it is trying to load the system /etc/davfs2 configuration instead of my local .davfs2. I believe this because when i try to configure the /etc/davfs2 (to point to my secrets file) i get config erorrs. But when i purposefully put errors in the local .davfs2 config file the system never seems to recognise it. the only other thing i can think to do is allow local users permission to run mount which i would prefer not to do. What i may be doing wrong? PS - using Xubuntu