Additional Living Expense Coverage and the Period of Restoration Following Hurricane Ian | Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog

Additional living expense (ALE) coverage is extraordinarily valuable to victims of Hurricane Ian. These benefits are often overlooked because insurance policies do not provide examples of common living expenses. United Policyholders provides such a list:

• Rent for temporary housing
• Insurance policy taken out on contents in temporary rental house
• Credit check fee charged by management company when renting temporary house
• Cellular phone overtime charges incurred due to the loss of landline telephone
• Mileage to/from a temporary rental house to/from all locations visited for rebuild-related business, including:
  • Furniture stores
  • Fund control
  • Flooring, granite, fixtures, and all other construction materials you need to research and choose
  • Appliances
• • Mileage for increased distance traveled from temporary rental home to:
  • Place of employment
  • Adult and children’s activities (school/sports/clubs/lessons)
  • Your house of worship
• Meals eaten when out on rebuild-related business, (e.g., visiting construction site, shopping for replacement personal property items, researching/purchasing rebuild items such as appliances, flooring, fixtures)
• IT fee charged to set-up new computer system at temporary rental home
• Sewer fee at temporary rental property if you did not have sewer fee at damaged/destroyed home, (e.g., damaged/destroyed home used a septic system)
• New account or “setup” fees for utilities at temporary rental home
• Photocopies and mailing expenses related to claim
• Moving costs incurred to move from the temporary rental home back into the repaired/rebuilt home (moving company; moving van; moving boxes; packing paper and tape)
• Reconnection fees for setting up services (cable/telephone/utility) at the rebuilt home
• Carpet cleaning when moving out of rental home (if temporary lease agreement requires this upon move out).
• Pet boarding cost

These expenses are paid during the time it takes to repair or replace the damaged home. This Period of Restoration is often much longer than originally anticipated.

Amy Kullman of TPS Housing specializes in the placement of policyholders following a disaster. She thinks that contractors often over promise on the time to complete the restoration to get the job and that insurance adjusters are not realistic with time frames that currently exist following Hurricane Ian.

Kullman noted the following items that must be considered following a disaster to help estimate an appropriate period of restoration:

1. The claims settlement and negotiation process in addition to the repair time.
2. Supply chain availability of materials needed for repair.
3. Standard permitting process delays.
4. Labor shortages caused by a surge in demand for construction labor.
5. Pack back, punch list work and time to move back into the structure.
6. Expecting a perfect construction process with no hiccups.

She warns policyholders not to run out of additional living expense money because periods of restoration usually are much longer than unrealistic initial estimates.

Thought For The Day

You may delay, but time will not.
—Benjamin Franklin